Archive for September, 2007
Rising Re reins in gold
Rupee appreciation is helping the Indian consumer. While gold prices have touched the roof in the global markets, the domestic prices for precious yellow metal remained at the same level with Indian currency gaining strength.
As dollar continues to weaken against other currencies to weaken against other currencies, gold prices have spurted to cross 28-year-high of $750 perounce. However, in the domestic market the price remained around Rs 9,500 per 10 gram. On Friday, it closed at Rs 9,595 per 10 gram.
The Indian currency has appreciated by over 10% in the last one year against dollar. If this was not the case, the gold would have been quoted around Rs 10,500 per ten gram.
The price of gold is normally fixed in dollar-term. But as the US currency weakened against euro, yen and rupee, rise in prices in these currency are relatively smaller than dollar. This drove the demand of the yellow …
Vijay Govindarajan will drive GE’s innovation push
It’s another feather in the cap of Indian academia. Vijay Govindrajan, the Earl C Daum 1924 Professor of International Business at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business, will soon join General Electric (GE) as professor in Residence and Chif Innovation agenda.
Indian academicians are among the most sought after business brain in the West.
Already people like Govindarajan, Ram Charan and CK Prahalad are advising several Fortune-500 companies Incidentally, all three of them have made it to the Thinkers 50, an annul ranking of the Top-50 business and management thought leaders.
Says Govindarajan: “My area of expertise is how to create breakthrough businesses, while managing the current business. And this is what I will do at GE as well.” This was also a theme that Govindarahan addressed in the bestselling book ‘10 Rules for strategic Innovators’ (co-authored with Chris Trimble).
Jeffery Immelt has been pushing innovation at GE ever since he took over …
Did we see Mahesh Babu
It’s known fact that Maheshbabu avoids social gatherings, media attention and strobe lights. But here was an exception. Our shutterbugs caught the actor and wife Namrata at the audio release function of Athithi.
The film has Mahesh and Amrita Arora playing the lead. It was a rare occasion to see the whole family come out together. While Krishna, Mahesh dad, launched the audio, sister Manjula, veteran actress and mom, Vija Nirmala graced the occasion. Among others at the do were director Surender Reddy and producer Ramesh Babu.
HIV +ve mom finally gets kid’s custody
A woman whose nine-years-old daughter was taken from her by a lower court and given in stead to her in-laws who threw her out because she had contracted HIV from her husband won custody of the girl after a Jaiur court ruled in her favour on Friday.
The woman was married in 1995 and contracted HIV from her soldier husband. When he died in 2003, her in-laws threw her out because she was HIV positive and refused to let the toddler go with her Hoping that the legal system would be less blinkered than her community and peers, she filed an application in an additional civil judge’s court seeking custody of her daughter. That, however, ws not to be. On september 17, civil judge and judicial magistrate Madhusudan Roy observed that she should not be given custody since she was HIV-positive.
“As the woman herself is HIV-positive, she will beunable to look …
Would love to be part of India team to moon:Sunita
Sunitha Williams, India-American astronaut, would love to be part of the Indian team when an international mission is mounted to go to the moon. “Of course, I would like to be part of it,” she declared, when she was asked whether she would like to be part of the Indian manned mission to the moon. But she politely remined the new spersons that she was in the U.S military and that she was a U.S astronaut.
“I hope that Indian is planning to go the moon along with international participation. Then i would definitely like to be part of that,” she said, addressing a press conference towards the close of the five day international Astronautical Congress here on Friday. There were other folks out there, who are looking to go as well. I would not want to take that opportunity …
Sensex, Nifty at new high
BSE Benchamark Settles Above 17,000, Nifty Leaps To All-Time High of 5000
The stock market frenzy continued on Thursday with benchmark BSE sensex closing above the 17k-mark and NSE Nifty breaching the 5,000 level for the first time ever as strong buying by foreign funds in IT and metal shares. The sensex ended at a new peak of 17,150.56 with a gain of 229.17 points or 1.35%, while the NSE’s Nifty settled 60.05 points up at a life-time high of 5,000.55.
The sensex had breached the 17,000 level for the first time in Wednesday, but it had closed lower at 16,921.39. After opening firm at 17,059.61 on Tjursday, the sensex touched a record intra-day high of domestic retail investors were seen buying heavly into metal and IT, pushing the two sector indices by over 3%.
Tata Steel, Infosys, Satyam, TCS, Wipro, SBI, BHEL, HDFC, HDFC Bank, ONGC and REL were among the prominent …
ICICI pays up Rs 15.5 lakh after suicide over loan
A little more than a week after Andhari resident Prakash Sarvankar committed suicide after being hounded by loan recovery agents appointed by ICICI Bank, his family jas recived an ex gratia payment of Rs15.50 lakh from the bank. This includes a fixed deposit of around Rs 10 lakh which will be maintained with ICICI Bank at 9.5% intrest per annum for five years. This would ensure a monthly payout of around Rs 8,000 to the family.
“The money will not get my husband back, but it will help secure my childrens’ future,” his widow Priyanka said. “i want to thank the media for following up on the issue. No borrower should ever suffer the way we have. The agents threatened to seal our house if my husband didn’t pay up, and humiliated him in public.”
ICICI Bank has submitted a report to the Reserve Bank of India, on this particular case, as …
Ash to play Mumtaz now
Sir Ben Kingsley is agog with excitement. He has just announced the female lead to his movie on the Taj Mahal. And it is Aishwarya Bachchan. Yes, the Bachchan will play the legendary Mumtaz Mahal to sir Ben’s Shah jehan in the movie that will be shot next year in Agra and Fatehpuri Sikri.
