- News Fast & Furious
Business
Banks getting ready for additional security measures
Aug 19th
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) declared that is mandatory for all the banks & financial institutions, to out in place an additional security level for their online transaction process. The additional authentication/validation based on information not visible on the cards for all online transactions seems to be a good step forward to address the ever increasing online frauds.
The registered users for the respective banks would be required to complete a process on the website of your bank or credit card company to generate the additional password. The additional password will be over and above the normal online card usage procedure. Given below are the registration steps issued by some banks already to the customers:
CITIBANK
| Just follow these 3 easy steps to get your IPIN instantly! | |
| Step 1 | Enter your personal details and request for an Online Authorisation Code (OAC) |
| Step 2 | Once your OAC reaches you on your E-mail / mobile, enter your OAC reference number, the OAC and your personal details |
| Step 3 | Select an IPIN (Internet Password) of your choice online Right here, right now! |
HDFC Bank Netsafe
NetSafe, is a unique online payment solution that offers you complete security while shopping on the Internet. With NetSafe, you can now shop online through a virtual credit card, without revealing your actual HDFC Bank Credit Card number.
Microsoft (Bing) & Yahoo joins hands to battle Google
Jul 31st
Bing is getting ready for the huge chunk of Web traffic in one bite by becoming Yahoo’s search engine. In exchange Yahoo will get 88 percent of the search-generated ad revenue from its sites in the first five years of this 10-year pact.
This comes after two months of Bing’s bounce back onto the Internet. By this move, Microsoft’s rebranded search engine leaped a lot closer to posing a serious challenge to the online Google.
Carol Bartz (Yahoo Chief Executive) said it saw shares drop by 8 percent on news of the partnership. Meanwhile, Microsoft saw rise in the price of its stock.
AIG facing public fury
Mar 19th
AIG staff bonuses is not going down with the US public tax payers. There has been cries of foul against the management and people has been asking for repayment of bonuses back to the Government.
Edward Liddy, AIG Chairman & CEO facing Congressional hearing claimed that all these bonuses are not performance bonuses, but retention bonuses which has got legal implications.
Excise duty & service tax reduces: Govt
Feb 25th
Giving break to the industry reeling under the blow of slowdown, the government today reduced the rates of excise duty and service tax.
As the general excise duty has been reduced from 10 per cent to 8 per cent, the rate of service tax has been cut from 12 per cent to 10 per cent.
Four per cent excise cut announced prior in the incentive package in December will continue beyond March 31, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said while winding up the debate on the Interim Budget in the Lok Sabha today.
The Lok Sabha later accepted the Interim Budget by voice vote, amidst a walkout by the Opposition BJP and erstwhile supporters Left parties.
Mukherjee said that duty on bulk cement has been reduced from 10 per cent to 8 per cent.
Mukherjee further said that excise duty on bulk cement which was 10 per cent (or Rs 290 per tonne, whichever is higher) has been reduced to 8 per cent (or Rs 230).
The duty allowance on naphtha for manufacture of power sector, he said, will persist beyond March 31, 2009.
The anomalies faced by suppliers to Special Economic Zone with regard to treatment of export profits will be addressed in the regular budget, he said.
As regards the states, Mukherjee said as part of the stimulus package they have been permitted to borrow an extra 0.5 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP). The exception, he added, will persist in the next fiscal.
Brushing aside the disapproval that government had not done adequate for the industry, Mukherjee said it was vital to stick to Parliamentary norms and constitutional propriety at a time when the term of the present government was about to end.
“It is not possible for me to indulge into financial profligacy without adequate resources”, he said.
Though, he added, dissimilar measures taken by the government and the Reserve Bank must be given time to have an impact on the economy.
Sufficient liquidity has been pumped into the system to allow banks to regulate their interest rates, he said.
Since September, RBI has injected about Rs 4 lakh crore into the system and abridged a variety of key policy rates following which several banks have started reducing interest rates.
