DUBAI CRISIS: WHAT AILS DUBAI? AND WHY SHOULD WE CARE?

In order to transform its economy as a major tourist and financial hub, Dubai borrowed US$80bn. However, it suffered a massive property slump in last year’s credit crisis. Now, it is not able to repay its liabilities, and asking borrowers to postpone repayments. There were 53 lakh Indians in the Gulf, of which 31% were in the UAE, mostly employed by construction sector for Dubai’s real estate boom. The Gulf region accounts for over half the total inward remittances worth over USD 25 billion annually from expatriate Indians, out of which 10% of overall remittances to India could be from construction workers. If Dubai were to default, there would be repercussion in other parts of world, where banking would take a hit from lending to Dubai. Though the overall size of the liabilities are not very big compared to US banking problems, this could be a taken as an excuse for the markets to correct at lower levels.

Financial panel for gradual opening up of sector to foreign banks

Courtsey: Business Standard, Mumbai

Rural focus excites Microfinance Sector

Altough the Interim budget might be disappointing for India Inc. but the article clearly speaks that it will augur well for Microfinance sector.

TATA Capital Secured Non-Convertible Debentures (NCDs)

Issue details

• No income tax is deductible at source as per the provisions of Section 193 of the I.T Act on interest on debentures issued by a company in a dematerialized form listed on recognized stock exchange in India
• The NCDs will be issued in Demat mode only.

Finally, Mahindra XYLO Launched

Mahindra and Mahindra inforemd the market that it launched the much hyped and much expected new vehicle Mahindra Xylo in four variants and 8 shades and the booking is almost open in all the Mhaindra dealership , the starting prioce is 6.25 lacs, My first impression after seeing XYLO why the heck they want to release a vehicle like this , but you never know.

Image source:autos maxabout.
Read more details here.

Rupee appreciates against dollar

The Indian rupee appreciated 22 paise against the US currency today in early trade after ending at a five-week low of 49.12/14 yesterday.

Infosys Q3 net up 33% at Rs 1,641 cr, beats expectations

Software major Infosys Technologies on Tuesday announced a 33.31 per cent growth in consolidated net profit at Rs 1,641 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, over the corresponding period a year ago.

Wipro, Megasoft barred from World Bank contracts; Stock down by 10%

The World Bank on Monday said it has decided to debar Indian software vendors Wipro and Megasoft from directly doing business with the bank group under its corporate procurement programme, taking the number of large vendors debarred by it to three.

Slumdog Millionaire sweeps all the 4 nominated Golden Globe Award

I could not resist putting this post on the blog. We will forever remember the 66th annual Golden Globes as the ceremony that pushed Indian cinema over the top, albeit indirectly. Majority the movie has been shot in the Slums of Mumbai.

• Best Motion Picture (Drama) - Slumdog Millionaire - Fox Searchlight Pictures and Warner Bros.; Fox Searchlight Pictures and Warner Bros.
• Best Director (Motion Picture) - Danny Boyle – Slumdog Millionaire
• Best Screenplay (Motion Picture) - Slumdog Millionaire - Written by Simon Beaufoy
• Best Original Score (Motion Picture) - Slumdog Millionaire - Composed by A. R. Rahman

Statement from Satyam Interim CEO to Employees

The following letter has been issued to Satyam management and staff by Ram Mynampati, Interim CEO of Satyam.

Dear colleagues

I write this mail to update you on some critical Board and Leadership level changes in our company, effective immediately. A series of extremely unfortunate events led to this, which I am sure you have seen covered in the media over the past few hours.

A SWAT team consisting of senior leaders has been formed. Many of them are Satyam veterans with a minimum of ten years experience in our company and more than twenty years in the industry. I have been requested to play the role of an Interim CEO and this team will support me, as we steer Satyam through this challenging phase. These are the leaders on the ground and have always had the final call on most customer and associate related matters in the company, so far. This team has committed to work together, to make it happen. The SWAT team represents all Customer Facing units, key Horizontal Competency Units and critical Support Units.

