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Musharraf rejects Sarabjit’s mercy plea; death warrant out

Islamabad, March 16: President Pervez Musharraf has rejected the mercy plea of Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh on Sunday. Jail authorities have confirmed that they have received his death warrant. The execution may be carried out as early as 1 of April, reports said. Sarabjit Singh had been sentenced to death by Pakistan`s Supreme Court on charges of masterminding 1990 Lahore bomb blasts in the country.

Pakistani authorities have been insisting that he is RAW agent Manjeet Singh, although India has confirmed that he is Sarabjit Singh and it was a case mistaken identity.

India had earlier raised the matter with Pakistan government, expecting Musharraf would grant clemency.

The matter hit the headlines in 2005, with the Prime Minister and the then External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh appealing to the Pakistani government to show mercy.

Recently another Indian national Kashmir Singh, was freed after spending 35 years on death row in a Pakistani jail, after being granted pardon by President Pervez Musharraf.

Sanjay Dutt enters the big league charging Rs 7-8 crores
16 Mar, 2008 04:50 am IST.......................................

Sanjay Dutt off lately has constantly hogged the media limelight for all the wrong reasons from court cases to marital issues. But finally the actor seems to be in news for positive reasons including his film signing spree. His upcoming films include EMI, Aladin and Kidnap . Also he is all set to tickle your funny bone with his spate of comedy films including one with Amisha Patel called Chatur Singh Two Stars , another to be directed by Ashwini Dheer and the third installment in Munnabhai series. But on the way Sanju baba has also realized that managing finances is no funny business and how.

Around a year back Sanjay Dutt used to charge anywhere between 90 lakhs to 2 crores for his films. But with the back-to-back success of Shootout at Lokhandwala and Dhamaal , his star value only got better. This was a time when he was in a position to hike his fees. Unfortunately for him this was the very phase when he was embroiled in all the legal hassles and also sentenced for a six-year imprisonment. This verdict by the court was a big blow to all his producers who were hugely banking on him for their films.

With his repeated attempts at getting bail and the multiple trails that he had to face, producers started losing hope on Sanjay Dutt and were skeptical to sign or consider him for their films. It was natural of them, as any financer wouldn’t want his project to be stuck up due to uncertainty of Sanjay Dutt’s availability. When everything should have been going right post his box-office success, Sanju on the contrary, was going through a very lean phase in his career.

To add to his problems was his fallout with long time good friend and colleague Sanjay Gupta. With the fallout he even separated himself from his production banner White Feather Films, jointly handled by Sanjay Gupta. Sources say that he trusted Gupta blindly and had only 30-40% shares in the company. With his departure from White Feathers, he only had to suffer more monetary losses. It was constantly reported in the media at that point of time that Sanju was in desperate need for money.

Every actor has a camp and so did Sanjay Dutt. But unfortunately his camp wasn’t of much help to him either. Says an industry insider, “Over the years Sanju has worked with his own set of producers and directors like Mahesh Manjrekar, Nitin Manmohan, Sanjay Gupta and Vidhu Vinod Chopra. Now if you notice, Manjrekar is not directing any film as he is not considered a hot-shot director anymore, Nitin has stopped producing films, with Sanjay Gupta he has parted ways and Vidhu hasn’t yet started his film”.

However in his testing times, Sanju had some good friends like Suniel Shetty and Asthavinayak banner who were always by his side in his testing times. They showed faith in him despite his testing times and were optimistic that Dutt will come out on bail. And as luck would have it, Sanju did get bail. Post that he was entangled in controversies related to his marriage with his girlfriend of 2 years, Manyata. However Sanju emerged out unscathed from all these controversies.

