1.Shah Rukh Khan allegedly came to blows with director Farah Khan’s husband Shirish Kunder at Sanjay Dutt’s party at a popular nightclub in Juhu.
2.In a move that will help country’s largest lender State Bank of India to improve its creditworthiness and lend more, the government has agreed to infuse Rs 7,900 crore into the bank through a preferential issue. Following the infusion there is a possibility that the outlook for the bank’s rating, which was downgraded by Moody’s in October, could improve. One of the grounds for Moody’s downgrade was that the bank’s tier-1 capital adequacy ratio had slipped to 7.60%. The capital infusion will improve CAR to beyond 9%.
3.Citigroup chairman Richard Parsons is considering giving up the position to focus on other interests.
4.Starbucks Coffee: A Tata Alliance is the name of 50:50 jv b/w Starbucks and Tata Global Beverages ltd.
5.The country’s key infrastructure sector rose 3.1% in December, much slower than the previous month’s upwardly revised 6.7%, pointing to sluggishness in the industrial sector.
Data released by the commerce and industry ministry showed the output in eight key infrastructure sectors spanning coal, crude oil, natural gas, petroleum and refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity remained subdued in December. The eight infrastructure industries have a combined weight of 37.90% in the index of industrial production.
6.Indian School of Business lost seven places to finish at 20 and IIM-Ahmedabad retained the 11th rank in the Financial Times, London, Global MBA Rankings for 2012. Stanford Graduate School of Business topped the rankings for the first time, dethroning London Business School.
7.A grim financial situation precipitated by falling sales in its home market has compelled Europe’s second-largest car manufacturer, PSA Peugeot Citroen, to review its India plans. The French automaker, which had zeroed in on Sanand in Gujarat as the location for a 4,500-crore project to produce 170,000 vehicles per annum, has initiated efforts to shut down its office in Mumbai.
8.International mutual fund giant Fidelity is considering the sale of its India business, hurt by mounting losses and years of underperformance.
9.Japanese technology services firm NTT Data has brought the six acquisitions it has done in the past few years under its name. The six firms — Keane, Intelligroup, AgilNet, Vertex, MISI and The Revere Group — will together be called NTT Data now. The combined revenue of the firm now stands at $14 billion. The integration makes NTT Data the eighth largest technology services firm globally and the company has a target of becoming the fifth largest in a few years.
10.SAP, the world’s largest maker of business software, may license its HANA offering to main rival Oracle in the future.
11.The multi-billion dollar Essar Group is finalising plans to sell part of its holdings in Aegis, its back-office services venture, through an initial public offering most likely to be on an overseas stock exchange.
12.M&M is Said to be Keen on Acquiring Sweden’s Saab.
13.BK Goenka’s $3-billion Welspun Group that makes line pipes for oil and gas transportation, terry towels, bed sheets and with interests in thermal power generation, is making a strategic detour to be among the top three producers of solar power in India in the next 2-3 years. The group has targeted to produce at least 500 MW of solar power by 2014.
14.The government has set the ball rolling for foreign direct investment (FDI) in power exchanges. The finance ministry has asked the department of industrial policy and promotion to design a FDI policy for power exchanges on the lines of commodity exchanges. At present, FDI in power exchanges is not explicitly banned but the rules don’t provide for foreign investment on the lines of commodity exchanges. FDI is permitted in power exchanges up to 49%.
15.The food ministry has proposed a 30% increase in the price of sugar sold in ration shops to reduce the food subsidy bill. This will raise the monthly bill of over 6.52 crore poor families who purchase sugar from these shops.
According to the proposal, the government should charge 17.5 a kg, up from 13.5.
16.Exporters have asked the finance ministry to clarify that they are not liable to pay tax on royalty or commission paid to foreign clients, arguing that their demand is in line with the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Vodafone case.
The income tax department has sent notices to exporters for non-payment of tax deducted at source (TDS) worth several thousand crores of rupees on royalty commissions paid outside the country.
17.The Baltic Dry Index, a measure of shipping costs for dry bulk goods, on Friday plunged to a three-year low of 726 points, reflecting increasing concerns about the global economy’s downward spiral.
18.EU leaders reached an agreement at a summit on Monday on the introduction of a permanent euro zone bailout mechanism from July 2012. The European Stability Mechanism, or ESM, which will have a lending capacity of €500 billion, will take over from the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), a temporary mechanism that has so far been used to bail out Ireland and Portugal.
19.At Davos,Imran Khan discusses future plans of his party Tehreek-I-Insaaf.
20.Apple recorded $13.1bn profit of last qtr. The total mkt value for Apple is $400bn.
21.Fresh charges on Essar promoters Ravi & Anshuman Ruia and Loop Promoters C P & Kiran Khaitan.
22.Siddharth Yog,Founder of Xander group,donates $11mn to HBS,thus joining the league of Anand Mahindra,Ratan Tatan and NR Narayana Murthy.
23.Pilotless target aircraft Lakshya II succesfullly tested.
24.Promoter founders of Micromax Rajesh Agarwal,Sumeet Arora,Rahul Sharma and Vikas Jain etches corporate strategy upto 2015.
25.To concentrate on core competency,real estate division,DLF has decided to outsource construction business to Shapporji Pallonji and L &T.
26.EU,IMF & ECB lenders are collectively called Troike.
