As the investment ground breaks into a financial earthquake around us, the one question retail investors are asking is: what should I do now? Should I sell and run or is this an opportunity to buy? The short answer: long term investors need not panic, short term investors need not buy. With a bankruptcy (Lehman Brothers), a takeover (Merrill Lynch) and an unfolding (AIG) at the global level sending stocks across the world crashing, could it be different for India? "There is no uncertainty regarding Lehman and Merrill Lynch now," said Sudip Bandyopadhyay, chief executive officer, Reliance Money.
"But if uncertainty around AIG is not resolved then there might be more problems in the short term." Rajiv Anand, chief investment officer, IDFC Mutual Fund echoes this short term sentiment.
"Markets are going to be difficult for sometime as we see large entities in America unfolding, which in-turn will induce investors to get more risk averse." With this sort of 800-plus point intra-day volatility becoming a once-a-month phenomenon, the short term risk around equities has multiplied.
And so have opportunities for those willing and able to hold on to investments for two years or more. "There are a number of blue chip companies that are currently available at their book values or break up value and thus it calls for a good entry for the long term," said Bandyopadhyay.
At a market valuation level, the Sensex is currently trading at a price to earnings multiple of 16.8 and a whole lot of stocks are available at low valuations. This is close to its June 2006 level.
The strategy for investors should be to enter with caution and focus on blue chip stocks with large market capitalisations. "Investors should look to enter quality stocks in a disciplined manner with an investment horizon of at least two to three years," said Anand.
"With that horizon, one can expect good returns." Investors might get tempted to enter smaller stocks.
"But at a time when big blue chip companies are available at attractive valuation there is no point picking up mid caps," said Hitesh Agarwal, head of research, Angel Broking.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
What should investors do now? - Suggestions
Tips On How To Select A Gift For A Girl
One of the most daunting tasks for males is when they have to select a gift for a girl. Sometimes, there are so many options that the person is spoilt for choice as to the what type of gift they can select. This article explores several ways on how you find the best way to select an ideal gift for your girl friend or a female friend.
One of the best ways to select a gift for your girl is to seek the advise of your female friends. This is usually the most common and most popular method that many people use. Often the advise of other female friends can help you make a good informed decision. Moreover, it is always best to have a female perspective when buying a gift for a female. For example, when buying something to do with jewellery it is always best to seek the advise of a female who can recommend best fashion items.
Another way to select a best gift is to use the Internet and look for review websites. For example, if you are aware of a certain perfume that you wish to buy for someone then you can do a bit of research on the perfume and see what other people are saying about the product. If it is worth buying you can buy it but if you feel there are a lot of negative perceptions on the product then you can reconsider your decision.
Finally, the best way to select a gift for a female friend is to talk to her yourself. Pick up small hints. Ask her what's her favourite brand and what she likes to wear to special occasions. This can greatly reduce the risk of her not liking your gift if you can seek her own opinion.
For an excellent detailed guide on how you can impress a girl go to
Tips On How To Get A Girl give you her number in just 10 minutes
Many guys who want to get to know a girl often find it hard to get her cell phone number if they lack confidence. There are in fact several ways that you can use to have a girl give you her number in just 10 minutes. This article will explore three 3 different ways of having a girl give you her number in a short space of time without you having to beg.
One of the best ways of having a girl give you her number is make an excuse up. For example, you can say something like I” am going to be going away soon and would love to catch up with you again, is it alright if I can give you a call”? This is inviting the girl to say yes because it is a closed question and most likely she would say yes if you use the correct tone of voice and language. Make sure you are smiling and give her eye contact. Avoid looking away as girls can sometimes feel insecure about things like this.
Secondly, one of the best ways to get a girls number is to just directly ask her if you can have her number. Many girls would question you or might hesitate so this is where you have to play it cool and act as though she will not able to speak to you if she does not give her number. Make it out as though you are really busy with work and you are going to make time for her. Girls like a guy who plays “hard to get”.
And finally, the best way to get a girls number is to ask her to “miss call you” as you want to show her your latest ringtone song that you like. This will bring a bit of humor to this but it would not be a problem provided you get her trust.
For an excellent guide on how to get a girls number and how to win her heart go to
First Tips To Talk To A Girl On The Phone
One of the main fears many guys have is how to talk to a girl on the phone without being nervous. There are several ways to do this without being nervous and generally if you follow these tips correctly you will not have any trouble when talking to any female or girl on the phone. This article explores several tips you can use when talking to a girl on the phone.
If you are going to talk to a girl for the first time make sure you are confident. The introduction part is always important so make sure you either introduce yourself again if you have not done so or ask her how she is. If you ask a girl how she is it makes her feel much confident and gives her an opportunity to answer your question without hesitating. Once you have introduced yourself and asked her basic questions you should consider asking her what she does and whether she enjoys what she is doing. Always be sympathetic towards her. For example, if she says something like “I'm really tired and stressed because of work” make sure you can offer her some form of support by saying “Don't worry, I hope everything works out”.
Another way to talk to a girl on the phone is to make her laugh. Girls love a guy who makes them laugh. This is because it makes them feel comfortable and gives them a chance to feel comfortable in talking to you. If you have had a bad tiring day then usually the girl can pick this up and she get the impression she is “boring you”. So make sure you feel confident and your attention span is 100% focused on her. Moreover, if you give her attention she is most likely to return the favour.
Finally, the best way to talk to a girl on the phone is to ask her lots of open questions. For example, asking her questions such as “what are your plans for the weekend” or “are you seeing someone right now?” will help the conversation flow smoothly. Make sure you answer her questions truthfully and avoid lying to her as girls can easily pick this up.
For an excellent guide on how to talk to girls you can go to
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Two IIM-C Lehman Brothers
Two IIM-C students of the Class of 2009, who had interned with Lehman Brothers in summer, got their pre-placement offers just 15-20 days ago. "We interned at the London office. Work was as usual... no one had any idea that trade was declining," said one of the interns.
Investment bankers including Merrill Lynch and the now-collapsed Lehman Brothers have been big recruiters on the IIM-C campus. For example, last year, 34% of a batch of 291 got jobs in the investment banking and financial services sector.
Even for summer placements, last year, firms such as Merrill Lynch hired 18 students, Morgan Stanley (11), JP Morgan Chase (13) and HSBC Global Investment Banking Division (6). "Both Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers are two big players as far as placements are concerned," admitted IIM-C chief administrative officer Dinesh Varma. "They are good paymasters too. Probably, this year we will miss them. There's bound to be some impact but nothing that we cannot overcome," he added.
For the interns, there has been no official communication yet, but they know they will have to put in their names for the permanent placement programme in March next year. "We put in 12-13 hours a day at the London office and worked on hot sectors like commodities and equity sales. Everyone there was very interested in India," the intern recalled.
Last year, salaries for international jobs crossed the Rs 1 crore mark and the highest domestic salary, including bonuses, was in the range of Rs 65-70 lakh per annum, offered by a leading international investment bank. "There were a total of 32 offers made to students by Slot Zero Investment banks," said Rahul Ajmani, placement coordinator at IIM-C. Some of the top notch firms which hired students from the batch of 2008 include Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Barclays Capital, Lehman Brothers, UBS, JP Morgan Chase and ING amongst others.
-By Sudipta Datta
Nikkei increases 2.1% on relief over Fed's AIG Rescue
TOKYO: The Nikkei share average rose 2.1 percent on Wednesday, rebounding from a steep fall the previous day as investors took heart from the news that troubled U.S. insurer American International Group would avoid the same fate as Lehman Brothers.
Financial shares such as top lender Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group rose on easing concern about AIG. The U.S. Federal Reserve said it would provide an $85 billion bridge loan to AIG and take nearly 80 percent in the company in a dramatic about-face as victims of the financial crisis kept piling up.
The benchmark Nikkei average ended the morning up 241.06 points at 11,850.78. The broader Topix gained 1.3 percent to 1,131.97.
Rising dollar likely to make your cell dearer
NEW DELHI: If you are planning to buy a new mobile phone, brace up to pay more. A 15% rise in the dollar against the rupee has hit cellphone makers badly.
