The Hindu Business Line : Friday, February 13, 2009

INDUSTRY & ECONOMY

ECONOMY: Industrial output dips 2% in Dec
Manufacturing index declines 2.5% year-on-year. New Delhi, Feb. 12 Indian industry has recorded a dismal minus two per cent growth in December, with employment-intensive sectors such as textiles, leather, wood products and transport equipment ...

HOTELS: Recession arrow fails to hit romance
CUPID’S MAGIC. Mumbai, Feb. 12 Whoever said money can’t buy you love? Economic slowdown notwithstanding, the party will still be on this Valentine’s ...

ECONOMY: ‘Top brass should be first to take pay cut, if needed’
Mumbai, Feb. 12 Infosys seems to believe in effecting salary cuts rather than firing people, while vouching for supportive measures to small IT companies by the Government to fight the ...

ECONOMY: Do IIP figures negate GDP growth estimate?
New Delhi, Feb. 12 The 7.1 per cent growth rate in the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) for 2008-09 according to the Centre’s ‘advance estimate’ made earlier this week appears to be now on the higher ...

PSU: HAL gets back 450 of its former employees
ALH, Chetak copter business looking up. Bangalore, Feb. 12 Recession seems to be working positively in a way for the State-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, which says it has got back 450 of its former employees after it advertised jobs ...

GEMS & JEWELLERY: RBI sets up task force for diamond industry
‘Lower rates on post-shipment credit will help’. Mumbai, Feb. 12 The diamond trade, currently reeling under the impact of global slowdown in demand, may get some concessions from the banking sector in a month’s ...

KNITWEAR & HOSIERY: Fraying at the seams
Anand Raj is in his early 20s and as a tailor employed in a garment factory in Tamil Nadu's knitwear export belt of Tirupur, about 60 km from Coimbatore, takes home a salary of Rs 3,000. This is no grand sum, but for a Std VII pass from a ...

TOYS: Toy story of hope
Girls from the North East train to make toys for a living. Nanthoibi, 22, from Manipur, hated cutting and sewing. She was known to be something of a shirker. But there she was at Kolkata’s Institute of Toy Making Technology (ITMT), ...

HUMAN RESOURCES: Differentiation mantra for KPOs
The knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) industry is at the cusp of momentous changes. The turmoil in global financial markets and the proven concept of research offshoring may bring substantial rewards and a greater role for the industry as ...

NATURAL CALAMITIES: Waves of harmony
The Laya Project records the music of tsunami survivors across continents. In the wake of the devastating tsunami in2004, the death and destruction spurred people across continents to help the affected. People contributed in whatever way they ...

PETROLEUM: Industrial users of natural gas want product price reduced
New Delhi, Feb. 12 The industrial users of natural gas (R-LNG) as a feedstock have appealed to the Government to not only roll back the increased price of the product, but also reduce the price by at least 20 per cent from its ...

RURAL DEVELOPMENT: SBI reaching out to remote customers
Money transfer through business correspondents. Mumbai, Feb. 12 State Bank of India (SBI), India’s biggest bank, is seeking to leverage technology so that the underprivileged can remit funds to their near and dear ones in the remotest ...

STEEL: SAIL pays Rs 461-cr interim dividend
State-owned Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) on Thursday handed over a cheque of Rs 460.81 crore to the Centre as the interim dividend for 2008-09. The Minister for Steel, Chemicals and Fertilisers, Mr Ram Vilas Paswan, received the cheque ...

BUDGET: TN foodgrains merchants’ plea
The Tamilnadu Foodgrains Merchants Association has sought exemption from e-filing of returns for assessees who sell taxable products with annual turnover of less than Rs 50 lakh. The Government has recently exempted those selling ...

GEMS & JEWELLERY: Gem and jewellery industry seeks relief
Fears more lay-off by month-end; calls for dollar finance. Stung by a massive decline in overseas demand and plummeting margins – with a depreciating rupee further exacerbating import cost of raw materials such as roughs – the gem ...

