Beijing, June 22: The World Bank has cut its 2009 global growth forecast, saying the world economy will shrink by 2.9 percent and warning that a drop in investment in developing countries will increase poverty.
“The global recession has deepened,” the Washington-based multilateral lender said in a report.
New Delhi, June 22:Get ready to pay more for cigarettes and gutkha (chewing tobacco) with the Delhi government announcing an increase in tax on tobacco products in its budget presented Monday.
Delhi state Finance Minister A.K. Walia announced a raise in VAT on tobacco (cigarettes) and gutkha from 12.5 percent to 20 percent in the 2009-10 budget in the Delhi assembly here. Beedis (hand rolled cigars) have been exempt from the tax.
Bangalore, June 22: Cellular services provider Vodafone Essar today announced a special offer for Zoozoo fans across Karnataka.
According to a press release here, customers can now get special Zoozoo DVDs from any Vodafone store in the state and watch these adorable characters from Vodafone Essars recent television commercials as they live lifes little moments in their inimitable style.
Mumbai, June 22 : State-run carrier Air India has targeted slashing annual salary costs by Rupees 500 crore, it said here Monday.
Air India has appointed a four-member committee to examine existing wage agreements, including flying allowances and productivity-linked incentives, signed with the unions associations and the Indian Pilots Guild.
The committee has been directed to go into all aspects of cost rationalisation and reduction of wasteful expenditure with the unions and submit its report by July 15.
Currently, the carrier runs an annual wage bill of over Rs.3,000 crore.
Washington, June 22: The World Bank on Monday estimated economic growth in developing countries of 1.2 percent this year, and said that without China and India, output would shrink 1.6 percent.
Amid the worst global financial and economic crisis in seven decades, the multilateral institution eight days ago lowered its outlook on global growth, to a contraction of 3.0% this year.
It slightly revised the global gross domestic product (GDP) figure on Monday, to a 2.9% decline.
New Delhi, June 21: Finnish giant Nokia and Vodafone Essar have come together to offer new internet services in India. Nokia enjoys numero uno status in India while Vodafone Essar is second largest GSM telecom operator in India.
Mumbai, June 20: The global economic slowdown may further hit IT major Infosys in the current fiscal causing three to 6.7 per cent fall in revenue growth, Company Chairman and Chief Mentor N R Narayana Murthy said today.
Delivering his Chairman’s Speech at the 28th Annual General Meeting here, he said ”Many of our clients are reducing their IT budgets. This would impact our growth during the current year.” He said a recent survey of Infosys’ top 135 clients indicated that a majority of them would downsize their IT budgets.
Mumbai, June 20: Pure gold edged up on the bullion market here today due to mild buying interest on the back firm trend in global markets.
Meanwhile, standard gold and silver ruled steady in the absence of market-moving factors.
Gold rose in New York as the dollar weakened, boosting demand for precious metals as an alternative investments.
Gold futures for August delivery gained by USD 1.60 to USD 936.20 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange’s Comex Division.
In the domestic market, Pure gold (99.9 purity) edged up to Rs 14,620 from yesterday’s closing level of Rs 14,615.
Toronto, June 20: Toronto-headquartered Nortel, which is under bankruptcy protection in both the US and Canada, has announced that it will liquidate itself.
In a statement issued Friday, the 127-year-old Canadian telecom equipment giant said it has entered into a deal with Nokia Siemens to sell its wireless business for $650 million.
Toronto, June 20: BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) has reported a profit of $643 million for the first quarter of the year, compared to $518.3 million posted during the previous quarter.
However, its quarterly revenue was slightly dwon at $3.42 billion from $3.46 billion in the previous quarter. But it is still up 53 percent from $2.24 billion during the same period last year.
BlackBerry added about 3.8 million net new subscribers accounts during the quarter, taking its total subscriber base to nearly 28.5 million.
New Delhi, June 19: The World Bank will extend a $180-million (Rs.900-crore) loan to India for upgrading its polluting coal-fired power plants and bringing down carbon emission, it said today.
“The project, which is expected to lower carbon emissions and boost power production at these plants, is co-financed with a $45.4-million grant from the Global Environment Facility (GEF),” World Bank said in a statement.
Mumbai, June 19: War-weary family members and well-wishers are seeing the adverse Bombay High Court judgement on the KG basin natural gas as an opportunity to settle the decade’s hottest business feuds and are exerting pressure on the Reliance Industries management to explore an amicable out-of-court settlement with the Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Natural Resources (RNRL).
New Delhi, June 19: Security operations to free West Bengal’s Lalgarh from Maoist control are on track but could take “considerably more time” than anticipated, Home Minister P. Chidambaram said Friday.