27.India’s IT services & BPO exports were predicted by NASSCOM to grow 16-18% in 2011-12 to $70bn.The industry is likely to meet the target.
28.The world’s largest asset management firm,Blackrock,will join hands with Hemendra Kothari’s DSP Group to set up PE fund to do classic PE deals targeted at mid-sized companies.
29.Ambanis may join hands for for coal bed methane blocks in M.P.
30.The world’s second largest apparel retailer Swedish Hennes & Mauritz(H&M) is wary of entering India on sourcing norms of 30% from SME.H&M began exploratory talks only when its biggest rival Inditex’s Zara(Spain) & American competitor Forever21 opened shop in India in partnership/JV with Trent and Hello retail India respectively.
Note:SMEs are defined as those whose initial investment in plant & machinery is between Rs.25 Lakhs & Rs.5Crore.
31.Panasonic-Japan’s largest electronics company, plans to enter new segments- healthcare-ECG machines,blood bank refrigerators,diabetes detectors, Energy- Solar cell,rechargeable batteries, Education-Interactive Whiteboards and Security- CCTV.
32.Mumbai based Bluestar plans exclusive large format stores.
33.Audi looks to enter Indian armoured car market with A8L security model.
34.Oxford university press completes 100 years in India.
35.FDI in India rose 13% to $50.81bn in 2011.
36.iGate’s plan to delist Patni may face regulatory hurdle.Co. gone ahead with delisting plan without reducing shareholding to 75%.
37.FB IPO may raise $10bn thus it will be in the coveted league of most successful IPO launches which includes Agricultural bank of China($19.3bn), Visa($17.9bn) and GM($15.8bn).
38.Starbucks makes JV with Tata global beverages.
39.Kweku Adoboli – accused in UBS $2bn fraud, plea for bail rejected.
40.Mobile phone bills of consumers will rise 20-30% this year, top executives of all leading operators said, as the country’s debt-ridden telcos raise call tariffs to revive revenue growth and cut losses in the fiercely competitive sector.
41.Sensex posted biggest ever gain in Jan since 1994; monthly gains highest since Sep 2010.Foreign funds pumped in 11,069 cr ($2 billion)- highest since Nov 2010 .
Rupee rose 6.8% in Jan — the highest gain in single month. In Feb ’73 it rose 6% .FII investment in debt market is also rising due to higher yields on local bonds. Lots to Depend on UP Elections and Budget.
42.Core Education & Technologies, an educational services firm, has emerged as the front-runner to acquire billionaire investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala’s stake in Aptech, two people familiar with the development said. Jhunjhunwala is seeking a valuation of 700 crore for his stake, a 63% premium to Tuesday’s closing price of Aptech on the BSE. Jhunjhunwala purchased 36% in the company six years ago at one third the current price. The valuation of Aptech — India’s first information technology training firm, started by Atul Nishar in 1984, and later acquired by Kalpathi Suresh, the founder of SSI, a south-based IT training firm,-appears to be delaying the conclusion of the sale one of the persons quoted above said.
Note:Core is India’s largest educational services firm by market capitalisation – 2,888 crore on Tuesday, and has revenue of 1,000 crore.
43.I’ve had Diarrhoea as a Kid, Then What Good is Facebook to me?-said BILL GATES at Davos.
44.The finance ministry is talking to banks to set up a credit guarantee trust for education loans up to 7.5 lakh.
45.United Spirits, the world’s largest liquor company by volume, is shifting its focus by pushing high-margin premium brands and reducing costs by investing in backend businesses. “We want to move from being a Hindustan Unilever to Nestle,” United Spirits MD and President Ashok Capoor said.
Besides focusing on premium brands and turning its Scottish acquisition Whyte & Mackay’s focus from bulk spirits to branded spirits to catch up with the likes of Diageo Plc and Pernod Ricard in high-margin categories, United Spirits is also investing in back-end businesses to reduce costs.
46.Swedish Truck major Scania is setting up a manufacturing facility in Bangalore with an investment of 150 crore.
47.Granting interim relief to scamhit software outsourcing firm Satyam Computer, which is controlled by Mahindra Group, the Andhra Pradesh High Court has stayed the Income Tax department’s plea to encash a bank guarantee worth 617 crore. Satyam’s new management had, after acquiring the firm in April 2009 and rebranding it as Mahindra Satyam, conducted an extensive forensic audit of its accounts for previous years, during which the accounting fraud of 7,136 crore was committed by founder B Ramalinga Raju. Based on restated accounts, the new management filed revised returns of income, duly adjusting fictitious sales and non-existing interest wrongly offered to tax.
48.The Wadia Group’s real estate venture Bombay Realty has announced the launch of its mixeduse development, the Island City Center to be developed over 45 acres at Dadar in Mumbai.
49.French defence supplier Dassault Aviation, whose Mirage 2000 fighters played a vital role for India during the Kargil conflict in 1999, has emerged as the lowest bidder for the $11-billion (55,000 crore) contract to supply 126 fighter jets to the Indian Air Force.
France has notched up a string of successes in India wining some of the most prestigious government contracts . Dassault’s Rafale fighter edged out the Eurofighter Typhoon in the final round of a prolonged selection process that saw jets from American firms Boeing and Lockheed Martin, Russia’s MiG 35 and Swedish jet Saab Gripen getting eliminated in technical evaluation rounds. EADS, the European consortium thatmakes Airbus passenger jets, is a major shareholder in both Eurofighter and Dassault Aviation.