All major cellphone makers are evaluating a 7-10% price increase if the dollar appreciates further. About 100-million cellphones are likely to be sold this year compared to about 70 million last year.
The rupee hit a two-year low at Rs 46.60 against the dollar on Tuesday, forcing cellphone makers into meetings. “We are evaluating the situation. The appreciation in the dollar against the rupee has made all the components costly.
The industry will have to take a decision on price revision upwards it if it goes towards Rs 50 against the dollar,” says Samsung Mobile country head Sunil Dutt.
A price increase may hurt the sales of top-end models most as handset makers may not increase prices of low-end models too much, the latter being a price-sensitive market. Laptop vendors, on the other hand, may not follow up with a price hike as they revised prices upwards by 10-13% in May this year, owing to dollar appreciation.
Cellphone business, however, works on thin margins and companies are waiting for each other to take the first step.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Rupee Hits 2-year Lows as Stocks Fall Weighs
MUMBAI: The rupee fell past 46 per dollar for the first time in two years on Monday, knocked down by losses in stocks on worries about global financial sector problems and heavy dollar demand from importers. Dealers said the central bank was seen intervening in the market, selling dollars through state-run banks to halt the rupee's sharp fall, but it did not provide much respite as the quantum of intervention was not too large.
The partially convertible rupee ended at 46.05/06 per dollar, off a low of 46.08, its weakest since Sept. 20, 2006. It was 0.65 percent weaker than Friday's close of 45.75/76. "The rupee fell tracking the share market. But there is a general bearishness among market participants as there are no dollar inflows at the moment and they cannot see, when and how that will improve," a senior dealer with a private bank said. One-month offshore non-deliverable forward contracts were quoting at 46.32/42, 0.6 percent weaker than the onshore spot rate, indicating a bearish near-term outlook.
Indian shares fell 3.35 percent on Monday to their lowest close in two months as jittery investors braced for more foreign withdrawals after Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection.
Foreign funds have sold a net $8.2 billion of shares this year, removing a crucial support for the rupee, which has fallen 14.4 percent against the dollar this year. Last year record net foreign inflows of $17.4 billion into stocks had helped the rupee rise more than 12 percent.
Analysts expect the rupee to remain under pressure as capital inflows have reduced substantially, and higher dollar demand from oil companies and importers is also weighing. Oil, India's biggest import fell to seven-month lows below $95 per barrel on Monday, more than $50 below July's record high. Lower oil prices are attracting refiners, who are seeking dollars to pay for their shipments, dealers said.
Gold Seen Higher as Financial Turmoil Rages
MUMBAI: Gold prices are likely to rise this week as nervousness in the US financial markets after Lehman Brothers' filing for bankruptcy is likely to spark more safe-haven buying in the yellow metal, analysts said.
Analysts said the commodity, which last week touched a 11-month low, may remain firm despite softer crude oil as the magnitude of the economic worries outweighed oil.
"Bargain hunting, financial market turmoil and the dollar's weakness will support gold," said T Gnanasekar, director of Commtrendz Research. "There are clear indications that the crisis is here to stay for long."
Gold generally moves in tandem with crude oil as the latter signals inflation, while the metal negates it. But the metal has an inverse relation with the dollar as the two compete for funds.
The dollar was down 2.6 per cent against the yen - the biggest one day percentage fall since early 2002. The US Federal Open Market Committee's statement in its interest rate setting meeting on Tuesday would be watched for gold's next direction though a cut is not expected, analysts said.
"Fed's decision and the statements thereafter would be the key to the immediate trend in bullion," said Pradeep Unni, senior research analyst at Richcomm Global Services DMCC.
US Financial Worries Weigh on Equities
MUMBAI: Investor sentiment was marred Monday on worries about the health of the US financial sector after Lehman Brothers became the latest casualty to the mortgage crisis fallout, Merrill agreed to be taken over by Bank of America for $50 billion and troubled insurer American International Group asked the Fed for a lifeline.
With Lehman and Merrill Lynch out of the picture, three of the top five US investment banks have effectively departed the scene in less than six months. Bear Stearns was acquired in a fire sale by JPMorgan in March.
"We are witnessing a turning point in the modern history of the financial system, as three major brokers have now disappeared from the scene. The coming days and weeks will be crucial to the global economic outlook," said Anita Gandhi, head-institutional business at Arihant Capital.
Stock markets in Australia, Singapore and Taiwan fell by around 2 to 4 percent, with shares of many banks suffering bigger losses. Holidays in most major Asian markets, including Tokyo and Hong Kong, kept volumes thin.
The gloom across global markets took its toll on Indian bourses as well, which plunged over 6 per cent intra-day as investors braced for more FII outflows. However, the market recovered lost ground towards the fag end of the session on the back of short covering in battered index heavyweights.
Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex settled at 13,531.27, down 469.54 points or 3.35 per cent, recovering from the day's low of 13,150.81. The index opened at 13,666.28.
National Stock Exchange's Nifty ended 3.68 per cent or 155.55 points at 4072.90. The index fell to a low of 3955.40 earlier in the day.
"The mood is pessimistic than ever before; even insurance companies that generally come to support the market at times of distress, are not on the buy side. Lehman's exposure in heavyweights like DLF and Unitech sent the BSE Realty Index on a downward spiral," Gandhi added.
The selling spree sent the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices down 4.49 per cent and 4.93 per cent respectively.
After remaining in the negative terrain for most of the day, Maruti Suzuki (2.8%), HDFC (1.16%), and ACC (0.61%) managed to eke out decent gains.
Reliance Infrastructure (-9.72%), Satyam Computer (-9.45%), Ranbaxy Laboratories (-7.6%), DLF (-7.54%) and ONGC (-6 .01%) were under pressure.
While the fate of the US financial system loomed in investors' minds around the world, initial reports that Hurricane Ike had not severely damaged infrastructure in Texas knocked benchmark oil prices below $100 a barrel. Oil tumbled 6 per cent to $94.83 although traders were cautious as they awaited status reports on more Texas refineries.
The financial turmoil halted US dollar's rise against other currencies, however, there was no respite for the Indian rupee. The Indian currency was down 46.04/05, down 32 paise against the US dollar.
Financial Woes Rattle - Investor Confidence Call Buying at 4000 Holds Nifty
MUMBAI: Markets tumbled to their lowest levels in two months after Lehman .Brothers filed for bankruptcy. However, markets came off from day's low as value buying emerged at lower levels.
National Stock Exchange's 50-share Nifty closed the day 3.68 per cent lower at 4072. Nifty recovered nearby 100 points from the lows of 3955, thanks to call buying and put writing at 4000 level. The futures provisionally ended at a premium of 21 points.
The September futures price declined 3.6 per cent while open interest added 18 lakh shares. Cost of carry was positive. Given the order book positions, players have squared off shorts and have gone long at lower levels.
Significant amount of call buying was observed from 4000 to 4500 levels. On the other hand, put writing was observed at 4000, 3900 and 3800 levels. However, put buying was seen at 4200 levels. Hence, until Nifty recovers and stays above 4200, bears have an open ground to hammer markets.
All sectoral indices were trailing in the negative. Realty, IT, metal and power were the worst hit.
In stock futures, Reliance Infrastructure plunged 9.13 per cent while open interest added 5.3 lakh shares. Satyam Computers plummeted 9.2 per cent, Ranbaxy fell 5.11 per cent and open interest shed 3.57 lakh shares.
Unitech dropped 7.41 per cent and Tata Communications fell 7.09 per cent. Reliance Capital nose-dived 10.18 per cent, DLF declined 7.19 per cent and Renuka Sugar slumped 7 per cent.
Reliance Industries fell 2.21 per cent, Larsen & Toubro skid 3.92 per cent and Tata Steel slid 4.7 per cent. Reliance Natural plunged 6.93 per cent, BHEL shed 4.11 per cent and Reliance Petro reduced 4.9 per cent.
Stocks in Europe and Asia tumbled Monday and futures on Wall Street and the dollar slid as the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the takeover of Merrill Lynch battered investor confidence.