If one goes to see, despite all the controversies, Sanju never got a negative image. Throughout the court cases he had the image of this victimized star and got sympathy from the media. He always enjoyed a rich fan-following. A trade expert says, “I don’t think his star status is affected much. Sanju has his own brand of fan following. In fact even last time when he was booked, he bounced back with a bang and rouse like a Phoenix. He is controversy’s favourite son and has emerged victorious every time, be it drugs, TADA, marriages, etc, etc”

This was also the time when the Corporates were getting into Bollywood business and star remunerations were reaching sky-high. Sanjay Dutt who was not much business-conscious earlier, took things more seriously and taking advantage of the situation hiked his fees by a few crores. It is believed in trade circles today that the actor charges anything between Rs 7 to 8 crores as his fees. Perhaps Sanju has learnt his market value. Says the trade person, “With his counterparts playing in crores, thanks to corporate invasion, Sanju too hiked his fees. Moreover there is definite dearth of stars who command box-office initials”.

Of course the fee might change depending on his relationship with the producers. For example in the case of Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Dutt might charge less considering the filmmaker gave him a career-defining role with the Munnabhai series which helped him get back in the big league some years back. But then there are others who are willing to pay. Sanju’s close friend and producer-actor Suniel Shetty says, “I am not among the producer, actor or friend who would exploit Sanju for money. Whoever gives whatever to Sanjay Dutt, I will always give him a rupee more, because I believe he is worth it.”

Today Sanjay Dutt has a 3-film deal with Asthavinayak, with the first film Kidnap almost ready and the second to be directed by Soham Shah to go on floors soon. After separating himself from White Feather Films, Sanju not only plans to revive his father Sunil Dutt’s banner Ajanta Arts, but is also preparing to soon set up his own production house to be named as Sanjay Dutt Productions Pvt Ltd. Fate of his forthcoming couple of films will determine Sanjay Dutt’s box-office standing and who knows he might soon hike his fees by a few more crores...

Pandit to pay for personal use of corporate jet

New York, March 16: If you thought heading the world's largest bank brings with it unimaginable perks and freebies, think again!

Citigroup, which is going through its worst-ever financial crisis, allows its India-born CEO Vikram Pandit to fly anywhere in its corporate jet, but he will have to pay the company back for any personal use of the aircraft.

In an annual meeting notice being sent to all its shareholders, Citigroup has revealed that Pandit signed a pact on December 12, under which, he would have to reimburse the company for any personal use of the Citi's corporate aircraft.

The agreement was signed just a day after Pandit assumed office as CEO of Citigroup with effect from December 11.

However, his busy official schedule ever since taking over from his predecessor Charles Prince charge of the embattled Wall Street giant does not seem to have given Pandit any chance for a personal use of the aircraft, as he has not made any such reimbursement as yet.

Pandit was recently on a visit across Asia, but it was an official trip as part of an exercise to bring Citigroup out of its current trough. In the last quarter, the bank reported the biggest-ever loss in its close to two centuries of history.

According to Citigroup's notice to the shareholders for their annual meeting on April 22, the company has similar agreements in place with its Chairman of the Board Winfried Bischoff and its Executive Committee Chairman Robert E Ruben as well.

Rubin, formerly Treasury Secretary of the US during the Presidential tenure of Bill Clinton, entered into the Aircraft Time Sharing Agreement with Citiflight Inc, a subsidiary of Citigroup Inc, on August 10, 2006. During 2007, Rubin reimbursed Citi USD578,889 for personal use of corporate aircraft.

However, the company has not disclosed any such reimbursements by either Bischoff or Pandit. Bischoff had signed this agreement on November seven. Bischoff had also assumed his current role on December 11, while he had served as acting CEO from November nine through December 11, 2007.

The compensation packages of Pandit and Bischoff do not include any compensation or personal benefits under the heads of aircraft or ground transportation, which is in contrast to the package given to Citigroup's former CEO Charles Prince.

During 2007, besides his regular salary, bonus and other monetary and stock-related awards, Prince was also paid USD 170,972 towards aircraft and another USD 6,460 towards the ground transportation heads.

Citigroup said that Prince was required to use the corporate aircraft for all his flights under the company's security policy.

The personal use of corporate aircraft by each executive officer is calculated on the basis of the aggregate incremental cost of the flight to Citi and the aggregate incremental cost is calculated based on a cost-per-flight-hour charge developed by a nationally recognized and independent service.

"The flight-hour charge reflects the direct operating cost of the aircraft, including fuel, lubricants and the like, aircraft hangaring, insurance, airport fees and assessments, customs and permit fees, in-flight food and flight planning and weather services.