Recent deals with French companies
Thales & Dassault (July 2011) $2.4-b deal to upgrade 51 Mirage 2000 multirole fighter aircraft
Areva (Dec 2010) $9.3-b deal to supply water reactors for NPCIL’s Jaitapur plant
MBDA (Jan 2012) $1.2-b deal to provide air-to-air missiles to equip Mirage 2000
Snecma (Shortlisted) Shortlisted to jointly produce engine for the light combat aircraft Tejas
50.Growth in savings fell to 13.7% during 2010-11, compared to 21% in the previous year because of high inflation, pulling down the share of gross domestic savings in GDP by 1.5%. Gross domestic savings and gross capital formation made up 32.3% and 35.1%, respectively of GDP during 2010-11. The biggest slowdown was seen in household savings — where the growth declined from 23% in 2009-10 to 7% last year — driven mostly by a drop in savings. Private corporate sector savings also dipped from 28% in 2009-10 to 13% in 2010-11.
51.The government is likely to sanction 5,000 crore to the defence forces for an exclusive secure optical fibre network in the upcoming Budget, a move that will free up for commercial use about 45 Mhz of wireless spectrum that the forces currently use.
52.According to the fiscal deficit trajectory recommended by the 13th Finance Commission, the government has to bring its fiscal deficit down to 3% by 2013-14.
53.State-run Small Industries Development Bank of India, or Sidbi, is contemplating equity investment in microfinance companies after a year long hiatus. Sidbi will use a 100-crore dedicated fund, created by the government, for investing in smaller MFIs to help them grow in a regulated environment
54.Seasonally adjusted unemployment among the 17 countries sharing the euro rose to 10.4% in December. It was the highest rate since June 1998, before the introduction of the euro in 1999.
55.In a landmark verdict, the Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the right of a private citizen to seek sanction for prosecution of a public servant for corruption, while setting a deadline of four months for the government to decide the issue of giving sanction for prosecution of public servants facing graft charges.
56.The city’s Victorian and Art Deco district with its neo-Gothic monuments and Art Deco buildings in south Mumbai has moved a step closer to being listed as a World Heritage Site.
57.The new single Joint Entrance Examination being proposed for admission to Indian Institutes Technology/National Institutes of Technology/Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research/Indian Institutes of Information Technology and state government run engineering colleges would not have a uniform weightage to class XII results. Sources said while there would be a single-test, class XII weightage would have variations that would cater to needs of different engineering colleges and state governments.
58.The Supreme Court will be the final arbiter in the bitter confrontation over the Army chief’s actual date of birth (DoB), but the government as well as General V K Singh agree on one thing: the mess originated from within the Army. Defence minister A K Antony on Tuesday morning squarely blamed the Army for the raging age row.
59.The Indian economy grew 8.4% in 2010-11, marginally lower than the previous estimate of 8.5%, on the back of strong farm sector and services sector growth, data showed on Tuesday. The Central Statistics Office (CSO) released the quick estimates of national income, which showed that the farm sector grew 7% in 2010-11, while the services sector, which accounts for more than 52% of the economy, rose 9.3%.
60.The per capita income of Indians for the first time crossed the Rs 50,000-mark in 2010-11, although using current prices as the barometer. According to the revised GDP data for the last financial year, per capita income is estimated to have risen 16.9% to Rs 53,331 compared to Rs 46,117 in the previous year.
61.Pressure on power utilities to raise electricity charges immediately will ease as state-run monopoly Coal India (CIL) on Tuesday pared coal prices by 12.5% by delinking domestic pricing from international markets. The new pricing regime will be effective retrospectively from January 1, when the company had switched to a system of grading various types of coal on the basis of GCV (gross calorific value, or how much heat a unit of coal can produce). The GCV system did not account for ash and moisture content as in the earlier system based on the UHV (useful heat value).
62.CGH Earth, one of the country’s largest premium resort chains, will raise about $50 million in private equity investment to fund its growth plans including an ambitious project in the scenic Andaman & Nicobar Islands. The Kochi-headquartered company, formerly Casino Group of Hotels, operates 11 resorts and heritage properties under CGH Earth brand across the southern market, but now plans to expand to the north.
63.Akzo Global (formerly ICI), the world’s largest paint maker which owns the Dulux brand, has run into opposition from institutional investors over its proposal to merge unlisted subsidiaries with Akzo-Global India.
64.SRK was the most visible celebrity on TV endorsing 25 brands in 2011 followed by Katrina Kaif and Kareena Kapoor.
65.The HSBC Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), a closelytracked data compiled using inputs from purchasing executives in more than 500 firms in the manufacturing sector, rose to 57.5 in January from 54.2 in December and was the best since May 2011.
66.Rovio CEO Mikael Hed announced, “Piracy may not be a bad thing: it can get us more business at the end of the day.” The Guardian reports that Hed was addressing an audience mainly from the music industry and said he looks to the music industry’s mistakes in dealing with piracy. The chief lesson that Hed said he learned is that embracing pirates can attract new fans. “We took something from the music industry, which was to stop treating the customers as users, and start treating them as fans. We do that today: we talk about how many fans we have,” he said. “If we lose that fan base, our business is done, but if we can grow that fan base, our business will grow.” Hed said that trying to sue pirates in court is “futile” and that Rovio would only do so when the Angry Bird brand was harmed or it its fans were deceived
67.China would be the first country to have Angry Birds retail stores.