Gold Spurts - Rs.195/Ten Gram on Higher Global Cues
MUMBAI: Gold prices spurted by Rs 195 per ten grams to end at Rs 11,610 on the bullion market here today on fresh demand from stockists in view of festival season on the back of positive global cues and a weak trend in equity market.
Gold prices climbed more than two per cent in London after Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection, which spurred buying of gold as a safe haven from risk and knocking the dollar to a two-month low against the Yen.
However, the precious metals retreated from highs as oil prices slipped and selling of gold held by exchange-traded funds dented investor confidence.
Spot gold was quoted at USD 772.90/774.10 an ounce, up by USD 9.45 from Friday's nominal close in New York, but off session high of USD 784.90.
Gold and silver prices in Singapore jumped more than two per cent, with bullion gaining for a second day as Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy and anxiety over the stability of US financial markets spurred a rush toward safety.
Gold rose two per cent or USD 14.85 an ounce to USD 778.30 from Friday's close in New York.
Weak equity market also boosted gold prices, as some of the investors shifted their funds in gold as a safe-haven investment, a dealer said.
In the domestic market, standard gold (99.5 purity) rose by Rs 195 per ten grams to end at Rs 11,610 from Rs 11,415 and pure gold (99.9 purity) also shot up to Rs 11,680 from Rs 11,480.
However, silver ready (.999 fineness) dropped by Rs 75 per kilo to Rs 19,045 from Rs 19,120.
Birla Sun Life - Launches Commodity-Focussed Fund
MUMBAI: Birla Sun Life Asset Management Company (BSLAMC) has decided to tap investors with its maiden commodity-centric fund, Birla Sun Life Commodity Equities Fund (BSLCEF), from September 15, a top company official said.
"The investment objective of BSLAMC's open-ended commodity equities fund is to offer investors long-term capital growth by investing in securities of domestic and overseas commodity companies, i.e. companies engaged in or focussing on the specified commodity business and overseas mutual fund schemes that have similar investment objectives," BSLAMC CEO Anil Kumar told reporters here today.
"We see commodities as essential and not an alternate investment class. Given that supply-side constraints and explosive demand are creating upward pressure on commodity prices, global commodity companies and commodity-focussed mutual funds are currently generating above par returns. We felt this is an opportune time to launch the BSLCEF to offer investors an avenue to diversify their portfolio," Kumar said.
Investors can enjoy the benefits of diversification by investing in Global Precious Metals Plan (benchmarked against Dow Jones Precious Metals Index), Global Agri Plan (benchmarked against S&P Global Agribusiness Index), and Global Multi Commodity Plan (benchmarked against MSCI World Index), he said.
India to import 300 tonnes silver in Sept
NEW DELHI: India will import around 300 tonnes of silver in September by ocean freight to meet heavy demand after a drop in prices, after buying just 56 tonnes in the seven months to July-end, a trade body said on Monday.
"By the month-end we are getting some 15 containers of silver, which is equal to 300 tonnes. After that, demand will probably slow down a bit," Suresh Hundia, president of the Bombay Bullion Association, said.
Silver demand has surged on lower prices and as Indians prepare to mark a series of religious festivals.
International silver prices were at $10.93 an ounce on Monday, down from about $19.45 on July 13, due to a fall in crude prices and dollar volatility.
Multi-Purpose Pipeline Project
DUBAI: India has expressed keen interest in the over USD 11 billion Med Stream project, a multi-purpose offshore pipeline venture which can transport crude oil at cheaper rates to the country from Turkey.
Officials from India, Turkey and Israel met for the first time on Saturday in the Turkish capital Ankara discussing technical issues of the Med Stream pipeline project.
Indian state oil company IOC's Director B M Bansal, Undersecretary of Turkish Energy Ministry Selahattin Cimen and Director General of the Israeli Ministry of National Infrastructure Hezi Kugler had attended the meeting, Kuwait's news agency KUNA reported.
The project to connect Turkey and Israel via the Mediterranean Sea is planned to transport oil, natural gas, water, electricity and fiber optic cables.
Kugler, speaking to reporters after the meeting, said the project aimed at building a multi-purpose undersea pipeline linking, in its first phase, Turkey with Israel to transfer oil, natural gas, fresh water, electricity cables and fibre optics cables.
The Indian side, he said, showed interest in this project specially with regards to the imports of crude oil instead of shipping it by tankers.
Initial studies estimated the cost at eight billion euros, said Kugler. Technical studies should begin by end of this year and establishment of the pipeline might begin by the end of next year or in 2010.
Israel believes this project was an economic and strategic option," which would secure 90 per cent of the Jewish state's crude oil needs, as well as reduce the cost of shipping by oil tankers, he said.
Rupee Ends at 45.95/96
The rupee ended at 45.95/96 per dollar, from the previous close of 45.75/76, as losses in the local share market and dollar demand from importers weighed.
Read more!Sunday, September 14, 2008
6th Pay Commission: Government clears doubt on tax on pay arrears
NEW DELHI: The lack of clarity over taxation of arrears that government employees will receive following the implementation of the 6th Pay Commission recommendations has finally cleared. The tax on first installment will be deducted in the current fiscal and that on the second installment will be deducted next year when they receive the actual payment.
Confusion had arisen about the tax treatment of the pay arrears that central government employees are about to get as part of their latest wage revision. According to finance ministry sources, only the first installment of the arrears would be taxed this fiscal. The taxation, they would be akin to the tax treatment in 1997 when the fifth pay commission recommendation was implemented wherein the tax was deducted at the time of payment.
If the tax is deducted, employees who do not fall in the slab of 30% rate of income tax, would have to bear a surcharge, as their total income, including both installments would have been higher. As per the current income tax slab, income over Rs 2,50,000 attracts a tax rate of 30% and income above Rs 10,00,000 attracts a rate of 30% as also 10% surcharge.
The government had last month announced an average increase of 21% in the wages of its employees. It had decided to pay 40% arrears of their increased salaries this year and the rest next year to reduce the burden on the exchequer.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
HDFC MF plans to launch real estate mutual fund soon
MUMBAI: HDFC Mutual Fund is planning to launch a real estate mutual fund soon, a top company official said.
"We plan to launch our real estate mutual fund within the next few months," HDFC Mutual Fund's Managing Director Milind Barwe told reporters on the sidelines of a real estate conference here on Wednesday.
Realty MFs would be different from the conventional schemes and the money collected would be invested in real estate projects and mortgage-backed securities. Valuation of the assets held by the fund would be done by a third-party valuer.
Home Loan Rates may have peaked: Parekh
MUMBAI : Home loan rates may have peaked, according to Deepak Parekh, chairman, HDFC, the largest housing finance company in the country. Interest rates are linked to inflation and there have been signs that inflation is moderating, said Mr Parekh.
“Interest rates are linked to inflation. If inflation is controlled, interest rates can also be contained. In the past two weeks, we have seen from the data coming out that inflation has marginally tapered off. If the trend continues, it would mean that the peak has come already.
I think, with oil and commodity prices tapering off and food prices stagnating, we have peaked already,” said Mr Parekh. However, he added that there were some who believed that there would be one more round of interest-rate hikes.
Delivering the keynote address at the Ficci summit on real estate on Wednesday, Mr Parekh said that slowdown in the real estate market — a long overdue adjustment — was needed, and this, to some extent, has already happened. He pointed out that the real estate industry was still not out of the woods. “I do foresee some more pain in the real estate market in India,” said Mr Parekh.
Mr Parekh also had a suggestion to industry for avoiding situations like the one witnessed in Singur. According to Mr Parekh, the main problem in such cases is that land acquisition is done at fair value, but subsequently when project plans are announced, the value of that land escalates and then the original sellers feel cheated or disgruntled with their compensation.
“It is difficult to find outright solutions, but experience shows that the need of the hour is transparency in such land dealings, clearer land titles and making those losing their land stakeholders in the project.
Offering them equity in the project will give them long-term economic benefits, rather than leaving them with the fear of being displaced and then subsequently becoming the grist for someone else’s battle,” said Mr Parekh.
