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Howrah-Delhi Rajdhani to soon have Wi-Fi facility
New Delhi, May 1: The Howrah-Delhi Rajdhani is set to become the first train in India to have Wi-Fi connectivity that would enable passengers to access internet during their rail journey.
Railways have awarded the Rs 5.3 crore contract for making equipping three rakes of the Delhi-Howrah-Delhi Rajdhani with the facility.
While the satellite link-up cost is more than Rs 1 crore, it would cost about Rs 4 crore for the equipment to facilitate internet access, a senior Railway Ministry official said.
Internet facility is expected to be fully operational in two months.
Besides the Howrah Rajdhani, the Railways have plans to equip other Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains with Wi-Fi facility in the future.
"The trials conducted in Mumbai-Ahmedabad Shatabdi Express in January was found to be successful. So the proposal to provide internet on selected trains is being implemented," the official said.
A Rajdhani passenger has to get a password from the TTE for accessing the internet on a laptop. "The password will be passed on to the passenger through SMS on his mobile phone," the
official said.
Railways, however, have not decided whether the facility will be provided free of cost or would be a paid service.
"We are sure both business travellers and commuters would be interested in using wireless services on trains," the official said.
Amar Bose gives majority of company stock to alma mater MIT
Boston, May 1 : Indian-American billionaire Amar Bose, founder of the iconic Bose Corporation, has given his alma mater MIT a majority of the stock of his audio equipment maker company, a gift that fulfills his "long-held desire" to support education at the prestigious institute.
Massachusetts-based Bose Corp will continue to remain a private and independent company and MIT cannot sell its Bose shares.
"Dr Amar Bose has given to MIT (where he also taught) the majority of the stock of Bose Corporation in the form of non-voting shares," the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said in a statement here.
In a letter to Bose Corporation employees, the company''s founder paid tribute to his mentors at MIT -- Professors Y W Lee, Norbert Wiener and Jerome Wiesner.
He said the gift represents his long-held desire to support MIT education, and reaffirmed the company''s mission to play for the long run.
"We will continue to remain true to the principles upon which our company was founded," Bose, 81, wrote to his employees.
MIT will receive annual cash dividends on those shares when dividends are paid by Bose Corporation. Those cash dividends will be used by the institute to "sustain and advance MIT''s education and research mission."
Under the terms of the gift, MIT cannot sell its Bose shares and will not participate in the management or governance of the company.
"Bose Corporation will remain a private and independent company, and operate as it always has, with no change in strategy or leadership," the letter said.
Bose will remain the company''s Chairman and Technical Director.
Expressing gratitude for the gift, MIT President Susan Hockfield said on Friday, "Amar Bose gives us a great gift today, but he also serves as a superb example for MIT graduates who yearn to cut their own path. Dr Bose set the highest teaching standards, for which he is still admired and loved by his faculty colleagues and the many students he taught."
Attractive salary hikes in store for IT professionals: Experts
New Delhi, May 1: IT industry is likely to witness attractive salary hikes and job offers for experienced professionals, resulting in high attrition over the next few quarters as demand for talent will outstrip supply, say experts.
"It looks like a talent war among the IT companies, where people hold multiple job offers and try to select the best firm. And companies are also making efforts to select best talent pool for their requirements,"said Sunil Goel, Director, GlobalHunt, an executive search firm.
Echoing similar view, staffing services firm Manpower India Head (Sales and Marketing), Namr Kishore said, "In India, demand far outstrips genuine qualified supply. Companies are vying for the best talent and are ready to offer hefty packages for the same, luring the employees to switch jobs at a swift pace."
Wage hikes have been very good in IT companies this year. It has been 15-25 per cent. And for niche and critical skills, companies have given 30-45 per cent hikes while recruiting or retaining talent for specific projects.
"The trends seen so far is as per expectation and after tier one companies having set the expectation other companies can do not much but follow the trend to a large extent," said Thammaiah B N, Director, India Kelly IT Resources, Kelly Services, a global workforce player.
Thammaiah said he expects hikes in the range of 10-15 per cent broadly, and around 20 per cent for niche skills or business critical roles.
Experts said that such high salary hikes by IT companies will be sustainable at least for the next few quarters as firms usually deliver projects through a mix of freshers and experienced resources.
Besides, they added, not all employees receive such hikes. Only the top performers do, rest employees get around 8-10 per cent hike.
Profitability of most Indian software companies are likely to come down to 15-20 per cent, which are international standards, from present 25-30 per cent. But the fact that these companies are regularly bagging huge projects might help them sustain the current profitability, Kishore said.