68.After deciding to impose a onetime charge retrospectively on 2G airwaves awarded to telcos in the past, the telecom department now wants the law ministry to decide on the dates from which these charges are applicable. the Telecom Commission (TC), the apex decision-making body of the communications ministry, had cleared the proposal to impose a one-time fee for all airwaves GSM-based telcos held beyond the 6.2-MHz limit and CDMAbased operators have above 5-MHz mark. While incumbent GSM operators have up to 10 MHz in most circles, no CDMA player has more than 5 MHz of airwaves in any region.
69.Flat owners who receive additional compensation from the builder in a redeveloped project need not pay tax on the amount, the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) has said.
A flat owner in a building that is redeveloped usually gets three benefits. He or she receives a flat larger in size than the one he owned before the redevelopment; a displacement compensation for the period of construction of the new building is paid out. The flat owner is also entitled to an “additional compensation” which is largely part of the profits paid out by the developer.
The income tax department sought to tax this “additional compensation” that was paid by the redeveloper but ITAT ruled against it.
70.Lenders to Air India, the debt-laden national carrier, might agree to a debt recast plan in which 7,500 crore of debt will be converted into non-convertible debentures (NCDs) backed by a government guarantee.
71. Binani Industries, the holding company of the $1.6-billion Braj Binani Group, on Wednesday said it has agreed to acquire 3B, a Europe-based fibreglass firm for about €275 million. Headquartered in Battice, Belgium, 3B is Europe’s leading manufacturer of fibreglass for reinforcement of thermoplastics and thermoset polymer applications.
72.After launching the ‘World One’ in June 2010, so far the world’s tallest residential tower at 117 storeys, and the World Crest — one of India’s tallest towers soaring over 700 ft — Mumbai’s Lodha Group on Wednesday announced its exclusive partnership with iconic Italian designer Giorgio Armani in the design of the residences and common spaces of the World Towers in Upper Worli, Mumbai.
73.Fortis Healthcare (India) on Wednesday said it has acquired a majority stake in Singapore-based diagnostic firm RadLink-Asia Pte for 62.9 million Singapore dollar (about . 245 crore).
74.MCX has filed its offer document with Sebi to launch its IPO. The issue is an offer for sale, which will entail its promoter Financial Technologies and existing shareholders like SBI and its associates divesting 12.6% of the company’s paid-up capital. FT will offload 5% to bring down its stake to 26%, while SBI and its associates will sell around 4%.
75.The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Wednesday notified the institutional placement programme (IPP) guidelines that will allow companies to reduce promoter shareholding through private placement. As per the new norms, companies would be allowed to issue fresh equity to institutional investors to dilute stake of promoters. The notification, according to official sources, will help the government, which is hard-pressed for funds, to expedite the disinvestment process.
76.Lanco Infratech’s Australian unit Griffin Coal, which faces a lawsuit from Perdaman Chemical and Fertilisers for allegedly reneging on a coal supply commitment, plans to file a legal counterclaim against the litigant for damage to its reputation and breach of contract.
77.Steel companies, which are beginning to see a slow revival in demand even as raw material prices soften, are willing to hold on to product prices to reassure customers and evaluate market trends. One of the main reasons for most companies holding out on the final price could be falling price levels of coking coal, the second most important raw material after iron ore. Coking coal, which is entirely imported, had risen to a record level of $300 a tonne in the beginning of 2011, and has since softened to about $225.
78.The amount of public debt a country can accumulate needs to be capped as a proportion of its gross domestic product for economic stability, said RBI Governor Duvvuri Subbarao, whose monetary actions are being nullified by imprudent fiscal policies.
79.The finance ministry is looking to slash allocation of departments and ministries that have failed to effectively use funds in the first three quarters of the financial year.
80.The government has decided to take future tendering and procurement for Aakash2 tablets from IIT Rajasthan, and hand it over to public sector undertakings.
81.Accounting authorities are considering a proposal that will ask listed companies to disclose the extent of their holdings in risky regions or in volatile financial instruments on the grounds that stakeholders need to be informed about the impact of such exposures. The proposal, which will have to be prepared by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), the nodal accounting body, may make it mandatory for companies to mention the disclosure either in the form of a summary or as an annexure to their financial statements and will also contain a prudent assessment of the challenges, said a person familiar with the development.
82.Sony, predicting a fourth consecutive year of losses, named Kazuo Hirai as chief executive officer, replacing Howard Stringer after falling behind Apple and Samsung Electronics.
83.A high-powered government panel has recommended income-linked cap on marriage expenditure including gifts and food served. The recommendation by Planning Commission’s Working Group on Women’s Agency and Empowerment is part of the effort to tighten the provisions of Dowry Prohibition Act, 28 years after its enactment.
84.Before the storm over Salman Rushdie’s absence from the Jaipur Literature Festival could abate, a fresh one started on Wednesday after the Kolkata Book Fair cancelled exiled Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasrin’s book release, saying the government had warned of security problems. But fair organizers cited problems with the auditorium as the official reason to call off the launch of Taslima’s latest book Nirbashan (Exile).
