Business Standard - 15th October

Submitted by:
Kunal Kothari
Lovish Tuteja
Koushik Sinha Mahapatra
(Group no. 9, Sec-G)

Today's Headlines

• Hero Honda today reported a jump of 8.06 per cent in sales in September at . 4,33,641 units.
• India won 101 medal, including 38 gold medal in CWG.
• Obama likely to stay at Mumbai Taj Hotel
• Handicraft exports grow by 33% in Sept
• Tatas shelves plan to shut JLR Midlands plant
• GMR, JSW in Rs 2,200-crore battle for Canada's CIC
• R-Infra raises Rs 7,000-crore debt
• - Social media eats into TV audiences
• IOC losing Rs 75 cr a day on fuel sale
• Reliance Industries raises $1.5 bn debt
• India offers 34 oil & gas blocks for exploration
• Suzuki may fix 280,000 Swift, other models
• Satyam ADR trading transferred to OTC market
• Sensex 20125.05 -372.59-1.82%
BANKING AND FINANCE
Axis Bank net profit up 38%
LIC Housing Fin net up 37%
L&T Infra to raise Rs 700 crore from infra bonds
RBI divests stake in Nabard to government
ICICI may consider six-month block on bankers' defections.

ECONOMY & POLICY
Power capacity grows 8.12 per cent in August
India to play crucial role at WANO meet
Q&A: T C A Anant, Chief Statistician of India
Governance for tomorrow
Farm output to grow 7.2%: CMIE

Spectacular ceremony draws curtain on 2010 CWG
A dazzling laser show and a musical extravaganza tonight marked the grand finale of the Commonwealth Games (CWG), the biggest sporting event hosted by India which crowned itself with sporting glory by winning an unprecedented 101 medals.
As at the spectacular opening ceremony 12 days ago, all the controversies that had dogged the Games -- corruption, filth, snakes, mismanagement -- were momentarily forgotten because some 5,000 athletes from 71 countries had sportingly competed for 826 medals of which India won 101, including 38 gold, its highest ever, to be the second in the tally behind Australia with a total of 177.
The ceremony began with the arrival of dignitaries who included Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Vice President M Hamid Ansari, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, CGF chief Michael Fennell and Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the guest of honour.
The tumultuous journey of India, which saw a trouble-ridden build-up marred by corruption scandals and missed deadlines, soon came to an end.
RBI sells stake in Nabard worth Rs 1,430 cr
Amid the debate over whether the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) should hold stake in lending institutions or only be a regulator, the central bank has sold almost all its holding in the apex agriculture and rural development bank, Nabard, to the government of India.
"The RBI divested its stake amounting to Rs 1,430 crore in National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) on October 13, 2010. With this, the Reserve Bank's holding in Nabard has come down to 1 per cent of shareholding in Nabard. The government of India now holds 99 per cent of the stake," the central bank said in a statement here.
The Reserve Bank held 72.5 per cent of equity in Nabard amounting to Rs 1,450 crore. The remaining shareholding worth Rs 550 crore was with the government of India.The Union Cabinet in May 2008 had approved RBI's proposal to transfer its share holding in Nabard to the government.Now, the only major institution where RBI holds a stake is National Housing Bank (NHB). The central bank hold 100 per cent stake in the housing finance regulator.

LIC Housing finance Q2 profit up 37%

Housing mortgage lender LIC Housing Finance reported a rise of 36.8 per cent in its net profit to R234.2 crore for the quarter ended September 2010, riding on the robust growth in its interest income. The net interest income of the company grew by 63 per cent to R305 crore in the second quarter ended on September, against R187 crore in the same quarter previous year. Its total income increased to R 1,107.4 crore in the second quarter of fiscal 2010-11 from R839.07 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

Skoda mulls tie-up with Maruti for small car

It's action time at SkodaAuto India. After Volkswagen, another group company SkodaAuto India is looking at the possibility of collaborating with Maruti Suzuki to launch a small car below its newly-launched new generation Fabia by 2012. A senior official of the company on Thursday said in Chennai that SkodaAuto India is open to such pacts and Volkswagen, Maruti Suzuki and Skoda will mull a tie up on the issue. The official also said that the company is gearing up to launch a new car in the C segment, replacing Octavia (which was phased out recently) during the second half of 2011. It is also set to launch the SUV Skoda Yeti in November and has set a target of 7% to 10% share in the B+ segment by 2011 as against 3% now.

L&T Infra Finance to raise up to Rs.700 crore

Diversified group L&T's infrastructure finance subsidiary on Thursday said it planned to raise up to Rs.700 crore from retail investors through a long-term tax-saving infrastructure bond issue.
The issue of the ten-year maturity bonds, which will be open till November 2, comes close on the heels of L&T Infra's peer in the infrastructure finance companies (IFC) space, IDFC, hitting the market with a similar Rs.3,400-crore issue.


Wi Fi hacking: 50 percent of home wi-fi can be hacked in five seconds

Wi Fi hacking: 50 percent of home wi-fi can be hacked in five seconds. Nearly half of home wi-fi networks can be hacked in less than five seconds, according to a study carried out across UK cities Thursday. Of the 40,000 networks identified in the six cities, just under 20,000 had no password or the most basic form of security encryption, the research for card protection and insurance company "CPP" found.