"Attrition has become the DNA, which is required from both the sides. If IT professionals do not change jobs and upgrade themselves as per latest technology, then they may get outdated. The same applies to the companies too, if they do not innovate model and market themselves, they may get outdated," Goel said.
Air India pilots strike disrupts Mid-East flights
Dubai, May 1 ): Up to 90 per cent of Air India's flights have been affected by a pilots' strike that entered its fifth day on Sunday.
In Abu Dhabi, Air India is not accepting new bookings for the next three days for flights it operates in the Middle East and Africa, Abhay Pathak, the airline's regional manager told Gulf News on Saturday.
"Instead of the Airbus A321 operating on the Delhi and Mumbai routes from Dubai, we have substituted it with Boeing 747-400 aircraft to accommodate all passengers. The passengers from Abu Dhabi, from where we have two daily flights, are being brought to Dubai," Pathak said.
"For the Sharjah-Amritsar flight we are clubbing with the Dubai-Amritsar flight of Air India Express. For Hyderabad, we have chartered a flight from Air Arabia, while the Dubai-Goa flight has been cancelled and the passengers bound for that flight have been transferred to Qatar Airways," he added.
Pathak said all Kerala-bound passengers are being put on Air India Express flights operating from Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
"The same flight schedules will be repeated tomorrow, if the current situation continues. We are calling our passengers and updating them on the situation," Pathak added.
Meanwhile, according to a Bloomberg report, close to 150 flights were grounded yesterday as nearly half of Air India's 1,600 pilots continued their strike despite facing a possible six-month jail sentence for contempt of court and amid talks of a partial lockout.
Air India has reportedly cancelled 150 flights and re-scheduled 35 out of its daily 225 domestic network. While 60 flights were cancelled in Mumbai, 14 were grounded in Kolkata and 12 in Kerala.
"We will operate just around 40 flights nationally, which includes 13 flights from Delhi, where on an average we have 52 flights," a senior Air India official with the operational arm of the airline told the news wire.
According to the official, 100 domestic flights of its subsidiary arm of Alliance Air were still operating.
Sony No.2 Hirai apologises for massive data breach
TOKYO- Kazuo Hirai, the frontrunner to take over the top job at Sony Corp, apologised on Sunday for a security breach that allowed hackers to gain access to personal information on 77 million accounts for its PlayStation Network service.
"We apologise deeply for causing great unease and trouble to our users," Hirai said before he and other executives bowed deeply at a briefing in Tokyo.
Gold soars to historic level on global cues, silver tumbles
Mumbai, Apr 30 :Gold prices soared further to reach another historic level at the bullion market here today on persistent buying by stockists and investors on the back of bullish global rally.
Silver tumbled following sustained selling by speculators amid reduced industrial offtake.
In overseas market, the precious metals settled for record as the yellow metal jumped more than USD 25 and silver by 2 per cent over falling dollar and inflationary concerns.
Standard gold (99.5 purity) shot up by a hefty Rs 565 per 10 grams to end at Rs 22,710 from Friday''s closing level of Rs 22,145.
Pure gold (99.9 purity) also surged by a similar margin of Rs 565 per 10 grams to conclude at Rs 22,815 from Rs 22,250 yesterday.
However, silver ready (.999 fineness) plunged by Rs 1,085 per kg to finish at Rs 71,825 from overnight closing level of Rs 72,910.
In New York, gold for June delivery climbed by USD 25.20 to settle at USD 1,556.40 an ounce on the Comex division of the NYMEX.
Silver for July contract also closed higher by USD 1.06 at USD 48.60 an ounce.
Infosys management rejig: SD Shibulal to be the CEO and MD of Infosys
BANGALORE: IT bellwether and India's second largest software exporter rejigged its management on Saturday and announced banker KV Kamath as its new chairman. KV Kamath will succeed NR Narayana Murthy who is one of the founding members of the company.
The over $6-billion Infosys Technologies has also appointed current CEO S Gopalakrishnan as the executive co-chairman and promoted chief operating officer (COO) S D Shibulal as CEO and MD. Murthy, who turns 65 in August, will become Chairman Emeritus for life.
Kamath is currently an independent director on the board of Infosys. He is the non-Executive Chairman of ICICI Bank, the country's largest private lender. Accepting his new job, Kamath said that no one can ever replace Narayana Murthy who is an iconic leader as far as the nation is concerned. He added, "It is an honour to lead a team that has achieved so much. I have known Murthy for many years. He has a built a company not only with intellect but also strong values. And I would like to take this forward to a new level with the help of my new team." He will spend 30 days in a year in Infosys in his new role.