85.The Gujarat High Court will not direct the Nanavati-Mehta Commission to summon chief minister Narendra Modi and question him about the 2002 riots.
86.In violation of norms laid down by the government, a single company, Lanco Infratech, has allegedly cornered 40% of the contracts bid out for the first phase of the National Solar Mission, garnering 235 mw worth projects with assured revenue of Rs 13,000 crore over the next 25 years, including a large subsidy that the consumers will end up paying. The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission is meant to install 20,000 mw of gridconnected solar power by 2022. In its first phase, 1,000 mw worth of projects were to be bid out by 2013.
87.According to latest Union health ministry data, Goa recorded the lowest infant mortality rate (IMR)—10 per 1,000 live births—followed by Kerala at 13. MP recorded the highest IMR at 62, followed by UP (61) and Orissa (61). The national average remained on 47.
88. Exposing the ISI’s “manipulation” of Taliban’s senior leadership and its “massive double game”, a damning Nato report says that Pakistan government remains “intimately” involved with the Afghan-based terror group. Meanwhile,Pakistan’s foreign minister Hina Rabbani khair while touring Kabul declared the NATO allegations as frivolous.
89.Russia said on Wednesday it would veto any UN resolution on Syria that it finds unacceptable, after demanding any measure to rule out military intervention to halt bloodshed touched off by protests against president Assad’s rule.
90.Republican contender for White House Mitt Romney regained momentum and frontrunner status in his effort to challenge Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential election by comfortably winning the Florida state primary on Tuesday .
91.Private equity (PE) firm Baring Private Equity Partners (BPEP) is investing $100 million (Rs 500 crore) in South India’s largest office space builder RMZ Corp.
92.The finance ministry is keen to introduce a commodities transaction tax (CTT) in the Budget to check speculation in non-farm goods despite opposition by exchanges and industry chambers.
93.Italian luxury brand Giorgio Armani is looking to bring its high-end homeware and furnishings retail stores to India in the next one year. The luxury group, which has an existing joint venture partnership with DLF Retail, a subsidiary of the real-estate major DLF, for its fashion business is not likely to extend the tie-up for the Casa brand.
94.SC Takes a Tough Call .The verdict says All 122 licences issued by A Raja to be cancelled.Entire allocation done in an arbitrary and unconstitutional manner Affected companies can continue operations until new rules finalised Auctions to determine spectrum awards in future . Uninor (22 circles) and Sistema Shyam (21 circles) – Will be worst hit as all circles operational.
95.The world’s largest online retailer Amazon.com is tiptoeing into India, using cover from a comparison shopping site Junglee.com it acquired 13 years ago. Amazon, whose moves have been closely watched for any sign of an imminent entry into the Indian retail market, will not sell or buy anything in the country for now. Instead, it will direct customers to both online and offline vendors listed on Junglee.
96.Suzuki Motor Corp’s overseas car output declined for the first time in 11 years, dragged down by a crippling strike at its India operations.
SMC’s global production last year dropped 2.12 % after a 7% fall in output at Maruti Suzuki, which generates half of the Japanese carmaker’s annual profits. The four-month strike at the Manesar plant of Maruti, 54.2% owned by SMC, led to an output loss of about 1.06 lakh cars in calendar 2011 besides causing a delay its plans to launch new cars. The market share of India’s largest car maker also fell to an all-time low of 38% while profits declined 39% to . 995 crore in first nine month of the current fiscal. Its sales were down 14% to 8,88,794 units in the 10 months to January.
97. EIH has roped in renowned American interior designer Adam Tihany for a grand renovation to live up to the expectations of the new luxury consumers.
98.Fortis Healthcare, the country’s largest hospital company, plans to hive off its non-core business and related assets into a separate company that is likely to be listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange as a business trust to raise $300 million (. 1,500 crore). The proposed restructuring exercise is aimed at unlocking value from its non-core businesses.
99.The maths social network, to be called ‘Teaching Tomorrow’, will be a separate non-profit venture. It is intended for teachers to share maths insights with each other. In 2005, American writer Thomas Friedman was so impressed with the Chennaibased online mathematics education platform HeyMath that he featured it in his book The World is Flat and wrote that “HeyMath’s mission is to be the math Google”.
If Friedman were to describe its aspirations now, he could well make that “math Facebook”. For HeyMath, which has former IMF chief economist Raghuram Rajan and entrepreneur Jerry Rao on its advisory board, is on course to launching a social networking site for mathematics, the first of its kind, within three months.
100.Around 5,000 workers – permanent as well as contractual — at Reliance Industries’ Naroda plant in Ahmedabad, engaged with the Only Vimal range of textiles, have struck work since Wednesday evening, demanding higher wages. This plant is RIL’s first manufacturing facility set up in Gujarat in 1966 with 66 people.
101.Reliance Industries’ officials, including executive director PMS Prasad, are expected to appear before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament on Friday to give oral evidence on alleged irregularities in managing India’s biggest gas field, D6 in the Krishna-Godavari block, government officials said. This is for the first time RIL officials will face the parliamentary committee, which is examining issues raised by the Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG) in its recent report.