BUDGET: Interim budget must focus on reviving key drivers of economic growth: ICCI
The interim budget should focus on the revival of the textile spinning, automobile and auto component industries, and the engineering and retail trade that are the worst hit due to the economic downturn since they are the key drivers of ...

ECONOMY: Domestic demand could inject fresh momentum to economy: President
New Delhi, Feb. 12 The President, Ms Pratibha Patil, has said that the Indian economy would register a “relatively high growth” rate even in the prevailing adverse global economic environment. Bucking the global trend, Indian ...

POWER: Reliance Power gets letter of intent for Tilaiya project
New Delhi, Feb. 12 The Letter of Intent for the 4,000-MW ultra mega power project (UMPP) at Tilaiya in Jharkhand was on Thursday handed over to Reliance Power ...

TRAVEL & PLACES: Bangalore to have Swiss Consul office soon
Chennai, Feb. 12 A full-fledged office of the Consul General of Switzerland would soon be in operation in Bangalore along with a Swiss Scientific Office, according to Mr Peter E. Specker, the Swiss Consul General ...

PLASTICS: Assam Govt plans to develop ‘Plastic Park’
Mumbai, Feb. 12 In a bid to generate employment opportunity in the north-eastern region, the Assam government plans to develop a ‘Plastic Park’ on 500 acres with the state-of-the-art infrastructure for the ...

PETROLEUM: IOC seeks Centre’s help for compensation of losses
Mumbai, Feb. 12 Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has urged the Centre to compensate it completely for losses incurred during this ...

FERTILISERS: Fertiliser folly
The Centre’s latest move to provide sops to fertiliser companies producing urea to switch to natural gas hardly helps clear the clutter over the issue of fertiliser pricing and subsidy. The new policy of providing for a ‘special ...

PETROLEUM: HPCL launches 24-hour gas booking facility
Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd is launching a “24 hour LPG refill booking facility” for the benefit of LPG customers in the State. Branded “HP Anytime”, this centralised LPG refill booking facility shall provide ...

EDUCATION: Bridge school for child labourers
...

FOODS & FOOD PROCESSING: Kinfra food processing park soon
Thiruvananthapuram, Feb. 12 Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Kinfra) is preparing to inaugurate its food processing park at Adoor in Pathanamthitta district next ...

EVENTS: Ceremonial arrival
...

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY: ‘Defence satellite will be up by next year’
Bangalore, Feb. 12 The first dedicated defence satellite will be up by the middle of 2010, the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Fali H. Major, has ...

HEALTH: Focus on steps to reduce cardiac problems
Chennai, Feb. 12 There must be a national help-line and ambulance built-in with life saving technology to provide first aid for patients suffering from cardiac arrest as the first one hour is crucial and immediate medical attention can save ...

URBAN DEVELOPMENT: Cisco security initiative for Bangalore
Bangalore, Feb. 12 As part of its global initiative on Intelligent Urbanisation of cities, Cisco launched a pilot project for security and surveillance in Bangalore ...

CARS: Oriental Insurance partners MyTVS
New Delhi, Feb. 12 Oriental Insurance Co has tied up with MyTVS, a multi brand car service solution provider, for offering its customers emergency roadside services. The agreement will cover Oriental Insurance’s 15 lakh ...

EVENTS: Yi summit at ISB
Hyderabad, Feb. 12 Young Indians (Yi), an arm of the Confederation of Indian Industry, will organise a two-day summit on ‘WAKE UP to India @ 75: Make your choice NOW!’, beginning February 14 at Indian School of ...

EDUCATION: Vikram V. Kallianpur, Country Head-HR, Virtusa India; Loyola Academy, Alwal
In a highly competitive corporate world, continuous upgradation of skills and performance have assumed a new level of significance. Even in day-to-day affairs, managing one’s skills and filling performance gaps has become a vital ...