BackNeed To Know | Sandeep Dhar to head Tesco Hindustan
Need To Know | Sandeep Dhar to head Tesco Hindustan
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Bangalore: Indian back office and technology delivery arm of Tesco Plc., Tesco Hindustan Service Centre or HSC, has appointed Sandeep Dhar as its chief executive.
Dhar, who was earlier the managing director of the India operations of Sapient Technologies, replaces Meena Ganesh at Tesco, who quit to start a venture on her own. Since its inception in 2004, Tesco HSC has grown to strength of 3000 employees supporting 13 countries in Europe, Asia and America with experience and expertise in providing information technology, business, finance and HR services to Tesco’s operations.
— Staff Writer
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Credit growth unlikely to slow, says Bhatt
Mumbai: State Bank of India (SBI) said credit growth is unlikely to slow in the fiscal second half, requiring the government and the central bank to ensure adequate cash in the financial system. Loan growth in the six months ending 31 March is expected to match the 29% increase in the first half, SBI chairman O.P. Bhatt said on Thursday.
“There is no problem of liquidity at this point of time," Bhatt said. “There is going to be some pressure on liquidity next month as it’s a time when typically the busy season starts and government borrowings increase."
— Bloomberg
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Citibank becomes first foreign lender to cut PLR
Mumbai: Citibank India on Thursday cut its prime lending rate (PLR), or the rate at which banks lend to their most credit-worthy customers, by 50 basis points to 15%. One basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point.
This makes it the first foreign bank to do so since the Reserve Bank of India, or RBI, cut its key policy rate on 1 November. Finance secretary Arun Ramanathan had met foreign and private bankers on 5 November.
Chanda Kochhar, joint managing director and chief financial officer of private sector ICICI Bank Ltd, the second largest lender in the country, said on Thursday that the bank is evaluating the situation and will take a call on its interest rates later. She also said that interest rates should come down for the benefit of the economy.
— Anup Roy
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India plans to import 16mt coal this fiscal
Mumbai: Indian power companies may import 16 million tonnes (mt) of coal in the year to March, minister of state for coal Santosh Bagrodia said
Domestic production of the fuel needs to increase by 9% annually to meet the requirement of power companies, the minister said in Kolkata.
The Union government estimates the power industry will grow 9.5% annually in the five years ending March 2012 as it aims to end blackouts and sustain economic expansion. The nation has set a target of adding 78,755MW of capacity in the period and plans to add 100,000MW in the five years starting 2012. Power companies may import about 20mt of coal in the financial year ending 31 March, according to Central Electricity Authority.
The nation, one of the world’s five biggest buyers of coal, uses the fuel for more than half its generation capacity, which as of 31 January was 141,080MW.
India’s total production of coal in the year to March is expected at 450mt, Bagrodia said.
— Bloomberg
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BP to end Asia projects, focus on US expansion
Beijing: Europe’s second largest oil company BP Plc. will end its planned wind power projects in India, China and Turkey to focus on the onshore generation in the US.
BP has ended its partnership with China’s Goldwind Science and Technology Co., which aimed to build a wind power project in the northern province of Inner Mongolia, Goldwind said on Thursday. The London-based company plans to have 1 gigawatt of wind power generating capacity in the US by the end of the year, which will rise to 3 gigawatts, “in the next couple of years," said BP spokesman Robert Wine over the phone. BP and Clipper Windpower Plc. will invest between $12 billion (Rs57,240 crore) and $15 billion to build the world’s biggest wind farm in the US.
— Bloomberg
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Indian cos should look at domestic market: Modi
Bangalore: India’s IT companies should focus on building products and solutions for the local market to weather the challenges due to the global economic slowdown, said Narendra Modi, chief minister of Gujarat.
“There is a vast Indian platform, which remains untouched with the ICT (information and communication technologies) revolution. The IT industry will render a great service to the nation by serving the domestic market and creating a sustainable revenue model in the process," said Modi at the 11th edition of the annual IT show organized by the Karnataka government.