102.The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has suspended Kingfisher Airlines from its Geneva-based clearing house (ICH) due to non-payment of dues to airline members. A Kingfisher spokesperson said the problem was due to a failure in their automated system and the airline is in consultation with the clearing agency to sort issues out.
Please note that IATA has about 240 members in 118 countries. ICH acts as a kind of a via media between partner airlines internationally, and if it suspends Kingfisher, this will mean that the international airlines will not be able to honour Kingfisher coupons.
ICH acts as a coupon collector for airlines when there is an interline agreement between the two. So, for example, Kingfisher flight from Mumbai to New York will be direct to London, but from London to New York, the journey can be undertaken by the passenger on a British Airways flight as partner airline. Kingfisher would then give the coupons for the entire journey to ICH, which would then disburse the money to British Airways.
103.The Indian Railways, having details of the track access charge for the upcoming freight corridor, will approve the model concession agreement soon. DFC, a company promoted by the Railways, will earn its share of revenue through the track access charge for the movement of goods through upcoming 3,300 km-long freight corridor.
104.India is readying to defend its policy requiring companies to source local content for the national solar mission project, a rule that has triggered protests from the US and the EU.
105.The Planning Commission and the finance ministry are at odds over the accounting of plan and nonplan schemes in the budget.
While the finance ministry is pushing for inclusion of more than 10 non-plan schemes in the planned budget for the next financial year, the Planning Commission is resisting the move as it would eat into the share of existing schemes.
106.The Reserve Bank of India may consider paring the 40% priority sector target for commercial banks. However, banks may have to lend more to the micro, small and medium enterprises and weaker sections. These could be some of the recommendations of the committee headed by the Union Bank of India chairman and managing director MV Nair, which was set up by the central bank to review issues related to priority-sector lending.
107.Malaria toll 46 times govt count.Study Shows 46,800 Indians Killed In 2010 Against Official Estimate Of 1,023.
108.Energy giant Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has approached the international markets again, this time to raise funds for its ambitious $11 billion (Rs 55,000 crore) Jamnagar phase three expansion project, popularly called as J-3 mega petrochemicals project, aimed at doubling its petrochemicals production for further consolidating its global leadership position.
109.Telecom regulator Trai may set a base price of . 10,972 crore, or over $2 billion, for 6.2 MHz of start-up spectrum, when airwaves freed up by the Supreme Court’s decision to invalidate 122 licences are auctioned. This is because Trai may be bound by recommendations it had made in November 2011 suggesting that a pan-India 2G licence, or 6.2 MHz, should be valued at a minimum of . 10,972 crore, a six-fold increase from the 2001 price of . 1,658 crore. This values one unit or MHz of airwaves at . 1,770 crore.
110.Shailesh Rao, managing director (media & platforms) at Google’s Asia-Pacific operations, has left the world’s biggest Internet search company to set up Twitter’s international business.
111.Bisleri Founder Ramesh Chauhan, conscious that he isn’t getting younger, pulls in his only daughter Jayanti Chauhan to groom her to run the operation.
112.Debt-laden air carrier Kingfisher Airlines has put on hold plans to enter the global airline alliance of OneWorld, underscoring its deep financial problems. The Vijay Mallya-owned airline, which has an outstanding debt of . 6,419 crore, cited “financial issues” for deferring the membership. The membership would have allowed the airline to increase its revenues by 5%, by connecting it to 800 cities across the globe. Oneworld CEO Bruce Ashby said.
113Manisha Girotra, the 42-yearold former India head of UBS, is poised to join British bank Standard Chartered to head its investment banking business.
114.Wipro Technologies has moved its IT hiring to its newly-created ‘business operations unit’, headed by senior vice-president Bhanumurthy BM. Wipro, which has been in the midst of a 360-degree restructuring exercise as it attempts to fast-track growth, carved out a business operations unit two months ago. The company rolled the business applications services, global delivery, quality and information systems functions into the new unit.
115.India Inc has made a strong pitch for cut in corporate tax rates and expeditious implementation of Goods and Services Tax . The recommendations come in the wake of gloomy economic conditions, high interest rates and weak investor sentiments stressing out corporate bottom lines.
116.The country’s worker-to-fixed-capital ratio in the registered manufacturing sector has declined from 10.9 in 1990-91 to 3.2 in 2009-10, an ET analysis shows. Growth in employment, too, has slowed from 2.61% in 1993-94 to 1.02% in 2009-10, according to five-yearly NSSO survey.
117.GMR Infrastructure has withdrawn its bid for contracts to modernise three airports in Brazil.
118.Less than a week after a similar move by micro-blogging site Twitter, internet major Google has unveiled plans to make content on its blogger platform selectively available, depending on the local rules of each country.
119.Straining under heavy financial stress, the railways has sought a 200% increase in plan allocation to fund its modernization and renewal plan.
120.Facebook said in its prospectus that it plans to raise as much as $5 billion in an IPO. The Menlo Park, California-based company is discussing a valuation of$75billion to $100 billion. At the top end of that range, Zuckerberg will own stock worth $28.4 billion. His command of the company goes beyond stock — he controls 56.9% of the voting power.
Please note that By comparison, Google’s Sergey Brin and Larry Page are each worth more than $15 billion and Ellison owns stock worth about $31 billion in Oracle.