Sir Ben, one of the world’s most honoured actors with four Academy Award nominations for his memoriable role of Gandhi, apparently considered Aishwarya over Bengali sizzler Bipasha Basu.
The actor, who was born as Krishna Bhanji to model and actress Ann Goodman, and doctor Rahimtulla Harji Bhanji, recently launched his production house. Ever Since he met Bipasha in Lisbon for the unveiling of the New Seven Wonders, there has been a buzz that Sir Ben was coming to India to see the Taj. Now it is learnt that his purpose of visit …
Govt dials help to save stressed BPO staffers
The phone never stops ringing and the callers are often rude and abusive. Work timing are erratic and social life is non-existent. And yet, the basic rule at work is clear and simple yyou are to provide service with a smile.
A job ina call center can be stressful. And, it is starting to show. Teenagers straight to show. Teenagers straight out of school and college, looking to make a fast buck, are collapsing in front of their computers. Executives in their early 30s are suffering heart attacks and a large section is complaining of frequent chest pain, high blood sugar and cholesterol levels.
Alarmed by the rise in such figures, the ministries of health and information technology have decided to crack the whip on India’s booming BPO sector. A dedicated ‘IT Workplace Health Policy’ is being formulated to tackle the menace jointly by Union health minister A Ramadoss and IT …
Kalam imparts words of wisdom
Will you be the one to walk on Mars? will you be the one to contribute to bring down the cost of launch vehicles these and several other questions were posed to school students by former President, A.P.J.Abdul Kalam during a lively interaction he had with them at the ongoing International Astronautical Congress here on thursday.
Describing how Nobel laureates Sir C.V. Raman had valued science and S.Chandrasekhar had treated it as a life time mission, he told the space youth to dream and achieve their goals through hardwork. He referred to how a 13 year old girl, Shriya Dinakar from Banglore, met him on thursday and described to hime her ambition to land on Mars. Another girl in California had hardboured a similar dream and became part of the team that was developing a robotic rover at NASA Jet propulsion Laboratory for …
Another star son arrives
The stage is set for the entry of another star son on the silver screen.
This time it is mega star Chiranjeevi’s son Ram Charan Teja.A lot of euphoria has been generally by fans of Chiranjeevi as the movie ‘Chirutha’ readies to hit more than 40 theatres on Friday.
And one of the multiplexes has scheduled six shows of the movie! The grand entry on the Centre stage of Telugu filmdom is being watched keenly by the industry and the viewers across the State will the youngster’s roar be anywhere equal to that of his illustrious father?
The expectations are sky high and so is the hype even if the run up was relatively low key.
Sensex breaches 17000- mark
In volatile trading, led by banking and information technology (IT) stocks, the benchmark Bombay Stocks Exchange (BSE) 30 share sensitive index (Sensex) moved past the 17000mark sevral times on Wednesday, but failed to sustain above the psychological barrier and closed at 16921.39. However, realty and oil and gas stocks were trading under prssure due to selling.
Since the rate cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve by 50 basis points last week, the Indian stock prices were surging ahead as the foreign institutional investing their funds in Indian stocks. The FIIs have pumped in Rs. 14,639 crore ($3.66 billion) in the last five days.
The Sensex went past the 16000-mark with an inflow of $608.60 million on September 19.
The FII investments of $11.013 billion in India stock markets do far this year have surpassed the previous record of $10.792 billion in 2005. Last calender year, FIIs invested $7.805 billion. The total FII investment …
Investment limit raised for MFs
Each MF is allowed to invest $300 m
The Securities and Exchange Board of India on Wednesday raised the investment limit per mutual fund to $200 million and enhanced the limit for overseas investments by mutual funds to $5 billion, as already announced by the Reserve Bank of India on Tuesday. The regulator also added new categories of overseas investments by mutual funds.
“In order to facilitate overseas investments by mutual funds in line with the anouncement in the Union budget 2007-08, SEBI has increased the limit for overseas investment by each mutual fund.
Further the sub-ceiling linked to the net assets of a mutual fund as on March 31 of each year has been dispensed with,” SEBI stated in a press release. Further, the requirement of existence for ten years or experience of investing in foreign securities for being eligible to invest in overseas exchange traded funds (ETFs) has been dispensed …
Rahul not a PM candidate
Despite the hype around his appointment as a Congress genral secretary, the arty appears reluctant to project Rahul Gandhi as a prime ministerial candidate.
Asked specifically if the party had any plans to show him as the man for the top slot. Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan on Wednesday parried a direct reply and said that Rahul would be “on the forefront to galvanise the youth power of the country”.Asked about BJP president Rajnath Singh’ son being appointed the party youth wing chief in UP,
Natarajan said there was no comparison really.The first test of Rahul’s handling of YC affairs would be on October 2 when it organises a programme across the country to observe the centenary of Mahatma satyagraha and declaration of his birth anniversary as international day of non violence.
Sharon Stone set for five Dollars a Day
Sharon Stone has been signed on to star in five Dollars Day. Also appearing in the movie will be Charistopher Walken, Lois& Clark star Decan Cain, along with Allesanddro Nivola, Amanda peet and Peter Coyote. In the movie, Walken plays Nat, a grifter father who prides himself on living like aking on five dollars a day.
He enlists the companionship of his son FLYNN, to be played by Nivola that proves to be quite humorous. Along the way Nat plans a sting on his old partner, played by Coyote, a wealthy guy who stole Nat’ wife many years ago. Stone starts as Nat’s old girlfriend Dolores.
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