“The operation will take time In fact, it will take considerably more time than had been expected,” he said after briefing reporters after a cabinet meeting presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
New Delhi, June 19: Over 11 million telephone connections were added in May, though the increase was slightly less than that registered in the previous month, India’s telecom regulator said Friday.
“A total of 11.44 million telephone connections (wireline and wireless) have been added during May as compared to 11.75 million connections a month before,” Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said in a statement.
Penang (Malaysia), June 19: Can the cellphone replace the blackboard? Not quite, but it is finding new uses in the classroom in pockets of Asia, says a new report.
The latest and seventh volume of the “Digital Review of Asia Pacific’, released at a function here, highlights the power of new communication technologies in the field of education.
Kochi, June 19: Cashing in on the popularity of its ‘Zoozoo’ advertisement, Vodafone Essar, one of India’s leading cellular services providers, has announced an offer of free special Zoozoo DVDs, containing 29 Zoozoo ads, for those availing new postpaid connections.
The customers can get the free Zoozoo DVD through the purhcase of new postpaid connection, while prepaid customers can get the same through a recharge of Rs 300 or more, Vodafone said in a press release here.
Vuyyuru, June 18: Bharti Airtel Ltd, the country’s leading mobile operator, has entered into a strategic tie-up with Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative (IFFCO) and formed a new joint venture company–IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Ltd (IKSL)–to reach the farmers directly.
Explaining details about the new initiative to newspersons here last evening, Andhra Pradesh Bharti Airtel Ltd Chief Executive Officer (Mobile Services) Sharlin Thayil said the initiative marks Airtel’s strategic intent of making mobile telephony more accessible and affordable among rural consumers.
Mumbai, June 18: For the first time since the new Wholesale Price Index (WPI) series started in 1995, India’s annual rate of inflation turned negative, falling to minus 1.61 percent for the week ended June 6, official data showed Thursday.
The inflation rate, which was 0.13 percent in the previous week, had last turned negative in 1977.
With this, India is possibly the only country now that is recording deflation though the European region is nearing the zero rate of inflation on account of recession.
New Delhi, June 18: When the world was reeling under a severe financial crunch, India went out to prove another point — its banking business was not
only profitable but had outperformed all other sectors.
The icing on the cake was the first quarter advance (direct) tax results when for the first time in the history of corporate India, a bank became the country’s highest tax-payer, leaving behind numero uno Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).
London, June 18: British Airways (BA), which reported a record annual loss last month, has asked its staff to work for free as part of the company’s battle for “survival” in
The appeal to its British-based employees is to volunteer for between a week and a month in unpaid leave or unpaid work.
Chief executive Willie Walsh, who along with chief financial officer Keith Williams has promised to work for nothing in July, said the idea was part of BA’s across-the-board cost-cutting measures.
“Many of you from across the airline are stepping up to help the company,” Walsh said.
Washington, June 17: British Airways, which registered a record annual loss in May, is asking its staff to work for nothing for up to one month in order to reduce costs.
The request was made in a letter to staff through the British Airways News.
BA Chief Executive Willie Walsh, who himself has promised to work for nothing in July, said the proposal was part of measures to reduce the company’s operating expenses.
“I am looking for every single part of the company to take part in some way in this cash-effective way of helping the company’s survival. It really counts,” Walsh said.
Kathmandu, June 17: Despite efforts by the Nepal government and rights organisations to prevent human trafficking, India still remains the biggest foreign destination for victims, with an estimated 10,000-15,000 Nepali women and girls being sold there annually.
The assessment is part of the 8th annual Trafficking in Persons Report released by the US Department of State in Washington late Tuesday.
The number could be higher in the absence of reliable statistics. NGOs working on trafficking issues have reported an increase in both transnational and domestic trafficking.
New Delhi, June 16: Union Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said on Monday that “the impasse has been broken” over the World Trade Organisation’s long-running Doha round of world trade talks.
While Sharma did not give a timeline for the talks to conclude, he said both the United States and India had emerged from elections with new governments ready to reach an agreement.
Yekaterinburg, Russia, June 16: Leaders from emerging giants Brazil, Russia, India and China are set to meet for the first summit of their informal BRIC grouping in a show of unity in the face of a sharp global slowdown.
The idea for the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) grouping was spawned after research by a US investment bank suggested the four economies were developing at such pace they could be amongst the world’s strongest by 2050.
Hyderabad, June 16: With their internet connections snapped, their office access cards to be taken away and all entitlements and reimbursement of expenses discontinued, Satyam employees who have been moved to the virtual pool are now considering moving the court to challenge the company’s decision to force a huge chunk of the workforce to sit at home.
Employees who spoke to this newspaper said that some of them had already approached lawyers to consider their legal options that they could use against the firm.