The doyen of the country’s housing finance industry was also critical of the move to extend higher floor-space index (FSI) for redevelopment projects in South Mumbai. Last week, the Supreme Court allowed the Maharashtra government to demolish pre-1940 buildings and replace them with new towers.
The state government has been allowed to grant builders increased development rights as an incentive for redevelopment. According to Mr Parekh, higher FSI will result in building within five feet of one another. “Where is the open space? Where is the water? and how will the sewage system work?” said Mr Parekh.
He pointed out that some of the old structures had hundreds of dwelling units. And for rehousing, there was not enough space for redevelopment after everyone is rehoused.
Nokia, Ericsson, 4 others bid for $9 B BSNL tender
NEW DELHI: In what is the world’s largest telecom equipment tender, six international telecom network majors—Ericsson, Nokia Siemens, Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei, ZTE and Nortel Networks—have submitted bids to provide 93 mn GSM lines to state-owned telco BSNL.
“Only Motorola is not there, all other major vendors in the world are there,” BSNL CMD Kuldeep Goyal told the media after the bids were submitted.
When asked if Motorola’s disqualification from BSNL’s previous tender on technical grounds was the reason behind its decision not to bid, a BSNL official said, “we continue to have cordial relations with Motorola, although their actions (of delaying the earlier tender by going to courts) have hurt us (BSNL) a lot”.
When asked if the contract would be awarded at less than $100 per line, Mr Goyal said: “Yes, that’s what we think.”
Last year, BSNL had awarded a contract for 13 mn lines to Ericsson for about $91 a line. Mr Goyal did not comment when asked if the present contract for 93 mn lines would be awarded at a lower price. At $90 per line, the deal works out to about $8.4 bn.
BSNL executives however refused to divulge the prices quoted by the different vendors. BSNL Director, Finance, S D Saxena, said it is very difficult to put the value to the deal at this stage as the PSU had not yet opened the financial bids.
Mr Goyal said BSNL would take several days to evaluate the bids on technical parameters. “Only those companies whose bids pass the technical evaluation will be considered in the next round where their prices will be compared,” he said.
About 10 stand-alone tower firms have also submitted bids for setting up towers. BSNL will now evaluate the cost benefit ratio of splitting the contract amongst international network majors and independent tower companies.
The independent tower firms include Esstel, GTL, Tecmet, KEC International, Nextra, Teracom, TVS, Acme Telepower, Esstel, Aster and Susana Towers, BSNL executives said. The contract also involves IT solutions and the bids for these will be opened on September 30, they added.
BSNL executives also added that the 93 mn lines order would be spread over a three-year period. ‘We hope to place orders for about 33 mn lines for the first phase with the successful bidders by the year-end, or by early next year. We are hopeful that we can take the deliveries by mid-2009,” Mr Goyal said.
The BSNL contract is split into three parts of 25 million each for the North, South and West Zones and 18 mn for the East Zone. The tender conditions also stipulate that one company cannot be awarded more than two zones — this implies that the maximum order than an equipment major can bag is for 50 mn lines. “Two of the six bidders have applied for all the four zones. In each zone, we have at least four bidders,” Mr Goyal said.
Unlike its earlier tenders, BSNL has also allowed those telecom vendors who do not have manufacturing facility in India to participate. This made Chinese network major Huawei which currently has only a research and development facility in Bangalore eligible to bid for the BSNL contract.
Over the last 18 months, BSNL has fallen behind private telcos as its expansion plans have been hampered by massive capacity crunch
Sensex loses 238 pts on rupee jolt, Lehman loss
MUMBAI: Indian equities continued their slide on Wednesday at a faster rate, as bad news poured in from world markets. European stocks weakened after the European Commission expressed doubts over the region’s economic growth and a possibility of further doom in the banking sector. Leading US investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings reported a third quarter net loss of $3.9 billion — the biggest in its 158-year history. It now plans to sell a majority stake in its asset-management unit, spin off commercial real-estate holdings and cut dividend in an effort to shore up capital.
Back home, the rupee hit a 2-year low, breaching the psychological 45-mark to the dollar in the process, spelling further bad news for the economy as a whole.
Metal and oil & gas stocks were the worst performers, as the 30-share Sensex fell 238.15 points on Wednesday to close at 14,662.61. All the BSE sectoral indices ended in the negative with the metal index plunging over 5%. Analysts opine that the commodity cycle is in a downturn phase and consequently the companies are likely to face a pressure on earnings. The S&P CNX Nifty slipped 68.45 points to close at 4400.25. The BSE mid and small-cap lost over 60 points each to close at 5,708.93 and 6,903.42, respectively.
The slide in the rupee, however, failed to energise IT shares, with the BSE IT index closing marginally below its previous close. Dealers say worsening financial conditions in the US would impact the revenue of IT companies, hurting their growth. “The balance of payments dynamics and US dollar strength will cause the rupee to weaken. We expect the rupee to weaken against the dollar to 46-47 by December 2008, but it will likely pull back to 45 by March 2009,” said Macquarie Research in a note to its clients. “Be prepared for more aggressive intervention by RBI in the forex market. Also, the government is likely to ease restrictions on capital inflows in order to check the pace of the rupee’s depreciation,” the noted added.
On the global front, OPEC in Vienna decided to reduce supplies by 500,000 barrels a day. Consequently, crude oil for October rose as much as $1.56 to $104.82 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX). The last trading price at the exchange was $101.67 a barrel on Wednesday. “Domestic market has factored in the receding oil prices. If they fall below $90 a barrel, there could be a rally in the indices, but it won’t be a sustained one. In the near term, the range would continue to be between 4,400 and 4,700,” said India Infoline head-research Amar Ambani.
Market breadth continued to be weak with retreating stocks outnumbering gainers nearly two for one. Total turnover in markets was close to Rs 70,000 crore, a rise of Rs 10,000 crore over the previous close. However, the improvement in volumes is of little cheer as foreign funds continue to dump stocks. As per provisional data, they net sold Rs 1,037 crore shares on Wednesday. Domestic institutions cushioned the sales to some extent, with net purchases of Rs 492 crore.
Markets across the Asia-Pacific ended on a mixed note. China’s Shanghai Composite index advanced 0.2% and South Korea’s KOSPI Composite index gained 0.7%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 index ended down 0.4% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index lost 2.4%.
Suntory may pick 15% stake in Mallya's United Spirits
BANGALORE: Japanese spirits giant Suntory is believed to be interested in acquiring a 10-15% stake in Vijay Mallya’s United Spirits (USL) for about $600 million. USL is already in preliminary talks with multinational drinks giants Diageo, Pernod Ricard and Bacardi for a stake sale.
A potential sale could value USL, the world’s third largest spirits marketer by volume, at around $6 billion. A top USL source confirmed Suntory’s interest “for a strategic alignment,” adding that details of Suntory’s interest are still being gathered. In November last, ET had first reported on Mr Mallya’s move to offload shares in the flagship spirits company.
“There are several interested players who know it is a one-time chance to get their distribution act right in India. And I will be looking at unlocking maximum shareholder value,” Mr Mallya told ET. The USL stock closed at Rs 1,313 on Wednesday, valuing a 15% stake at around $430 million.
A deal, if it goes through, could be the biggest overseas venture for the 110-year old Suntory, arguably the most storied alcoholic beverage maker in Asia. A deal with USL will give it access to a strong Indian distribution network. USL, which caters to over 55% share of domestic spirits consumption, is expected to kick off a formal process to induct a strategic investor soon.
Mr Mallya is looking at unlocking value from 13.7 million treasury stock — banked in a trust — that came out of the overlapping capital from the merger of group companies. The treasury stock accounts for 14-15% of the company’s share capital, and placing these with a strategic investor will not dilute the promoter stake, which currently stands at 37%.
Diageo and Pernod Ricard are already engaged in discussions with Mr Mallya, but there have been concerns about “the lack of a clear horizon” following the deal. It is believed that potential suitors are awaiting clarity on management rights, if any, which USL is willing to offer.
