Bay watcher says trade with United States alive and kicking

A rhetorical president Obama may now and then thunder against companies exporting jobs to countries such as India, often citing Bangalore as an example of how Americans are losing out, ground reality suggests the business linkages, not just in infotech, between the two countries are not only unharmed but can only grow stronger.

India's business ties with one area of the US the San Francisco Bay City, which is home to Silicon valley and Stanford University proof enough. Consider: Levi Strauss has 450 exclusive outlets in 80 Indian cities.

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NTPC offers cheap loans to staff for FPO

Worried about the tepid response from small investors and high net worth individuals (HNIs) to its share offer, NTPC has taken some rearguard action to make the issue sale able to at least its own employees. It is offering cheap loans to induce its staff to buy.

At the end of Thursday, the second of the three days when the issue is open, bids for 4.7 million shares were received from non-institutional investors, out of their quota of 62 million shares. Bids from retail investors were for 476,000 shares, out of their reserved quota of about 1.43 million shares.

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Get ready to pay more for fuel, gas

Petrol, diesel, cooking gas and kerosene prices will go up if the government accepts recommendations made by the Kirit S Parikh committee, which submitted its report on the pricing of petroleum products on Wednesday. The report will go to the cabinet for a decision in 7-10 days, petroleum minister Murli Deora said.

The committee, whose other members are Isher Judge Ahluwalia, Suman Beri and petroleum secretary S Sundareshan, has called for an unequivocal decontrol of petrol and diesel prices, which, it has said, should be market-determined both at the refinery gate and retail level.

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Green energy a priority in Indo-German cooperation

Cooperation in the fields of renewable energy and increasing energy efficiency would continue to be priorities in Indo-German development cooperation, German President Horst Kohler said on Tuesday at a business session jointly organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) and the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce (IGCC). He, however, stressed that climate protection can work only with binding and verifiable rules for everyone.

Kohler also emphasised the co-operation between the two countries in the scientific sphere, and announced the setting up of two new centres of science and technology.

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Falcon Tyres plans to raise Rs 1,000 crore

The BSE listed Falcon Tyres will raise Rs 1,000 crore by way of right issue of equity shares, warrant and any other convertible instrument, or a combination of all. Approval for the same had been given at a board meeting of the company on January 29.

The company will appoint merchant banker and advisors over the next one week to take a final call of structure and pricing of the issue, Pawan Kumar Ruia, chairman of the Ruia group, which now owns Falcon Tyres, told Financial Chronicle on Monday.

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Zylog to buy Brainhunter for Rs 150 crore

IT services company Zylog Systems will acquire Brainhunter for about 35 million Canadian dollars (about Rs 150 crore). The deal will be closed on February 17 and the acquisition marks Zylog's entry into Canada.

"The total worth of Brainhunter is about 200 million Canadian dollars but the valuation got reduced because it ran into trouble with creditors," said SP Srihari, director and chief financial officer of Zylog. "We have acquired a court order (approving the acquisition) after emerging as the successful bidder. Zylog will directly pay the creditors through the Canadian court, " he added.

According to Brainhunter's website, the company announced on December 2 that it will file for court protection from creditors under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act.

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Magic worx!

For all the hoopla surrounding Apple's new slender tablet computer, the question is whether the iPad can achieve anything close to the success of the iPhone, which transformed the cellphone and forced the industry to race to catch up.

Apple is positioning the device, which was introduced Wednesday after months of speculation, as a pioneer in a new genre of computing, somewhere between a laptop and a smartphone. ``The bar is pretty high,'' Steven P Jobs, CEO of Apple, acknowledged. '' It has to be far better at doing some key things.''

Half an inch, or 1.3 cm, thick and weighing 1.5 pounds, or 0.7 kg, the device will vividly display books, web sites and videos on a 9.7-inch glass touch screen.

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