Talking to the media, Murthy said, "KV has been a close associate and he has been part of the board for nearly 10 years. I also take this opportunity to announce Shibulal as the company's new CEO and Managing Director."
While talking about Shibulal's commitment Murthy recounted an anecdote. When they worked in Patni, he came to report about the progress in a systems software project. Murthy angrily told Shibu that he could not leave office till he completed this work. Two days later he zipped by office and found Shibu still in office in his "lungi" working diligently on the job that his then boss, Murthy, had asked him to complete. "This is the level of commitment Shibulal demonstrates," said Murthy.
Our live updates from the press conference
Read about Infosys in the last 30 years
Infosys Technologies will now be renamed Infosys Limited. All new appointments would be effective from August 21, 2011. Kris Gopalakrishnan said that the company will name three new directors by June 11, 2011. He stressed that Infosys was aligning various units under four business groups.
Shibulal takes over from Gopalakrishnan, who in turn replaced Nandan Nilekani. Talking to the press, SD Shibulal said, "Objective is to build a next generation global services company and focus on strengthening client relationships." Shibulal added that Infosys next phase would be called Infosys V 3.0 and the company would be looking at GDM on cloud as its key driver.
The company has also realigned its verticals into 4 key business units, Shibulal added. When asked about how the company will deal with the transition, he said, "We will ensure that this leadership transition is smooth... We are also making other organisational changes to strengthen our market position and ability to serve our clients better".
Headquartered in Bangalore, Infosys has 64 offices and 63 development centres across the US, the UK, China, Australia and Japan, among other countries.
The company and its subsidiaries had a workforce of 1,30,820 employees as of March 31, 2011.
Shifting your loan? Here are some pointers
A home loan transfer (also known as refinancing or balance transfer) is an option that most individuals opt for to avail the benefit from lower interest rates prevalent in the market.
Usually the existing borrower of a bank who is about 2 or more years into his loan tenure does not get the benefit of reducing interest rates in the market. RBI has been insisting on lower interest benefits to be passed on to the existing borrowers as well but it seldom happens but is expected to become a reality in the base rate regime. Individuals looking for better interest rates could discuss with their bank on re-negotiating the interest rates based on the good repayment track record etc. If the bank is not amenable, then they could shift to another bank which offers a lower interest rate prevalent in the market.
How does the process work
You will need to submit a letter to the existing lender requesting a loan transfer. Based on your request, the bank will give a consent letter / NOC and a statement mentioning the outstanding amount. This needs to be provided to the new lender who then sanctions your loan amount to the old lender for an account closure. Once the transaction is over, your property documents will be handed over to the new lender, the remaining post dated cheques / ECS will be cancelled.
The bank you are shifting to will offer you a loan based on the current home loan rates they are offering to their home loan applicants.
A prepayment penalty will be levied by your existing lender which can vary anywhere between 2%-5% of the principal outstanding of the loan at the time of refinance. SBI recently has done away with prepayment penalty charges, it remains to be seen if other banks will follow suit!
Also, remember that you will also need to pay a processing fee to the new lender.
This can range anywhere between 0.5% and 1% of the loan applied, most banks restrict this amount to Rs.5000.
Another important aspect is the timing of your loan switch. If you are planning to switch your loan after most of your interest has been repaid, it will not make money sense as you will be shelling out more with the switch!
Factor in all these costs when comparing the total loan cost between the two offers. If you feel there is a significant amount of interest to be saved from the move, then you can make a profitable switch.
Recently SBI hiked its base rate by 0.25%. More hikes are expected from other banks soon. SBI has also withdrawn its teaser loan schemes from the market. On the positive side as mentioned earlier it has also dropped prepayment penalty charges in line with RBI expectations. If your bank (if it's not SBI that is) also decides to drop prepayment penalty charges, it will augur well for you! Hence it would be in the borrower's best interest to wait it out till rates stabilise to choose an ideal deal for a switch.
Remember that for a home loan switch you need go through all the procedures involved afresh. These include a credit appraisal, legal verification of property documents and technical evaluation with the new bank etc. and a loan will be approved only when conditions are met.
Apart from saving on interest there are a few other reasons as well to switch a home loan, these include:
Bank is not agreeable to change loan terms: You might want to re-negotiate certain terms and conditions with your bank. For example, you might wish to extend the tenure of your loan to lower your EMI, your bank might not be ready for this change and hence prompt a shift.
Top up loan: The property value might have climbed much higher from its original price. On the basis of this you might want a top up loan to meet a money requirement or for a home renovation perhaps. If your lender is not open to finance this you might opt for a new lender.
Service issues: Sometimes you might just be unhappy with your bank's service and accessibility, which might prompt a change.