Further, unlike the other three suitors, Suntory has no presence in the highly regulated Indian spirits market. In 2001, Mr Mallya had inducted Scottish & Newcastle as a strategic investor in his beer business at Rs 575 per share, against the prevailing stock price of Rs 130-140, industry analysts pointed out.
Separately, while talking to media in Bangalore on Wednesday, Mr Mallya said he was indeed in discussions with global majors, confirming an earlier ET report.
Diageo was widely seen as a front-runner to pick up the stake, but it subsequently emerged that USL has received expressions of interest from Pernod Ricard and Bacardi as well. While no investment bank has been mandated for the unfolding strategic divestment, at least three banks are seen vying to take the process formal.
Rupee loses ground, 1$ --> Rs.45 : Forex
NEW DELHI: Rupee depreciated sharply against dollar on Wednesday as it breached the Rs 45 a dollar level to close at 45.12 against previous close of Rs 44.84 on Tuesday. Softening of crude prices has boosted the perception regarding US economy, which has pushed up value of dollar against most of the currencies in the world. Rupee also suffered because of that and it touched the lowest level in the last 22 months on Wednesday. While exporters, who stand to gain, rejoiced the fall, importers ran for cover. The worst hit will be the oil marketing companies, which import crude. As they are selling at substantially lower price than the import cost, depreciation of rupee will make the cost of imported crude higher and increase their deficit. While importers rushed to buy dollar, expecting it to appreciate further in the short-term, exporters withdrew from the market. This widened the gap in the demand and supply. A senior banker said unless the Reserve Bank Of India intervenes with dollar supply, fall of rupee will continue. The depreciation will also affect the government's effort to contain inflation. As prices of commodities are fixed on the basis of landed imported value in the rupee term, the depreciation of rupee will push prices up. The good news is that prices of commodities like steel and copper are falling in the international market. But, the depreciation in rupee against dollar will moderate the impact of fall in the global prices in the domestic market. A senior banker said that so far, RBI is not intervening to arrest the fall in rupee as this will improve India's export competitiveness. But, he said the central bank would not allow the currency to fall below the current level. Therefore, he added that RBI is likely to intervene in the market by increasing the supply of dollar to arrest the fall in rupee against dollar. As dollar appreciated against most of the currencies, the gold price in the international market fell sharply. On Wednesday, the yellow metal traded at $763.20 per ounce - the lowest level since October 25, 2007. It fell by over Rs 200 per 10 gram in the Indian market. On Multi Commodity Exchange, gold closed at Rs 11,441 per 10 gram. The silver price also fall sharply to close at Rs 18,550 per kg. |
Mittal holds Arcelor assembly in Delhi
It couldn’t be a bigger homecoming parade than this: top executives of the world’s largest steel maker, ArcelorMittal, have gathered in the homeland of the world’s richest Indian for their annual leadership summit.
Yes, India is obviously special for ArcelorMittal chairman Laxmi Niwas Mittal, for not only has he decided to locate his first-ever greenfield projects in India, he’s brought his top management — some 700 senior managers drawn from 60 nationalities — to experience the country first hand.
A far cry from their last venue, cine-friendly Cannes, this UM (dare we call it United Mittal?) General Assembly in India’s newly n-powered capital, was a high-voltage event. Security was tight at the conference hall of the Taj Palace hotel, only select media were allowed inside to witness the company powwows, and the only ‘outsider’ to participate in the 4-day jamboree was also as big as it gets: finance minister P Chidambaram. The focus was to discuss future corporate strategies and provide a platform to share best practices.
Mr Mittal soon struck an upbeat note: “India is high on ArcelorMittal’s growth plans. We remain committed to our projects in Orissa and Jharkhand, our first greenfield projects globally. There is progress on both projects and we hope to begin some construction work by first half of the next year and start producing steel by second half of 2012.”
And Mr Mittal’s optimism was palpable despite the fact that his projects in India were facing up to 50% cost overruns — which could put the final figure at $30 billion — due to delays in mining and other approvals.
“Though there have been some delays, we would complete the first phase of the 12-million tonne steel projects each in the two states, within 36 months of getting all approvals,” he asserted. “This would be a big improvement over project development activities in the country where SAIL’s Bokaro and Bhilai plants took almost 12 years to complete.”
Not even the turmoil in Singur could cast a shadow on Mr Mittal’s view about India’s potential to attract overseas investment. “One example (Singur) cannot be example for the whole country. One can face this kind of problem in any country. Of course, the event provides us with something to learn. But it cannot deter us from our investments and there is no question of revisiting our proposal for India,” he declared, adding as a pointed aside that if India could go ahead with 123 Agreement without Left support, solving the Singur impasse would not be difficult.
Company president and CFO Aditya Mittal shared his father’s exuberance over the projects and also reminded the company’s India-based managers about the importance of the meet: “You will get to see all the members of company’s group management board on one table for the first time in the country!” For a company that is spread around the world, such an annual feat is a mammoth task, but a necessary one if the management has to work as a coordinated team.
The group management board comprises Michel Wurth, Gonzalo Urquijo, Davinder Chugh, Christophe Cornier, Sudhir Maheshwari, Aditya Mittal and, of course, LN Mittal.
“We have about 3,20,000 employees in the group and events like this help bring together thoughts and processes that need to be shared by them. When we end this 4-day summit on Friday, the company would have gained substantially,” a company official beamed.
Besides getting to understand what makes the top management at ArcelorMittal tick, the executives also got a chance to interact with finance minister P Chidambaram, who is understood to have shared his vision of India as an attractive investment destination. But besides this big-ticket guest, the rest of the conference is being devoted to getting down to the brass tacks of running a steel conglomerate — sessions on productivity management, emerging technologies, HR practices, corporate social responsibility, labour, health and safety-related issues and more.
Awards for employees showing exemplary performance at work in their respective divisions were also on the cards, but the best has been saved for the last day — getting up close and personal with the host country. “Over 80% of the executives at the summit are here for the first time. India is a big country and I would like to see some glimpses of this beautiful country,” said an official who also deals with the company’s China operations.
ArcelorMittal will invest about $50 billion till 2012 to increase its global steel capacity to 130 mt from present 110 mt and increase iron ore production from 45 mt to 110 mt over the next four years. In India, the company intends to spend over $20 billion for two 12-mt steel plants in Orissa and Jharkhand.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Internet Service Providers
An Internet service provider (ISP, also called Internet access provider or IAP) is a company which primarily offers their customers access to the Internet using dial-up or other means of data telecommunication.
ISPs may provide Internet e-mail accounts to users which allow them to communicate with one another by sending and receiving electronic messages through their ISPs' servers. ISPs may provide other services such as remotely storing data files on behalf of their customers, as well as other services unique to each particular ISP.
In the simplest case, a single connection is established to an upstream ISP and is used to transmit data to or from areas of the Internet beyond the home network; this mode of interconnection is often cascaded multiple times until reaching a Tier 1 carrier. In reality, the situation is often more complex. ISPs with more than one point of presence (PoP) may have separate connections to an upstream ISP at multiple PoPs, or they may be customers of multiple upstream ISPs and may have connections to each one of them at one or more point of presence. Read more!
What is Business?
A business (also called firm or an enterprise) is a legally recognized organizational entity designed to provide goods and/or services to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, most being privately owned and formed to earn profit to increase the wealth of owners. The owners and operators of a business have as one of their main objectives the receipt or generation of a financial return in exchange for work and acceptance of risk. Notable exceptions include cooperative businesses and state-owned enterprises. Socialistic systems involve either government, public, or worker ownership of most sizable businesses.
The etymology of "business" relates to the state of being busy either as an individual or society as a whole, doing commercially viable and profitable work. The term "business" has at least three usages, depending on the scope — the singular usage (above) to mean a particular company or corporation, the generalized usage to refer to a particular market sector, such as "the music business" and compound forms such as agribusiness, or the broadest meaning to include all activity by the community of suppliers of goods and services. However, the exact definition of business, like much else in the philosophy of business, is a matter of debate.
Business Studies, the study of the management of individuals to maintain collective productivity in order to accomplish particular creative and productive goals (usually to generate profit), is taught as an academic subject in many schools.