Over the past twenty one years, with your passion and commitment we have built significant customer assets, formidable service offerings, excellent delivery processes and scalable support systems. Satyam has been consistently acknowledged for our leadership bandwidth and has a demonstrated reputation for collaborative functioning. Our renowned Full Life Cycle (FLC) model encouraged ‘Distributed and Empowered’ leadership and prepared us for all situations. This is the time when we have to apply it in real life. What we have been trained for, we will now put to work. Let us continue to handle our respective areas with total autonomy, freedom and control. This is as good a time, as any, to remind ourselves that we have been acknowledged as being amongst the top three Best Employers in India by Hewitt and Mercer in independent surveys in 2007 and American Society of Training & Development (ASTD) named us as the best globally, for our Learning practices - the first company outside USA to be ever awarded this honor. Satyam continues to have everything that is fundamentally required for its success - a strong customer base and a committed universe of approx 53,000 associates.

What we are confronted with is the challenge of continuing our business operations, seamlessly. We will need your involvement and ideas to make it happen. This might involve even more effort at every level, in the near term. This is the time to prove to the world that we are united and will succeed in overcoming the challenges.

This quarter will be tumultuous for us. Rumors will abound and it would be fair to assume that competition will try and leverage it to their advantage. As a proactive measure, we have formed fully empowered Cross Functional Teams, headed by seasoned leaders in the respective areas, to address pan-organizational issues like Delivery Excellence, Customer & Associate Retention, Pipeline Management, Cost Controls, Collections etc. You have helped to build Satyam to be what it is today - and we believe that this cannot be allowed to fail, at any cost. I am confident that I can count on your continued support as I commit to our customers that we will ensure deliverables and commitments are serviced.

On behalf of our new leadership team, I apologize to you for the uncertainty and inconvenience that this incident has caused to you and your families. I assure you that we will emerge stronger, because of this. Increased focus on transparency at all levels, integrity and ethical functioning will be ensured. I want you to stand confidently in front of your families and friends and say that we will now be a better company and that we shall soon be a successful case study of how organizations have turned over a new leaf.

We will be conducting “U Speak” (our Meet-the-Leadership sessions) in each city in India starting next week and will have numerous Webinars to address associates in various countries. We will be meeting many of our customers in person over the next two weeks and will meet those of you onsite, at that time. In these sessions, we will explain to you what happened and articulate the actions that are being taken to retain your confidence in our company.

Let us fight this battle together. I am confident that we will emerge stronger, TOGETHER.

Ram Mynampati

Inflation for week ending December 27 2008 at 5.91 percent

The whole-sale price Index has come for the week-ended December 27 2008 just came in and its at 5.91 % compared to 6.38% week over week of december 27 2008. So good news for India.

Fiscal Package Part - II - Key Factors

1. IIFCL allowed to raise Rs 30,000 crores via tax free bonds.

It was one month before that the government approved that IIFCL can borrow up to 10000 Crore in Tax free bonds which will be lend to infrastructure projects that are public and private partnership , As these projects are having high time getting long term loan from banks , Because Banks are also in need of money IIFCL might recapitalise banks through this .So they did not even fully get the 10000 Crore now Indian Government has approved for the second stimulus package that India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd (IIFCL) to raise Rs 30,000 Crore for refinancing projects mainly in the highway and port sectors.

This will really help in financing big projects in turn will help the industry grow and also bring very good number of Job openings.

2. Govt eases ceiling on ECB borrowings as part of the second stimulus package.

3. Recapitalize PSU banks by Rs 20,000 cr in two years.

4. Custom exemption on zinc and ferro alloys has been withdrawn

5. NBFCs in infrastructure sector can access ECBs.

6. FII investment limit in corporate bonds raised from 6 billion to 15 billion dollars.

7. Govt extends tax incentive scheme for exporters up to Dec 31.

8. State governmnet allowed to market borrowing of 0.5 per cent of GDP.

ICICI Bank to lower interest rates as New Year gift

New Delhi: The customers of ICICI Bank will get their New Year gift in the form of cut in interest rates, its CEO and Managing Director K V Kamath said today. "We are looking at cutting interest rates very early in January for our housing and other loan customers," Kamath said.

He said that the extent of the rate cut is being calibrated and would be announced soon. Earlier this month, ICICI had reduced home loan rates for new customers by up to 1.5 percentage point. Currently the Prime Lending Rate of the bank stands at 17.25 per cent.

SBI, the largest bank, has cut its prime lending rate by 75 basis points to 12.25 per cent with effect from January 1.Along with this, HDFC has also cut its prime lending rate by 50 basis points. Earlier in the day, Punjab National Bank and Bank of Baroda, leading public sector lenders said they would reduce their prime lending rates by 50 and 75 basis points respectively, with effect from January 1.