In addition, the flight-hour charge also reflects an allocable allowance for the indirect costs of operating the aircraft including a reserve for periodic maintenance, a reserve for engine maintenance and a reserve for general maintenance," the company said.

Cement prices to remain firm in medium-term: CMIE

Mumbai, March 16: Cement prices are expected to remain firm in the medium-term owing to a continued buoyancy in demand, driven by housing and infrastructure sectors and cost pressure faced by cement companies, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) said in its monthly report.

Cement demand remained upbeat during April-January 2007-08, growing by a healthy 9.5 percent against 9.9 per cent recorded in the year-ago period, CMIE said.

The average cement prices in Mumbai rose for the third consecutive month in February to reach Rs 249 per 50 kg bag.

"The proposal of the Railway Minister to cut freight on fly ash is not expected to have a significant impact on cement prices, as a very low proportion of fly ash is transported via rail," it said.

The union budget 2008-09 proposed to hike excise duty on clinker from the current Rs 350 per ton to Rs 450 a ton and to change excise duty on bulk cement from Rs 400 per ton to either 14 percent ad Valorem duty or duty of Rs 400 per ton, whichever is higher.

Bulk cement accounts for less than three percent of total cement consumption in the country and an excise hike would affect a very small segment of cement manufacturers, CMIE said.

Continuing its decelerating trend, cement production grew by a modest five percent in January 2008, it said, adding production growth has tapered off in recent months.

This reflected in the aggregate cement production growth during April-January 2007-08, which moderated to seven per cent against 10.6 percent posted in the year-ago period. This could be attributed to a deceleration in production growth in the western, central and eastern zones.

Of the total 12.7 million tons of new capacity that was commissioned during April-February 2008, only 2.8 million tons came on stream in these regions.

"The capacity limitations led to a muted production growth. Considering slow pace of capacity additions, we do not expect the cumulative production growth to pick up significantly," the CMIE report said.

CMIE has also revised its annual production growth forecast for FY 08 downwards to 7.2 percent.

MS to buy online ad technology firm Rapt

Seattle, March 15: Microsoft Corp said on Friday it plans to acquire Rapt, a software company used by Web publishers to manage advertising sales, for an undisclosed sum.

Microsoft said Rapt's Web-based software will be bundled into its Atlas Publisher Suite, a set of tools used by Web sites to manage advertising. Microsoft bought Atlas as part of its USD 6 billion acquisition of aQuantive last year.

Microsoft sees the size of the online advertising market doubling to USD 80 billion by 2010. It has made a series of acquisitions to fill out its offerings for advertisers and publishers in an effort to catch Web search leader Google Inc.

The company has also made an unsolicited offer to buy ***** Inc in order to create a viable alternative to Google in Web services and digital advertising.

Rapt's clients include CNET Networks Inc, News Corp's Dow Jones, New York Times Co, Reuters Group Plc and other major media companies.

Market mayhem: Hedgers running for cover
16 Mar, 2008, 0000 hrs ....................

Crazy kiya re. That’s the only way to describe the carnage in commodity markets over the last fortnight. And we are not talking just India here. There is not a single player left unhurt. The shorts have been killed by margin calls. The longs are caught by surprise. Hedgers are scurrying for cover.

Realistically, there is no way you can anticipate a double-digit rally in fuel, food, fibre and metals within three weeks. Even the most bullish trader didn’t bargain for a 43% jump in coal, or a 23% leap in rice, or a 13% spurt in sugar.

The spikes are baffling. Non-oil commodity prices surged 9% in February due to supply tightness and strong investment demand. There were substantial increases in a number of commodities, particularly for coal and fertilisers, the latter partly due to strong demand fuelled by high agriculture prices.

Crude rose 3% to average $93.4/bbl, and reached $100/bbl in early March, with WTI reaching nearly $106/bbl. Coal prices soared 43% to $131/t, due to a supply squeeze.
Agriculture prices jumped 8.5% in February, led by a 15% gain in grains. Vegetable oil prices were up sharply on strong demand for food and bio-diesel. Beverage prices jumped 12%. Metals and minerals prices climbed 7%, with large gains in lead, aluminium and copper. Silver increased 10% on strong investment demand and as a hedge against inflation and the weakening dollar.