The three-day event, Bangalore IT.biz, attended by over 100 firms will end on Saturday.
— Staff Writer
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Asia can escape global crisis: Morgan Stanley
Kuala Lumpur: Asian stock markets and economies can escape the worst of the global downturn, with China, Hong Kong and Taiwan best placed to ride through the turbulence, Morgan Stanley said.
“Asia’s fundamentals are far stronger," analysts Malcolm Wood, Ryan Tsai and Corey Ng wrote in a report. “A combination of easier monetary and fiscal policy and lower commodity prices should enable Asia to avoid the worst of the global downturn."
China is the “strongest" to cope with the global slowdown while Australia, Malaysia and India “face challenges," Morgan Stanley said.
“If the worst of the global liquidity crisis is behind us, macro strength is probably going to become a key market driver," the report said. “This should favour Greater China. A key difference between Asia today and in 1997-98 is the emergence of China as a key driver of growth."
— Bloomberg
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Rajnikant Patel joins Reliance Money
Mumbai: Rajnikant Patel, former managing director and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), has joined Reliance Money Ltd as president for its exchange business, the company said on Thursday.
Financial services provider Reliance Money is a unit of Reliance Capital Ltd, and part of the Reliance-Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. Patel’s appointment was announced by Sudip Bandyopadhyay, director and CEO, Reliance Money in Mumbai.
“I am very happy to be associated with Reliance Money, particularly for the vision, the scale and the speed of implementation," Patel said in a statement.
— Staff Writer
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Rupee falls snapping six-day gain
Mumbai: The rupee fell against the dollar, snapping a six-day rally, as mounting evidence the global economy is headed for a recession prompts investors to shun riskier emerging market assets.
The rupee fell 0.5% to 47.685 versus the dollar in Mumbai, according to data compiled by ‘Bloomberg’. That is the biggest decline since 23 October. The rupee may weaken to as low as 49.5 in two weeks, said Vikas Babu, a currency trader at state-owned Andhra Bank in Mumbai. It has lost 17.3% this year, the most since 1991.
— Bloomberg
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25% after zinc prices fall Vedanta profit drops
London: The largest copper producer in the country, Vedanta Resources Plc., said fiscal first-half profit dropped 25% after zinc prices declined and costs increased.
Net income fell to $350 million (Rs1,669.5 crore), or $1.114 a share, in the six months ended 30 September, from $465 million, or $1.50, a year earlier, the London-based company said on Wednesday in an emailed statement. Sales increased 2.2% to $3.97 billion.
Vedanta, controlled by Anil Agarwal, bought 71% of the Sesa Goa Ltd iron ore unit in April last year to diversify its output.
— Bloomberg
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Telcos to conduct audit to check mobile tower emission
New Delhi: The government today said telecom companies have to conduct audits and provide self- certification to be compliant to the radiation limit norms.
Amending the UASL licenses, Department of Telecom said today this has been included in public interest.
“The Licensee shall conduct audit and provide self certificates annually as per procedure prescribed by Telecom Engineering Centre (TIC) or any other agency authorised by the Licensor from time to time for confirming to the limits for antennae (Base Station Emissions) for general public exposure as prescribed by the International Commission on Non-Ionising radiation Protection (ICNIRP) from time to time," it added.
Various sectors had raised concerns about the possible health and environmental impacts of radio frequency radiation from cellular phone towers and antennas.
—PTI
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Mahindra and Mahindra enters into a JV with TMI Pacific
New Delhi: Mahindra and Mahindra, the country’s largest maker of sport utility vehicles and tractors has entered into a joint venture agreement with TMI Pacific, an Australian importer, to market and sell Mahindra vehicles in Australia.
Mahindra will have 80% ownership of the new venture, Mahindra Automotive Australia, with TMI Pacific retaining the rest.
TMI Pacific has been importing and selling Mahindra’s utility vehicles for the past 18 months, a company release said.
— Samar Srivastava
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