Things to watch out for:
It is always better to switch the loan early on during the tenure as you would have already paid out a substantial amount of the interest due initially.
In the recent past a loan transfer was the most sought after when teaser loan schemes hit the market. However one should keep in mind that the teaser rate will contractually rise after a stipulated time frame.
Get statements from your current lender stating that property documents will be dispatched within a certain time frame to avoid hassles on this front.
Remember that a loan switch will not be possible if you have been irregular with your loan repayment with your current lender.
Air India cancels 130 flights as pilots' stir enters fourth day
New Delhi, April 30:Close to 130 flights were grounded Saturday as nearly half of Air India's 1,600 pilots continued their stir for the fourth day, despite facing a six-month jail for contempt of court and talks of a partial lockout of the flag carrier.
The strike has caused a net loss of Rs.26 crore to the airline, already facing one of its worst financial crises with losses mounting to nearly $3 billion since 2007 when Indian Airlines was merged with Air India under a new entity -- National Aviation Company of India Limited.
'Nobody can dictate terms to the government, especially a few pilots. They are one of the highest paid people in this country,' said Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi, who has totally backed the airline management after briefing the federal cabinet.
According to an airline official, the management is also considering an extension in the suspension of further bookings beyond the originally planned Sunday. 'There are various options being considered. But certainly the pilots will not dictate terms.'
On its part, the Delhi High Court Friday initiated contempt proceedings against the members of the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA), the union behind the strike and whose members were on the payroll of erstwhile Indian Airlines.
Justice Gita Mittal initiated sou motto criminal contempt of court proceedings against the union after its members refused to return to work despite the her earlier order, restraining them from going ahead with the strike or holding further demonstrations.
What has irked the stranded passengers, numbering thousands across the country, even more was the steep 50-75 percent hike in fares charged by private airlines.
In the Delhi-Mumbai sector, for example, some passengers said the base fare that goes up to Rs.2,400-Rs.3,000 for last-minute bookings, had been jacked up to as much as Rs.7,500 by some carriers, resulting in a one-way cost of Rs.11,500, including various levies.
'Some carriers are charging even more,' said Pallavi Garg, a teacher, who was looking at last-minute offers in some travel sites to go to Mumbai from the capital. The minimum fare, she found, was Rs.6,198 and the maximum touched Rs.27,601 in Kingfisher and Jet.
Mumbai airport shuts down for five hours
Mumbai, April 30 : Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport will remain shut for five hours Saturday for maintenance work, an official said.
However, no major flight delays are expected as all flights landing at or departing from Mumbai during this slot have been rescheduled, an airport official said.
The closure will be between 11.30 a.m. and 4.30 p.m. as the airport is in the process of carrying out major maintenance work on the main runway, including shifting and realigning of the edge and centre lights of the runway.
It will be re-opened for normal flight operations Saturday late afternoon.
Facebook investors look for exits
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A group of Facebook shareholders is seeking to offload $1 billion worth of shares on the secondary market, a sale that would value the company at more than $70 billion, according to five sources with direct knowledge of the situation.
It would represent one of the largest transactions of Facebook shares to date and points to a growing wariness among early-stage investors and employees who fear Facebook 's growth cannot keep pace with its market valuation.
The sellers have lowered their price after previously trying to offload shares at a price that valued the company at $90 billion, which would make Facebook more valuable than Time Warner Inc and News Corp combined. But buyers balked.
"At the current valuation where it is, it is really hard to justify the investment," said Sumeet Jain, partner at venture capital firm CMEA Capital, who has examined Facebook deals recently and has taken a pass. "It's hard to imagine it will turn into a $270 billion company in the next few years."
The current deal, which includes stock held by Facebook employees, is awaiting approval from top Facebook executives including Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and Chief Financial Officer David Ebersman, according to two sources.
Facebook declined to comment.
Investors, ranging from venture capital firms to rich individuals to investment banks, have scrambled to get a piece of the privately held company before its expected IPO next year.
Facebook raised $500 million from Goldman Sachs Group, and Russia 's Digital Sky Technologies, for instance, giving it a market value of $50 billion. Weeks later, private equity firm General Atlantic piled into the company, valuing it at $65 billion, according to CNBC.
Tim Draper, the well known venture capital partner who founded Draper Fisher Jurvetson, told Reuters this month he recently looked at buying shares of Facebook deals, but passed because of an unattractive valuation.
One wealthy person, who has fielded calls for the past month involving Facebook pitches in the range of $200 million to $1 billion, is also sitting on the sidelines.