Satyam: More arrests in Satyam case says Andhra Police
Feb 5th
Even as SEBI officials are quizzing Satyam Computer creator B Ramalinga Raju and his brother Rama Raju at the Chanchalguda jail in Hyderabad, the Andhra Pradesh Police are probable to make further arrests in the Rs 7,800-crore fraud linking the IT major.
CID officials investigating the case have not ruled out further arrests in concerning a fortnight.
“We are constantly scrutinising the seized documents and trying to retrieve data from the hard disks and laptops recovered during the raids of residences and offices of Satyam officials including its former chairman B Ramalinga Raju,” a senior CID official inquisitive the Satyam fraud said on Thursday.
There are over 25 trunks full with detained documents and “we are putting all our efforts to scrutinise (them) with the help of financial experts,” the CID official said.
To recover the data from the detained computers, the CID has been captivating the services of experts of the National Informatics Centre (NIC) and Forensic Science Laboratory, besides IT experts within the department, he said.
He said the probe organization has been prearranged by the court to share the information it has unearthed from the detained matter with other Central investigating agencies like SEBI, the SFIO and the Income-Tax department.
Approached for takeover: Satyam
Jan 21st
New Delhi: Domestic and foreign companies has approached troubled software exporter Satyam for takeover, the IT company’s board member Tarun Das said on Tuesday.
The board will meet for two days starting January 22 in Hyderabad and would talk about the issues such as search CEO and CFO, legal matters and instant cash necessities to run the company, he told reporters in New Delhi.
The board would also discuss whether it needs to ask the government to stand as a guarantor for raising loans. Das said the company has been approached for takeover by both international and Indian IT firms. There have been unverified reports that the company might soon employ investment bankers to give guidance on a merger or sale.
Earlier, another board member Deepak Parekh had said that choice of merger was always open for the company. The board meeting would conscious on class action lawsuits filed against the company in the US.
The six-member board, selected by the government to run the firm after a shocking Rs 7,800 crore fraud revelation by founder Ramalinga Raju on January 7, last met on January 17.
Friday: Raju’s bail plea hearing
Jan 16th
Hyderabad: Bail plea of Ramalinga Raju will be heard on Friday by Hyderabad court.
On January 12, besides Ramalinga Raju, the court had delayed the hearing of the bail plea of Ramalinga’s brother Rama Raju and Satyam’s Chief Financial Officer Vadlamani Srinivas.
All are in judicial custody till January 23 and have been lodged in the Chanchalguda Central Prison.
The court will also listen to a request filed by the Security and Exchange board of India(SEBI) for quizzing Raju and the two others while they are in judicial custody.
Raju’s lawyer Bharat Kumar told journalists that a team of 25 lawyers has been put together to defend Raju and others.
In the meantime, police stepped up their inquiry into the case, having charged Ramalinga Raju and B Rama Raju with illicit conspiracy and forgery after Raju admitted profits had been flimsy for years and quit.
A case has been filed in opposition to Raju under Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery for cheating) and 477-a (fraudulent cancellation of securities) of IPC.
Raju had disclosed a financial fraud in the company to the tune of Rs 7,800 crore by inflating profits and showing fictitious assets where none existed.
The company’s scrip has fallen nearly 80 per cent since the exposure was made.
Three new members appointed by Govt on Satyam board
Jan 11th
The Govt has acted rapidly few days after the Rs 7000 crore Satyam scam came to light.
It has selected a new board bringing together greatly appreciated persons from the fields of Finance, IT and Law. HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh, former NASSCOM chief Kiran Karnik and former SEBI member C Achuthan represent the new board.
Making the declaration, Minister of Corporate Affairs PC Gupta said, the government agencies have began probe into the Satyam scam in a matched manner and have completed “commendable progress”.
Speaking to NDTV, Minister of Corporate Affairs PC Gupta said, “No actions are being ruled” on Satyam front. “We are keeping all the options open,” he said, when asked about whether the government is looking at bailing out the beleaguered IT company, which is facing a liquidity disaster.
The recently selected board will gather over the next 24 hours to make a decision on a future course of action and will also take a call on who else to take in the new board.