(Ref. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business)
Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association
The cross symbol was first used in a 1934 advertisement for the Hospital Service Association, today known as Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota. Company secretary E.A. van Steenwyk had Viennese artist Joseph Binder create a poster that included a blue Greek cross. Van Steenwyk continued to use the symbol to identify his company's health plans, and the Blue Cross began to be used in other parts of the country.
In 1939, the Chicago-based American Hospital Association began using the Blue Cross symbol to signify that health plans across the country met certain standards. The AHA continued to administrate the use of the symbol until the Blue Cross Association was founded in 1960. The two organizations remained affiliated until 1972.
Another health plan gained popularity in the lumber and mining camps of the Pacific Northwest around the same time that Kimball created his plan. These would provide medical care by paying monthly fees to medical service bureaus composed of groups of physicians. The first of these, Pierce County Medical Bureau (now known as Regence BlueShield) in Tacoma, Washington, was founded in 1917 and is now a part of The Regence Group. The shield symbol was created in Buffalo, New York by Carl Metzger in 1939, and the first official Blue Shield plan was founded in California that same year. In 1948 the symbol was informally adopted by nine plans called the Associated Medical Care Plans, and was later renamed the National Association of Blue Shield Plans.
I asked Jaya to apologise: Big B
Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan spoke out on his wife Jaya Bachchan's anti-Maharashtrian comments, a day after Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray rejected her apology in Mumbai Mirror.
"The casual off-the-cuff remarks made by her at the music launch function were without malice or deliberate intent, but if it has caused hurt to the sentiments of Maharashtra, Maharashtrians and indeed the city and citizens of Mumbai, then she must seek regret and offer apology. Everything that we possess today is what came to us from this great state and city," Big B wrote in his blog.
Bachchan goes on to say.
"Mumbai and Maharashtra has given us glory and recognition. I am 66 years old and 40 of those years have been spent living in Mumbai. Is it ever possible that we will dishonor it? Never!"
Jaya Bachchan has apologised for her alleged "anti-Marathi" remarks after Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) activists went on a rampage in Mumbai on Tuesday.
Activists tore off posters of films featuring members of the Bachchan family. Jaya, speaking to reporters late on Monday, apologised and said the comments made by her were completely unintentional and that no one should take them seriously.
MNS chief Raj Thackeray had demanded an unconditional apology from Jaya for her alleged anti-Marathi utterances, failing which the party would prevent screening of all films starring any of the Bachchans in Mumbai.
He said that the actress had "insulted" the state and its people under the guise of promoting the national language.
At a film function on Saturday night, Jaya had said: "People of Maharashtra, please excuse me. I am from Uttar Pradesh so I will speak in Hindi." Read more!
England name squad for Stanford and India
England announced on Tuesday their one-day squad for the Stanford Twenty20 competition beginning on Oct. 25 and the tour of India starting on Nov. 14.
The England selectors also named the 12 players awarded 12-month central contracts for the period starting Oct. 1 this year to Sept. 30 in 2009.
ODI Squad:
Kevin Pietersen (captain), James Anderson, Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Stuart Broad, Paul Collingwood, Alastair Cook, Andrew Flintoff, Stephen Harmison, Samit Patel, Matt Prior, Owais Shah, Graeme Swann, Ryan Sidebottom, Luke Wright.
Central contracts: Anderson, Bell, Broad, Collingwood, Alastair Cook, Flintoff, Harmison, Monty Panesar, Pietersen, Sidebottom, Andrew Strauss, Michael Vaughan.
Ganguly may quit international cricket
Former India captain Sourav Ganguly may quit international cricket "sooner rather than later" with him facing the axe for the upcoming home series against Australia, a report said Tuesday.
The 36-year-old was left out of the Rest of India squad for the five-day Irani Cup match against Ranji Trophy champions Delhi in Vadodara from September 24, seen as a trial match for next month's Test series.
Ganguly's omission from a virtual Test line-up that includes fellow seniors Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble and Venkatsai Laxman means he is unlikely to figure in the highly anticipated series starting in Bangalore on October 9.
The Telegraph newspaper, published from Ganguly's home city of Kolkata, said the stylish left-hander may not attempt to make a comeback into the Indian team.
"The fight may just have gone out of Sourav Ganguly," the paper said in a frontpage story.
"The former captain could decide to call it a day -- sooner rather than later -- instead of striving for a return to the Team India dressing room."
The paper quoted an unnamed person close to Ganguly saying: "I don't think he is hungry the way he was, say, two years ago."
Ganguly, India's most successful Test captain with 21 wins, was sacked in 2005 and later dropped from both the Test and one-day team after a public spat with the then coach, Australian batting great Greg Chappell.
But he returned to the Test squad in late 2006, emerging as the highest scorer in the away series in South Africa and making useful contributions against England and the home series against the South Africans.
The selectors, however, ignored Ganguly for the Irani Cup after he averaged just 16 in three Tests on the recent tour of Sri Lanka, which the hosts won 2-1.
Tendulkar, who averaged 15 on that tour, and Dravid, who averaged 24, were given another chance by the five-man selection committee headed by former Test captain Dilip Vengsarkar.
"I have no reaction, no comments," Ganguly told The Telegraph.
Oil rebounds over $3 after sell-off on AIG rescue
SINGAPORE: Oil rebounded more than $3 a barrel on Wednesday, after two days of free fall, as an $85 billion bailout of American International Group sparked a relief rally on Wall Street. Supply disruptions in the United States after Hurricane Ike crashed through the Gulf of Mexico last week and attacks on Nigerian oil installations also supported prices.
Oil futures are little changed from the start of the year but more than 35 percent lower than the record high above $147 hit in mid-July. U.S. light crude for October delivery rebounded $3.15 to $94.30 a barrel at 0123 GMT after falling as low as $90.51, a seven-month low, a day earlier in a broad cross-market sell-off.
The contract at some point this week was down more than $10 a barrel from Friday's close. London Brent crude for November delivery climbed $3.54 to $92.76 at the same time. "Everyone feared there would be a big meltdown in the financial sector that would affect the economy. Now they are hoping we'll just get through the AIG situation and that may be lifting the market," said Anthony Nunan, a risk management executive at Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Corp.
"Structurally, there's a much bigger supply problem. But if demand falls faster than supply is eroded, prices will fall as well." The U.S. government agreed to rescue insurer AIG with an $85 billion loan from the New York Federal Reserve, preventing the world's biggest corporate bankruptcy just days after investment bank Lehman's collapse this week threw global markets into turmoil.
The upheaval in the U.S. financial system led global markets into free-fall this week, sending oil tumbling to a seven-month low, or down some $10 since the start of the week as investors fled into safe-haven assets, such as gold and bonds. Attacks this week on two oil installations in the Niger Delta, in the heaviest fighting there in two years, also helped prices after investors sidelined them to focus on the credit crunch earlier this week.
And Hurricane Ike toppled several oil and natural gas production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, signalling that a full recovery of output from the region could be slow. Threats from hurricanes since late August have already cut more than 20 million barrels of oil supply from the Gulf and idled a quarter of U.S. refinery capacity, digging into supplies and sending gasoline prices up at U.S. pumps. U.S. gasoline stockpiles are already running at their lowest level since November 2000, and could drop to their lowest on record due to the effects of Ike, according to a Reuters poll of analysts. The EIA data are due later on Wednesday.
What is Anti Virus
Antivirus software are computer programs that attempt to identify, neutralize or eliminate malicious software. The term "antivirus" is used because the earliest examples were designed exclusively to combat computer viruses; however most modern antivirus software is now designed to combat a wide range of threats, including worms, phishing attacks, rootkits, trojan horses, often described collectively as malware.
Virus scanners
Antivirus scanning software, or a virus scanner, is a program which examines all files in specified locations, the contents of memory, the operating system, the registry, unexpected program behavior, and anywhere else relevant with the intention of identifying and removing any malware.
Typically two different approaches are used to identify malware, often in combination, although with an emphasis on the virus dictionary approach.