121.Five senior bureaucrats, who have served or are serving powerful political establishments, are among 15 candidates in race for the post of chairman of the world’s biggest coalminer, state-run Coal India (CIL). One must know that Coal Miner Without Full-Fledged Chairman Since Jan 2011. Since January 2011, Coal India director (technical) N C Jha has been doubling up as chairman. But, he too superannuated on January 31, and additional secretary in the ministry Zohra Chatterjee has taken temporary charge. The long leadership void has seen the company’s production decline sharply at a time when power projects are languishing from lack of fuel.
122.Infosys Technologies has effected a key leadership reshuffle wherein two of its “CEO-material leaders, Ashok Vemuri and B G Srinivas, will interchange their current roles and swap their current operating domains. Vemuri and Srinivas, both members of the Infosys Board of Directors, would continue with their existing regional leadership responsibilities for the Americas and Europe, respectively. the reshuffle is aimed at giving a multi-domain exposure to these two leaders, because such experience is critical for top leaders. The change will bring cross-industry perspectives to accelerate transformation and innovation for Infy clients.
123.The Piramal Healthcare group snagged another 5.5% in Vodafone India at a price cheaper than its first stake purchase in the Indian arm of UKbased global telecom major.
124.The CBI special court hearing the 2G case on Saturday dismissed a petition against home minister P Chidambaram. The petition, filed by Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy, had sought to make Chidambaram a co-accused in the 2G case.
125.The Sahara group, a long-standing financial backer of India’s favourite sport, has revolted against cricket’s governing body accusing it of unfairness and rigidity, overshadowing Saturday’s auction of players for the Indian Premier League Twenty20 tournament. It scrapped its more than a decade-old sponsorship of the Indian cricket team ( 3.4 crore for every Test, one-dayer or Twenty20 match) and walked out of the IPL (it owns the Pune Warriors franchise) citing a litany of complaints against the powerful Board of Control for Cricket in India.
Sundar Raman is the CEO of IPL.
126.supermodel Gisele Bündchen,a Brazilian bombshell was the highest earner mongst the woman endorsers of brand last year with earnings of $45 mn.
127.In April, the Vijay Mallya-owned carrier had a market share of 20%. It shrunk to 12.1% in December, the upshot of a series of troubles, including a crippling financial crunch, flight cancellations and pilot strike.
128.$1 Was Steve Jobs’ annual salary as Apple CEO from 1997 (when he was interim CEO) till his death. his net worth was about $7 billion in 2011. More surprise: a majority of this wealth came from Disney, not Apple. Jobs held the highest individual stake — 7.4% or 138 million shares — in The Walt Disney & Co at the time of his death.
129.$1.3bn That’s the total financing that DreamWorks Studios hoped to sew up when it entered into talks with Reliance Entertainment and banks. But only half the money turned up.
130.A group of Muslim scholars and activists on Saturday got a step closer to codifying Muslim personal law in India. The national consultation on the codification has prepared a revolutionary draft which, among other things, bans triple talaq and restricts polygamy. After codification, it will be sent to Parliament for amendments into the law.
131.The government has ‘notified’ the setting up of the ambitious anti-terror body — National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) — giving it ‘power’ through an executive order to carry out operations, including arrest, search and seizure, as part of its mandate to be the country’s main counter-terror agency.
132.Anuj Bidve’s alma mater, Lancaster University, is setting up a scholarship in memory of the Indian student whose killing in an unprovoked attack in the UK evoked widespread sympathy and outrage.
133. Multi-brand car service chain Carnation Auto, promoted by former Maruti Suzuki India chief Jagdish Khattar, is gearing up for anaggressive foray into the used-car market, with plans to open over 160 outlets across the country in the next three years.
134. “Godfather” star Al Pacino is set to make his animated film debut in “Despicable Me 2” as he has been cast to voice a supervillain.
135. Intensifying their protest against European Union’s imposition of carbon tax on airlines flying into its airspace, India, China and Russia may soon respond together with a retaliatory fee on European carriers, making it difficult for them to fly east.
136. India’s largest iron ore producer NMDC, which has acquired a 50% stake in the Australian iron ore firm Legacy Iron Ore recently, is set to begin due diligence process to acquire four more overseas mines, one each in Russia, Brazil, Mozambique and Australia.
137. ndustry body Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on Sunday suggested that the government liberalise the FDI policy further by allowing foreign airlines to invest up to 49% in cash-starved domestic carriers.
138. Electronics and consumer durables makers are cutting dealer margins or rolling back schemes for retailers to protect their profitability as costs increase due to higher input prices and weaker rupee — a move that some retailers say will make their business unviable.While Samsung India has slashed dealer margins by 3-6% across categories, market leader LG India will follow suit within 10 days as makers of televisions and refrigerators stare into a tough year because their sales have slowed and consumer sentiment remains low.
139. The landmark 2G judgement of the Supreme Court criticising the first-come-first-served model of selling natural resources has cast a shadow on a legislation that seeks to boost mining activity in the country. The apex court, which raised questions about the transparency of this model, asked the government to consider alternative options, especially auctions.
However, experts are divided on the implications of the judgment for the Mines and Mineral Development and Regulation Bill, which is awaiting a review by a parliamentary standing committee before being taken up for debate in the Budget session. The Bill, which seeks to invite increased corporate participation in the exploration of minerals, is based on the first-come-first-served principle for the sale of prospecting licences. The proposed law has been also debated extensively for its controversial profit-sharing clause.
