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MUMBAI: Life Insurance Corp invested more than half its equity portfolio last fiscal in state-run companies, raising fears that returns may lag rivals as price controls eat into the profitability of some public sector undertakings (PSUs). The state-run insurer invested around Rs 22,000 crore, or 55% of the total...
NEW DELHI: Top patent-seekers from US, Japan and China — who file the maximum patent applications — hail from IT, telecom and consumer electronics, while those from India are from an entirely different field: Pharmaceuticals. While IT, telecom and electronics majors are the top patent-filers of 2010, accounting for...
NEW DELHI: Even before the ink is dry on the Budget proposal to let domestic airlines borrow up to $1 billion overseas for working capital, the aviation ministry has sought a doubling of the limit, as cash-starved carriers continue to bleed. The aviation ministry has written to the finance...
NEW DELHI: American retail giant Walmart is learnt to be actively exploring the online space in India. It was in talks with some leading e-commerce companies in India for partnership possibilities, sources close to the development said. Walmart, however, said the information was “completely speculative”. The world’s largest retail...
MUMBAI: A massive earthquake off Indonesia on Wednesday rattled investors and sparked fears of a fresh crisis in coal supplies to the beleaguered domestic power sector. Shares of power generators, who are already struggling with issues relating to price of coal from Indonesia, fell around 2% as against a...
By S. Sethuraman The Asian Development Bank (ADB) sees only a “moderate pickup” in India’s growth performance in fiscal 2013, edging upto 7 per cent, but this is on assumption of inflation lowering for monetary policy to ease, fiscal deficit being held at budgeted 5.1 per cent of GDP,...
By Nitya Chakraborty NEW DELHI: It was a win win situation for the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee all the way in the Planning Commission on April 10 when she had discussions with the Commission Deputy Chairman Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia for the finalization of the annual plan...
By Rashmi Saksena Many of us have seen under fourteen boys and girls scrubbing floors and cleaning in homes, cooking, being ordered around by children younger or their own age and running errands for their ‘masters’. Many of us have been served tea and snacks by innumerable ‘chotus’ at...
MUMBAI: Bharti Airtel is in advanced discussions with US chipmaker Qualcomm to buy its fourth-generation licences for about Rs 6,000 crore, an acquisition that will allow the country’s largest telecom firm to quickly launch 4G services in the key markets of Delhi and Mumbai. A person familiar with the...
MUMBAI: Worsening external sector conditions have become a major reason for worry at the central bank, which is concerned about funding the current account gap, as foreign exchange reserves have depleted. According to several economists who attended the customary pre-monetary policy meeting with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)...
New Delhi: India is close to opening all domestic sectors except a few like defence, atomic energy and space to foreign direct investment (FDI) from Pakistan, a move that could help build confidence in normalising cross-border trade. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee is said to have approved a commerce ministry...
NEW DELHI: Qatar Investment Authority, the Gulf state’s sovereign wealth fund, is looking to invest up to $10 billion in India every year, according to its executive director Hussain Al Abdulla. The authority, whose investment portfolio includes iconic brands like Harrods, Sainsbury, Volkswagen, LVMH and Porsche, had invested $29...
NEW DELHI: After 16 years, the government is set to again allow foreign airlines to take stakes in Indian carriers later this week. The move is expected to help ailing Indian operators like Kingfisher raise funds. More importantly, it could pave the way for joint ventures – like Tata-Singapore...
NEW DELHI: After much dithering, the government released the revised consolidated foreign direct investment (FDI) policy on Tuesday, relaxing norms of investment by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) in commodity exchanges. Now, FIIs will not require government approval to invest in these exchanges. The cap on FII investment, however, remains...
NEW DELHI: The Cabinet on Tuesday approved a proposal of the department of telecommunications (DoT) to seek a presidential reference on certain issues pertaining to the Supreme Court judgment in the 2G telecom spectrum case. The issues include whether all telecom licences given on first-come-first-served (FCFS) basis before 2008...
CHENNAI: Senior CPI(M) leader and former Central Committee member N. Varadarajan died here on Tuesday at a private hospital after a prolonged illness. Varadarajan, 87, is survived by his wife and two sons. A three time MLA, Varadarajan who was not keeping well for the past two to three...
Cricketer Yuvraj Singh, who underwent three cycles of chemotherapy in the U.S. for non-malignant lung tumour, returned to India amid a rousing reception from his well-wishers.
AHMEDABAD: The Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team has found no evidence against Chief Minister Narendra Modi and 57 others in the complaint filed against them by Zakia Jafri in the 2002 Gujarat riots, a Magisterial court said on Tuesday. The court also ordered that Ms. Zakia Jafri, widow of former...