But before anyone could catch their breath, US markets in grains and veg oils plummeted. The losses in corn and soya bean defy belief.

When prices show such extreme movements, exchanges have no choice but to collect special margins. For those caught unawares, the sky fell. How do you find a few lakhs in spare (and tax-paid) cash at a day’s notice? That became a huge issue for many. There were unconfirmed reports of some punters on NBoT threatening to commit suicide. Brokerages dealing with small retail investors were equally hit.


Things were not so bad on the national exchanges. Most people paid up their mark-to-market. But having done that, they didn’t have the courage or the wherewithal to punt aggressively once again. So while volumes have not dropped overall, traders have been forced to exit some counters to pay up for others. Many legitimate hedgers were forced to liquidate positions.

The market’s troubles didn’t end there. Futures markets were moving up because of technical factors. So their movements were not reflected in the demand-supply-driven physical markets. Because of this disconnect, business in the spot markets dried up. Given the risk, most merchants have totally withdrawn from the spot market, making it very difficult, if not impossible, for producers to get decent bids for their supplies. Since the basis is widening, forward contracts in the spot markets are thin on the ground. Defaults are rampant.

Internationally, a lot of large trading companies are booking huge losses for the same medley of reasons. Quite a few are no longer considered good enough for doing business on credit. Since MNCs have a global footprint, they face the challenge of meeting delivery commitments in one country, while dealing with farmer defaults in another, and exchange losses in a third.

So what’s next? A market watcher I met Thursday says that if left unchecked, the big funds on US exchanges are eventually going to swallow up physical market players. He believes that funds are trying to force out physical market hedgers and commercial traders by making them pay bigger and bigger margin calls and mark-to-market.

Eventually, only the large funds with fathomless pockets would play with commodity derivatives, driving out the rest. That sounds like a conspiracy theory. But I’d tend to agree. The sheer scale of investment lends weight to his theory. Take just ETFs. According to Morgan Stanley, global ETF assets at the end of 2007 was at $796.60 billion, a 41% increase from the previous year. Growth in commodities ETFs increased 87%, to $6.32 billion. The largest oil ETF, United States Oil held almost $1.27 billion in assets in January 2007.

This inflow isn’t too surprising. Every i-banker worth his bonus knows commodities are the easiest way to recession-proof a portfolio. Businesses can go bankrupt. Commodities can’t. Commodities have a low-to-negative correlation to nearly every other asset in the typical portfolio. That makes them worth picking up, and ETFs, hedge funds and index funds are quick to learn.

But their entry has completely distorted the very purpose and objective of commodity derivatives. There’s something odd going on when we set up a derivative platform for transparent and reliable price discovery, but then find no willing buyer in the physical market at those prices. Many producers have ‘discovered’ a price they like and wish to sell, but when they go to their usual cash market, no window is open because of the risk and uncertainty.

The problem is now so complex that there are no easy answers either with the US regulator CFTC, or at a pinch, with our own FMC. All that traders can do right now is to remember that any day above ground and vertical is a good day.

to construct twin towers with all modern facilities
16 Mar, 2008, 1801 hrs IST, PTI

NEW DELHI: Delhi based real estate firm Omaxe today announced to start a high end project with luxury apartments and penthouses in Noida by investing Rs 180 crore approximately.

The company would construct an area of 3 Lacs sq ft in the project named; Omaxe Twin Towers, which would be one of the tallest building in the NCR region.

The 19 floor residential tower will have all the modern facilities and would be completed within 30 months, the company said in a statement.

Speaking on the occasion, Rohtas Goel, CMD, Omaxe said the Twin Towers is one of those projects which will house comfort for all, right from luxury to easy connectivity, gifting all inhabitants a luxurious gateway to living style.