140. India’s largest biotech firm Biocon said it expects lower upfront payment from its overseas partner when it outlicenses its oral insulin medicine, with large part of the payment being milestone-linked. “Any partner who looks at this asset will back-load the payment because while the market is huge, we still don’t know if the drug works the way we want,” company’s founder chairman Kiran Mazumdar Shaw.
141. Private equity giant Blackstone has pledged its entire equity stake in Gokaldas Exports, the country’s largest apparel exporter, to raise funds, marking a rare instance in which a PF fund has resorted to this method to raise money.
142. European gas and electricity major GDF Suez is keen to join the race for UK-based energy major BG’s 65% stake in Gujarat Gas Co, spicing up competition for a significant chunk of India’s high-growth energy market that continues to lure big international firms.
143. LIC, the biggest institutional investor in India with annual equity investments of about . 40,000 crore, will walk along with the government in capitalising the banks which are facing a rise in bad loans and demands for restructuring loans.
The government, which is set to breach its own fiscal deficit target of 4.6% of the gross domestic product by a percentage point, has committed . 18,000 crore for recapitalisation of large banks such as State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank and Central Bank of India.
144. The finance ministry is resisting a Planning Commission proposal for a 10% increase in the budgetary support for the first year of the Twelfth Five-Year Plan, citing limited resources with the government.
The commission had sought this raise to offset the 9% average inflation in the past year, but the ministry said it can afford only a 5% increase.
145. A recent directive of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to the I-T Dept has asked its officials to launch a special drive against those who have “not furnished their PAN (Permanent Account Number)” while entering into high value transactions. The drive will end on March 20, eleven days before the current fiscal closes. The measure has been taken on the recommendations of a high-level committee appointed by the CBDT last year to find those taxpayers who have gone missing without paying taxes, pegged at Rs 1,01,836 crore at present.
146. The United States is coming to be seen as a global threat, acting unilaterally with aggressive new market rules that critics say will hurt US firms, foreign banks, and international markets in one swoop.
The new buzzword in the financial world is “extraterritoriality”, or ET. The idea that a government can exercise its authority beyond its borders. The fear is that after the 2007-2009 financial crisis that roiled global markets, some countries will engage in an arms race of tough financial reforms in order to be seen as the safest capital markets, and will haphazardly foist their own rules on other nations.
147. Mark Zuckerberg may sell about $1.7 billion of Facebook stock in the company’s initial public offer to pay off taxes he will owe when he exercises options to buy 120 million shares.
148. Athens has been in talks with the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank — known as the ‘trioka’ here — on further action needed to unlock a new euro zone rescue deal worth €130 billion, or $171 billion, pending since October. Pressure is also mounting for an agreement with private lenders to wipe out part of the €350-billion Greek debt, as Athens faces loan repayments of €14.4 billion, or $19 billion on March 20.
149. International Business Machines almost doubled the salary of Virginia ‘Ginni’ Rometty after promoting her as the CEO of the world’s largest computer-services provider at the start of the year. Rometty, will receive a salary of $1.5 million in 2012 up from $800,000 last year.
150. Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond is to receive a bonus of up to £3 million ($4.7 million or €3.6 million) for 2011.
151. A high-level government panel has suggested that all movable and immovable assets acquired by a married couple or a couple living together be classified as joint property which would be divided equitably in the event of separation or desertion.
The Planning Commission’s working group on Women’s Agency and Empowerment wants a comprehensive legislation — ‘Right to Marital Property Act’ — to be brought in which would be applicable to all communities.
152. The Civil Aviation Authority, the body that will replace the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to become the country’s civil aviation regulator, is likely to come into existence this year. The buzz in the aviation ministry circles is that Nazim Zaidi, the current civil aviation secretary, will hold the top post as chairperson of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) after his retirement from government service this July.
153. India is planning to make its undergraduate MBBS course six-and-a-half years long, instead of the present five-and-a-half years.
In a meeting on Saturday, health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and the Medical Council of India (MCI) discussed amending the MCI Act that would make a oneyear rural posting compulsory for all MBBS students before they can become doctors. The proposal was first mooted by former health minister A Ramadoss in 2007.
According to K.K.Talwar,MCI chairman, if the proposal is cleared, 40,000 medical students will be utilized for a year in the National Rural Health Mission. India is facing an acute shortage of human resources in health — the brunt of which is borne by the flagship NRHM. The vulnerable population in rural, tribal and hilly areas is extremely underserved.
In 2006, only 26% of doctors in India lived in rural areas, serving 72% of the population. As per a Planning Commission study, the country is short of six lakh doctors, 10 lakh nurses and 2 lakh dental surgeons, leading to a dismal doctor-patient ratio.
154. Kumar Mangalam Birla is revving up the fashion play. Madura Fashion & Lifestyle, part of the $35-billion Aditya Birla Group, is holding talks with high-street names Giorgio Armani SpA and upmarket British clothier Hackett, besides striking a new deal with Esprit Holdings for the Indian market. The Rs 1,600-crore company operates a luxury retailer‘The Collective’ apart from owning brands like Louis Philippe, Van Heusen and Allen Solly in the mainstream lifestyle segments.
kumarsaurabhverma 