The board takes more than at a time when the fate of nearly 50,000 employees remains undecided with liquidity being a serious fear. Investor assurance is also rock-bottom.
“Will ensure there is business continuity. It’s important to maintain customer confidence. Will get the company back on track,” said Kiran Karnik.
On Friday, the government had disbanded the board of Satyam Computer for “failing to do what they were supposed to”.
In the meantime, Satyam’s fallen promoters Ramalinga Raju and his brother Rama Raju will spend the next two weeks in judicial supervision at the high security Chanchalguda prison in Hyderabad. They have been remanded to judicial custody till January 23.
They were interrogated for 18 hours on Saturday and their bail pleas have been discarded. V Srinivas, the chief financial officer of Satyam was also under arrest late Saturday night.
While Raju’s counsel is probable to apply for bail on Monday, police will try for custody.
The CID has raided different associate companies of Satyam. The stock market watchdog SEBI has also filed a request to question Ramalinga Raju.
For now, the CID has formed teams to catch the other directors of Satyam Computer and auditors of PricewaterhouseCoopers who have been listed as the accused in the case.
Oil strike called off, after Govt pressure
Jan 10th
New Delhi: Public sector’s oil firms strike which nearly crippled India was called off after three days. Friday evening, almost immediately after the government warned that the strikers would be sacked if they did not continue work.
‘Yes, we have called off our agitation,’ Sanjay Varshney, one of the vice presidents of the Oil Sector Officers Association (OSOA) that launched the strike Wednesday, told IANS.
Saturday and Sunday have moreover been stated running days at the state-owned power companies in a worried bid to reinstate normalcy across India after thousands of fuel stations ran out of supply, paralyzing road traffic in numerous places and striking hard refineries.
There were symbols of the strike coming apart while Friday afternoon with staffers of power firms starting job in batches after warnings of group dismissals.
Attendance at Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) rose 40 percent, those at Oil India (OIL) withdrew from the strike, and employees of Indian Oil Corp (IOC) in the southern region resumed job.
The OSOA, the umbrella body of about 45,000 workers of more than a dozen state-run energy firms, were demanding high salaries.
A few hours prior to the strike finished, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora asserted that the objection was put to finish.
‘The illegal strike seems to be over. In the whole country, the situation has improved,’ the minister said.
‘Near-normal situation is expected in BPCL by evening. The IOC (Indian Oil Corp) Panipat refinery will start output later today while the Mathura refinery will start operations within 12 hours,’ he said. ‘The government is confident the strike will be called off within next six to 12 hours.’
Deora, who discarded talks with the strikers if they did not restart work, Friday morning required the Territorial Army’s assist to stop the stalemate.
The disaster management assembly of the cabinet met in the morning and determined that the government would not bend over to the strikers.
Petroleum ministry Secretary R.S. Sharma warned striking employees to call off the strike or face the axe.
‘There are only two options before you: join work immediately or face arrest under ESMA (Essential Supplies Maintenance Act) or NSA (National Security Act),’ Pandey said.
Maintaining that ‘there is no pleasure in dismissing people’, Pandey said that strikers might moreover face firing from service.
And to confirm that it was no inactive warning, the Oil and Natutral Gas Corp (ONGC) sacked 64 employees. IOC and GAIL India (formerly Gas Authority of India) axed three staffers each, he said.
According to Pandey, only a third of IOC outlets were prepared crosswise the country. For BPCL it was a slight over 65 percent as at 95 percent it was the utmost at Hindustan Petroleum, whose employees had not joined the strike.
Equally Deora and Pandey asked the people to end fright buying.
Throughout the day, fuel-starved autorickshaws, taxis and private vehicles went off the roads in India’s financial capital Mumbai, putting millions to poverty. The circumstances was only slightly better in New Delhi, where road traffic thinned by evening as scores of petrol and diesel pumps ran out of supply.
As fright mounted all above the country with motorists jostling for what little was obtainable in petrol stations, Home Minister P. Chidambaram said: ‘Strong action would be taken and I believe strong actions are being taken. If someone from the army has to be called, they will be called.’