* examining (scanning) files, etc., for known viruses matching signatures in a virus dictionary, and
* identifying suspicious behavior from any computer program which might indicate infection. This approach is called heuristic analysis, and may include data captures, port monitoring and other methods.
Network firewalls prevent unknown programs and Internet processes from having access to the system protected; they are not antivirus systems as such, and make no attempt to identify or remove anything, but protect against infection, and limit the activity of any malicious software which is present
Mobile devices Anti Virus
Viruses from the desktop and laptop world have migrated to mobile devices. Antivirus vendors are beginning to offer solutions for mobile handsets. These devices present significant challenges for antivirus software, such as:
* processor constraints,
* memory constraints, and
* definitions and new signature updates to these mobile handsets.
Mobile handsets are now offered with a variety of interfaces and data connection capabilities. Consumers should carefully evaluate security products before deploying them on devices with a small form factor.
Solutions that are hardware-based, perhaps USB devices or SIM-based antivirus solutions, might work better in meeting the needs of mobile handset consumers. Technical evaluation and review on how deploying an antivirus solution on cellular mobile handsets should be considered as scanning process might impact other legitimate applications on the handheld.
SIM-based solutions with antivirus integrated on the small memory footprint might provide a basic solution to combat malware/viruses in protecting PIM and mobile user data. Solutions based on USB and Flash memory allow the user to swap and use these products with a range of hardware devices.
Ads (Advertisement)
Advertising is a form of communication that typically attempts to persuade potential customers to purchase or to consume more of a particular brand of product or service. Many advertisements are designed to generate increased consumption of those products and services through the creation and reinforcement of "brand image" and "brand loyalty". For these purposes, advertisements sometimes embed their persuasive message with factual information. Every major medium is used to deliver these messages, including television, radio, cinema, magazines, newspapers, video games, the Internet and billboards. Advertising is often placed by an advertising agency on behalf of a company or other organization.[citation needed]
Advertisements are seen on the seats of shopping carts, on the walls of an airport walkway, on the sides of buses,and are heard in telephone hold messages and in-store public address systems. Advertisements are often placed anywhere an audience can easily or frequently access visual, audio and printed information.[citation needed]
Organizations that frequently spend large sums of money on advertising that sells what is not, strictly speaking, a product or service include political parties, interest groups, religious organizations, and military recruiters. Non-profit organizations are not typical advertising clients, and may rely on free modes of persuasion, such as public service announcements.[citation needed]
Advertising spending has increased dramatically in recent years. In 2006, spending on advertising has been estimated at $155 billion in the United States and $385 billion worldwide, and the latter to exceed $500 billion by 2010.
While advertising can be seen as necessary for economic growth, it is not without social costs. Unsolicited Commercial Email and other forms of spam have become so prevalent as to have become a major nuisance to users of these services, as well as being a financial burden on internet service providers. Advertising is increasingly invading public spaces, such as schools, which some critics argue is a form of child exploitation.
Voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP)
Voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP) is a protocol optimized for the transmission of voice through the Internet or other packet-switched networks. VoIP is often used abstractly to refer to the actual transmission of voice (rather than the protocol implementing it). This latter concept is also referred to as IP telephony, Internet telephony, voice over broadband, broadband telephony, and broadband phone.
VoIP providers may be viewed as commercial realizations of the experimental Network Voice Protocol (1973) invented for the ARPANET providers. Some cost savings are due to using a single network to carry voice and data, especially where users have underused network capacity that can carry VoIP at no additional cost. VoIP-to-VoIP phone calls are sometimes free, while VoIP calls connecting to public switched telephone networks (VoIP-to-PSTN) may have a cost that is borne by the VoIP user.
Voice-over-IP systems carry telephony signals as digital audio, typically reduced in data rate using speech data compression techniques, encapsulated in a data-packet stream over IP.
There are two types of PSTN-to-VoIP services: Direct inward dialing (DID) and access numbers. DID will connect a caller directly to the VoIP user, while access numbers require the caller to provide an extension number for the called VoIP user.
(Ref. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VoIP)
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
How Credit Cards work
Credit cards are issued after an account has been approved by the credit provider, after which cardholders can use it to make purchases at merchants accepting that card.
When a purchase is made, the credit card user agrees to pay the card issuer. The cardholder indicates his/her consent to pay, by signing a receipt with a record of the card details and indicating the amount to be paid or by entering a Personal identification number (PIN). Also, many merchants now accept verbal authorizations via telephone and electronic authorization using the Internet, known as a 'Card/Cardholder Not Present' (CNP) transaction.
Electronic verification systems allow merchants to verify that the card is valid and the credit card customer has sufficient credit to cover the purchase in a few seconds, allowing the verification to happen at time of purchase. The verification is performed using a credit card payment terminal or Point of Sale (POS) system with a communications link to the merchant's acquiring bank. Data from the card is obtained from a magnetic stripe or chip on the card; the latter system is in the United Kingdom and Ireland commonly known as Chip and PIN, but is more technically an EMV card.
Other variations of verification systems are used by eCommerce merchants to determine if the user's account is valid and able to accept the charge. These will typically involve the cardholder providing additional information, such as the security code printed on the back of the card, or the address of the cardholder.
Each month, the credit card user is sent a statement indicating the purchases undertaken with the card, any outstanding fees, and the total amount owed. After receiving the statement, the cardholder may dispute any charges that he or she thinks are incorrect (see Fair Credit Billing Act for details of the US regulations). Otherwise, the cardholder must pay a defined minimum proportion of the bill by a due date, or may choose to pay a higher amount up to the entire amount owed. The credit provider charges interest on the amount owed (typically at a much higher rate than most other forms of debt). Some financial institutions can arrange for automatic payments to be deducted from the user's bank accounts, thus avoiding late payment altogether as long as the cardholder has sufficient funds.
Cancer Treatments
Cancer can be treated by surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, immunotherapy, monoclonal antibody therapy or other methods. The choice of therapy depends upon the location and grade of the tumor and the stage of the disease, as well as the general state of the patient (performance status). A number of experimental cancer treatments are also under development.
Complete removal of the cancer without damage to the rest of the body is the goal of treatment. Sometimes this can be accomplished by surgery, but the propensity of cancers to invade adjacent tissue or to spread to distant sites by microscopic metastasis often limits its effectiveness. The effectiveness of chemotherapy is often limited by toxicity to other tissues in the body. Radiation can also cause damage to normal tissue.
Because "cancer" refers to a class of diseases, it is unlikely that there will ever be a single "cure for cancer" any more than there will be a single treatment for all infectious diseases.
Types of hosting
Hosting services limited to the Web:
* Free web hosting service: is free, (sometimes) advertisement-supported web hosting, and is often limited when compared to paid hosting.
* Shared web hosting service: one's Web site is placed on the same server as many other sites, ranging from a few to hundreds or thousands. Typically, all domains may share a common pool of server resources, such as RAM and the CPU. A shared website may be hosted with a reseller.
* Reseller web hosting: allows clients to become web hosts themselves. Resellers could function, for individual domains, under any combination of these listed types of hosting, depending on who they are affiliated with as a provider. Resellers' accounts may vary tremendously in size: they may have their own virtual dedicated server to a colocated server.
* Virtual Dedicated Server: dividing a server into virtual servers, where each user feels like they're on their own dedicated server, but they're actually sharing a server with many other users. The users may have root access to their own virtual space. This is also known as a virtual private server or VPS.
* Dedicated hosting service: the user gets his or her own Web server and gains full control over it (root access for Linux/administrator access for Windows); however, the user typically does not own the server. Another type of Dedicated hosting is Self-Managed or Unmanaged. This is usually the least expensive for Dedicated plans. The user has full administrative access to the box, which means the client is responsible for the security and maintenance of his own dedicated box.
* Managed hosting service: the user gets his or her own Web server but is not allowed full control over it (root access for Linux/administrator access for Windows); however, they are allowed to manage their data via FTP or other remote management tools. The user is disallowed full control so that the provider can guarantee quality of service by not allowing the user to modify the server or potentially create configuration problems. The user typically does not own the server. The server is leased to the client.