"It's priced to perfection in the private marketplace," said the person, who did not want to be named. The person said the pitches implied a valuation of $90 billion. "I don't like to own anything I can't sell right now."
Created in a Harvard University dorm room in 2004, Facebook rocketed from an online directory created for college students to the world's No. 1 social network with more than 500 million members worldwide.
The company's astounding growth and popularity have put some of the Internet's biggest guns on notice -- including Google Inc -- and have made it the darling of investors seeking to stake out claims in private companies before they go public.
Facebook , the world's No. 1 Internet social network, earned $355 million in net income in the first nine months of 2010 on revenue of $1.2 billion.
It is one of a handful of Internet companies including Twitter, Groupon and Zynga whose soaring valuations recall the heady days of the late 1990s.
It is questionable whether new investors would realize the exponential growth that early-stage investors got in Facebook , said Oppenheimer & Co managing director Stephen Todd Walker.
That's particularly true, he said, as the company faces more competition abroad from social networking sites like China's Renren Inc, which is expected to go public next week.
"For Facebook , the larger you get, the harder it is to have that explosive growth," said Walker.
Nonetheless, an array of investors has piled into Facebook . Mutual fund giant T. Rowe Price recently disclosed that several of its funds owned stakes in Facebook , valuing the company at $25 per share, which implies a valuation of $50 billion.
Yet one hedge fund manager who passed on smaller Facebook deals recently said that, for him, the opportunity to get in on the action had passed.
"By the time T. Rowe Price is investing," he said, "you know it's too late."
Stronger than steel 'paper' to make cars!
Sydney, April 29 : A composite material based on paper thin graphite and 10 times stronger than steel is set to revolutionise the automotive, aviation, electrical and optical industries, experts predict.
Graphene paper or GP, developed by Guoxiu Wang's research team from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), can be processed, reshaped and reformed from its original raw material state.
Compared to steel, the prepared GP is six times lighter, five to six times lower in density, two times harder with 10 times higher tensile strength and 13 times higher bending rigidity, the Journal of Applied Physics reports.
Researchers have successfully milled the raw graphite by purifying and filtering it with chemicals to reshape and reform it into nano-structured configurations which are then processed into sheets as thin as paper, according to a university statement.
Lead researcher Ali Reza Ranjbartoreh said: 'Not only is it lighter, stronger, harder and more flexible than steel, it is also a recyclable and sustainably manufacturable product that is eco-friendly and cost effective in its use.'
Ranjbartoreh said the results would allow the development of lighter and stronger cars and planes that use less fuel, generate less pollution, are cheaper to run and ecologically sustainable.
He said large aerospace companies such as Boeing have already started to replace metals with carbon fibres and carbon-based materials, and graphene paper with its incomparable mechanical properties would be the next material for them to explore.
Supreme Court suspends 10 mining leases in Karnataka
New Delhi, April 29 : The Supreme Court Friday suspended 19 mining leases in Karnataka following a report of the Central Empowered Committee saying that the operators were involved in illegal mining.
The committee said these mines, located in Ramgadh area of Bellary district, had illegally encroached on forest areas.
The apex court's forest bench of Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia, Justice Aftab Alam and Justice K.S. Panicker Radhakrishnan said that the mining operations in respect of these 19 leases would immediately come to a halt and the extracted iron ore would not be allowed to be transported out.
Bellary, a mineral rich district, is about 300 km from Karnataka's capital Bangalore and borders Andhra Pradesh.
Fortis to list 2 entities worth $1.5 bln in Singapore - IFR
SINGAPORE - Fortis Group, controlled by billionaire brothers Malvinder and Shivinder Singh, plans to list two of its health care entities in Singapore in public offers worth up to $1.5 billion, IFR reported on Friday.
New Delhi-based hospital chain Fortis Healthcare, plans to spin off its assets into a business trust that will list on the Singapore exchange in a $500 million initial public offering, IFR said.
The company also received an approval from its board earlier this month to acquire an 86 percent stake in Super Religare Laboratories, a diagnostic services firm, and is targeting to open at least 25 hospitals in India's second and third-tier towns over the next two years.
Citigroup, Nomura, RBS, Religare Capital Markets and Standard Chartered have been mandated for the Singapore listing.
Singapore-based Fortis Global Healthcare, the global arm of the group and owned by the Singh brothers, is also planning a share offering worth up to $1 billion, said IFR, a unit of Thomson Reuters.
The company's assets include Quality Healthcare in Hong Kong, a stake in Dental Corporation in Australia and a 28.6 percent stake in Lanka Hospitals Corp Plc in Sri Lanka.
DBS Bank and Religare Capital Markets have been mandated for the listing.