DLF exposed to risks from foray into non-realty mkts: Crisil
14 Mar, 2008, 1905 hrs IST, PTI

NEW DELHI: DLF Ltd, the country's biggest realty firm, is exposed to "significant business risks" from its planned diversification beyond core real estate sector as most of these new ventures are capital intensive and have long gestation periods, rating agency Crisil has said.

Crisil said in a rating note that its ratings on DLF's bank loan facilities, long-term and short-term borrowings are driven by "the company's strong business risk profile, robust financial risk profile, conservative financial policy and significant financial flexibility".

However, it observed that these strengths are partially offset by the risks inherent to the Indian real estate industry and DLF's aggressive plan to diversify into non-real estate businesses.

While taking note of DLF's plans to invest in non-realty businesses like hospitality, insurance, asset management and wind energy, the agency said that "these new ventures are capital intensive and have long gestation periods. Crisil, therefore, believes that DLF will be exposed to significant business risk as a result of such a diversification".

Crisil said it has given a stable outlook for DLF, believing that the company's strong business risk profile and conservative gearing policy would considerably reduce the impact of any downturn in India's realty sector on its credit risk profile.

Crisil noted that outlook may be revised to 'positive' if the company is able to execute its new ventures successfully, without an adverse impact on its financial risk profile.

"The strong market position, low-cost land bank and high economies of scale of development characterise the strong business risk profile of the company," it said.

Lenovo plans to become No. 1 in India
13 Mar, 2008, 2008 hrs IST............

NEW DELHI: The world's fourth largest computer maker Lenovo Group today said it plans to become the top PC maker in the India by next three years.

"India is an important market to us ... besides launching new products, we will also enhance our retail presence and after sales service to become the no. 1 PC maker in the country," Lenovo Senior Vice President and President (Consumer Business Group) Liu Jun said.

The company would focus on overseas investment in emerging markets like India, Brazil, Mexico, the Middle East and Eastern Europe, he added.

The PC maker today launched a consumer PC brand -- Idea, which includes notebooks called IdeaPad and desktops called IdeaCentre.

"Lenovo has a significant focus on the consumer segment in India," Lenovo India Executive Director (Transaction Business) Anil Philip said, adding that the company would continue to focus on the Indian market.

"We have more than 100 exclusive stores in the country and plan to open more stores to increase our retail presence and reach the consumers," he said.

The new range of notebooks include--- IdeaPad Y710, IdeaPad Y510 and IdeaPad U110 and the desktop range include IdeaCentre K 200 and IdeaCentre Q200. The IdeaPad range starts from Rs 42,000 and the IdeaCentre from Rs 23,050.

The launch of Lenovo's Idea brand in India follows its global launch in January this year, part of multi-pronged strategy to grow faster and more profitably than the industry average.

The company plans to roll out its marketing campaign called "Idea Everywhere", featuring its brand ambassadors Saif Ali Khan and Soha Ali Khan in April this year.

India can become major IT force: Infosys Chief
15 Mar, 2008, 2222 hrs IST, PTI

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: India was enjoying its moment in world's attention and should use the trend to the best of its capability to become a major IT force in the global IT industry, Infosys CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan said on Saturday.

Kerala, which had a quiet beginning in the IT field, had become one of the most sought-after IT destination in the country, he said delivering an address on `IT Vision 2020' at the valedictory function of Kerala IT.Com 2008 at Technopark.

Indian IT industry worked on a few advantages like costs, demography, IT viable ecosystem and quick adoption to latest technology. The country could use these advantages for a few more years to change the dynamics of the industry.


It is imperative that India takes the right steps to use this period to plan and get ready for real action," he said.

He wanted radical changes for development of IT industry in the country by building integrated townships to improve and provide comfortable lifestyle, better planning of cities to do away with cluster.

The number of graduates and their quality should be increased by grooming them to become global employees. Quality and quantity of research should be improved, he said.

Asking to reduce dependency in foreign companies, he said investments should be heavily made in domestic IT industry and promote homegrown successful companies like IBS, SunTec, Nest and US Technology and build an environment suitable for entrepreneurship.

Kerala Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Vijayakumar said the state government planned to make Thiruvananthapuram as the IT corridor of Kerala.