* Colocation web hosting service: similar to the dedicated web hosting service, but the user owns the colo server; the hosting company provides physical space that the server takes up and takes care of the server. This is the most powerful and expensive type of the web hosting service. In most cases, the colocation provider may provide little to no support directly for their client's machine, providing only the electrical, Internet access, and storage facilities for the server. In most cases for colo, the client would have his own administrator visit the data center on site to do any hardware upgrades or changes.
* Clustered hosting: having multiple servers hosting the same content for better resource utilization. Clustered Servers are a perfect solution for high-availability dedicated hosting, or creating a scalable web hosting solution.
* Grid hosting : this form of distributed hosting is when a server cluster acts like a grid and is composed of multiple nodes.
* Home server: usually a single machine placed in a private residence can be used to host one or more web sites from a usually consumer-grade broadband connection. These can be purpose-built machines or more commonly old PC's.
Some ISPs actively attempt to block home servers by disallowing incoming requests to TCP port 80 of the user's connection and by refusing to provide static IP addresses. A common way to attain a reliable DNS hostname is by creating an account with a dynamic DNS service. A dynamic DNS service will automatically change the IP address that a URL points to when the IP address changes.
Domain Name Registration
The right to use a domain name is delegated by domain name registrars which are accredited by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the organization charged with overseeing the name and number systems of the Internet. In addition to ICANN, each top-level domain (TLD) is maintained and serviced technically by a sponsoring organization, the TLD Registry. The registry is responsible for maintaining the database of names registered within the TLDs they administer. The registry receives registration information from each domain name registrar authorized to assign names in the corresponding TLD and publishes the information using a special service, the whois protocol.
Registrars usually charge an annual fee for the service of delegating a domain name to a user and providing a default set of name servers. Often this transaction is termed a sale or lease of the domain name, and the registrant is called an "owner", but no such legal relationship is actually associated with the transaction, only the exclusive right to use the domain name. More correctly authorized users are known as "registrants" or as "domain holders".
ICANN publishes a complete list of TLD registries and domain name registrars in the world. One can obtain information about the registrant of a domain name by looking in the WHOIS database held by many domain registries.
For most of the more than 240 country code top-level domains (ccTLDs), the domain registries hold the authoritative WHOIS (Registrant, name servers, expiration dates, etc.). For instance, DENIC, Germany NIC, holds the authoritative WHOIS to a .DE domain name. Since about 2001, most gTLD registries (.ORG, .BIZ, .INFO) have adopted this so-called "thick" registry approach, i.e. keeping the authoritative WHOIS in the central registries instead of the registrars.
For .COM and .NET domain names, a "thin" registry is used: the domain registry (e.g. VeriSign) holds a basic WHOIS (registrar and name servers, etc.). One can find the detailed WHOIS (registrant, name servers, expiry dates, etc.) at the registrars.
Some domain name registries, also called Network Information Centres (NIC), also function as registrars, and deal directly with end users. But most of the main ones, such as for .COM, .NET, .ORG, .INFO, etc., use a registry-registrar model. There are hundreds of Domain Name Registrars that actually perform the domain name registration with the end user (see lists at ICANN or VeriSign). By using this method of distribution, the registry only has to manage the relationship with the registrar, and the registrar maintains the relationship with the end users, or 'registrants' -- in some cases through additional layers of resellers.
Domain Name - Details
The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical naming system for computers, services, or any resource participating in the Internet. It associates various information with domain names assigned to such participants. Most importantly, it translates humanly-meaningful domain names to the numerical (binary) identifiers associated with networking equipment for the purpose of locating and addressing these devices world-wide.
An often used analogy to explain the Domain Name System is that it serves as the "phone book" for the Internet by translating human-friendly computer hostnames into IP addresses. For example, www.example.com translates to 208.77.188.166.
The Domain Name System makes it possible to assign domain names to groups of Internet users in a meaningful way independent of each user's physical location. Because of this, World-Wide Web (WWW) hyperlinks and Internet contact information can remain consistent and constant even if the current Internet routing arrangements change or the participant uses a mobile device. Internet domain names are easier to remember than IP addresses such as 208.77.188.166 or 2001:db8:1f70::999:de8:7648:6e8. People take advantage of this when they recite meaningful URLs and e-mail addresses without caring how the machine will actually locate them.
The Domain Name System distributes the responsibility for assigning domain names and mapping them to Internet Protocol (IP) networks by designating authoritative name servers for each domain to keep track of their own changes, avoiding the need for a central register to be continually consulted and updated.
In general, the Domain Name System also stores other types of information, such as the list of mail servers that accept email for a given Internet domain. By providing a world-wide, distributed keyword-based redirection service, the Domain Name System is an essential component of the functionality of the Internet.
Other identifiers such as RFID tags, UPC codes, International characters in email addresses and host names, and a variety of other identifiers could all potentially utilize DNS [1].
The Domain Name System also defines the technical underpinnings of the functionality of this database service. For this purpose it defines the DNS protocol, a detailed specification of the data structures and communication exchanges used in DNS, as part of the Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP). The context of the DNS within the Internet protocols may be seen in the following diagram. The DNS protocol was developed and defined in the early 1980's and published by the Internet Engineering Task Force (cf. History).
Forex - Details
Description : Trading foreign exchange is exciting and potentially very profitable, but there are also significant risk factors. It is crucially important that you fully understand the implications of margin trading and the particular pitfalls and opportunities that foreign exchange trading offers. On these pages, we offer you a brief introduction to the Forex markets as well as their participants and some strategies that you can apply. However, if you are ever in doubt about any aspect of a trade, you can always discuss the matter in-depth with one of our dealers. They are available 24 hours a day on the Saxo Bank online trading system, SaxoTrader.
The benchmark of its service is efficient execution, concise analysis and expertise – all achieved whilst maintaining an attractive and competitive cost structure. Today, Saxo Bank offers one of Europe's premier all-round services for trading in derivative products and foreign exchange. We count amongst our employees numerous dealers and analysts, each of whom has many years experience and a wide and varied knowledge of the markets – gained both in our home countries and in international financial centres. When trading foreign exchange, futures and other derivative products, we offer 24-hour service, extensive daily analysis, individual access to our Research & Analysis department for specific queries, and immediate execution of trades through our international network of banks and brokers. All at a price considerably lower than that which most companies and private investors normally have access to.
The combination of our strong emphasis on customer service, our strategy and trading recommendations, our strategic and individual hedging programmes, along with the availability to our clients of the latest news and information builds a strong case for trading an individual account through Saxo Bank.
Terms of trading are agreed individually depending on the volume of your transactions, but are generally much lower in cost when compared to banks and brokers. Your margin deposit can be cash or government securities, bank guarantees etc. Large corporate or institutional clients may be offered trading facilities on the strength of their balance sheet. The minimum deposit accepted for an individual trading account depends on the account type. Trade confirmations and real-time account overview are built into SaxoTrader, while further account information can be produced in accordance with your specific requirements.
The benchmark of its service is efficient execution, concise analysis and expertise – all achieved whilst maintaining an attractive and competitive cost structure. Today, Saxo Bank offers one of Europe's premier all-round services for trading in derivative products and foreign exchange. We count amongst our employees numerous dealers and analysts, each of whom has many years experience and a wide and varied knowledge of the markets – gained both in our home countries and in international financial centres. When trading foreign exchange, futures and other derivative products, we offer 24-hour service, extensive daily analysis, individual access to our Research & Analysis department for specific queries, and immediate execution of trades through our international network of banks and brokers. All at a price considerably lower than that which most companies and private investors normally have access to.
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Preity Zinta : News
She hasn`t been seen on screen since June 2007`s big disaster Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, and the wait has been worth it! Preity Zinta has shed the glam and for her upcoming The Last Lear, with Amitabh Bachchan, wears a Sunday evening look - no label or brand for miles! But her original fresh look and the brilliant eyes are there, and the question is - will she pull it off?
We have no doubts about her calibre and with Amitabh Bachchan, Arjun Rampal and an offbeat, experimental script bringing up the rear, what`s to worry?
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