Buyers market » Current affairs

Asians more likely to buy gold in next 6 months

admin — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 13:53:25 +0000

Asian investors are more likely to buy gold in the next six months than their North American and European counterparts, a global survey found.

Already the gold prices are hiking up on a daily basis. It has become a luxury for middle class people to buy them. However, it proves to be a very good investment.

US, India sign pact on reprocessing of nuclear spent fuel

admin — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 13:44:41 +0000

India and US have signed an agreement on reprocessing of American nuclear spent fuel by India, marking the final steps in terms of implementation of the landmark civil nuclear deal between the two countries.

Upon entry into force, the arrangements and procedures will enable reprocessing by India of the US obligated nuclear material at a new national reprocessing facility to be established by India, dedicated to the reprocessing of safeguarded nuclear material under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards.

BSNL reports 1st-ever loss of Rs 1,823cr; 100mn cellular users

admin — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 13:41:24 +0000

State-owned telecom firm BSNL today reported a net loss of Rs 1,823 crore for 2009-10 mainly due to payment of wage arrears for the past three years, as against Rs 575 crore net profit in the previous year.

The company’s total revenues also plunged by over 10 per cent during the year at Rs 32,045 crore (both from services and other income), compared to Rs 35,812 crore in 2008-09, BSNL CMD Kuldeep Goyal told reporters here.

Inflation to dampen by December: Official

admin — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 16:09:47 +0000

India’s wholesale price inflation could come down to 5 per cent to 6 per cent by December, but price pressures in the economy may prompt the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to resort to tightening through unpredictable moves, a top government official said on Tuesday.

Infosys Q1 net falls 2.4%, raises annual outlook

admin — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 15:56:33 +0000

Infosys Technologies Ltd reported a surprise 2.6 per cent drop in quarterly profit but raised its full-year revenue forecast on hopes of strong outsourcing demand from overseas clients. India’s No. 2 outsourcer, a trendsetter in the country’s showpiece software services sector, added 1,026 new staff in April-June, its slowest pace of addition in four quarters, sending its shares 2 per cent lower.

Toyota asked to improve worldwide media relations

admin — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 15:50:25 +0000

Toyota Motor Corporation, which recalled over 8.5 million vehicles this year, has been asked by an expert panel to improve its media relations worldwide to ensure better crisis management.

The Japanese car maker has been grappling with millions of recalls due to quality problems, which have negatively impacted the entity’s global image.

A BEFITTING MESSAGE RECEIVED FROM A FRIEND

admin — Sat, 29 May 2010 05:55:52 +0000

This is a master piece. If you have not read it take the time to read it now. If you have read it take time to read it again!

GEORGE CARLIN (His wife recently died…)

Isn’t it amazing that George Carlin – comedian of the 70’s and 80’s – could write something so very eloquent…and so very appropriate.

A Message by George Carlin:

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways , but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We’ve learned how to make a living, but not a life. We’ve added years to life not life to years. We’ve been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We’ve done larger things, but not better things.

We’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We’ve conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We’ve learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to
you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete…

Remember; spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.

Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.

Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn’t cost a cent.

Remember, to say, ‘I love you’ to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.

Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again.

Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

If you don’t send this to at least 8 people….Who cares?

George Carlin

Is Mukesh Ambani venturing into telecom?

admin — Sat, 29 May 2010 05:43:07 +0000

Within days of revoking a non-compete agreement that his group had with younger brother Anil, Reliance Industries (RIL) Chairman Mukesh Ambani is believed to have held a long-drawn discussion with telecom czar Sunil Mittal.

The meeting took place on the day Mukesh Ambani arrived in Delhi on May 26 to attend the Prime Minister’s Council on Trade and Industry meeting.

TCS to hire 30,000 next fiscal

admin — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:02:51 +0000

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the country’s largest software vendor, today said growth in the fourth quarter would continue the momentum of the previous ones and that the IT industry overall would see an improvement in the number of deals in the pipeline.

“The growth is definitely there and we should stick to what we have said earlier… The growth momentum in the last two quarters will continue this quarter also but we have to see whether it will be better than those during the boom days,” TCS Chief Financial Officer and Executive Director S Mahalingam told reporters on the sidelines of a CII-IFRS summit here.

This is indeed a good hope for people who were really affected by recession.

Toyota’s Problems Start at the Top

admin — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:58:02 +0000

When I was a young consultant, my first (and at the time, only) client was a fledgling Toyota, which had only recently entered the American market in a big way. Back in the mid-1970’s, in the wake of the first oil shocks, Toyota was an inspiring company battling for long-term growth and market share in a country that still viewed Japanese products — and the people who made them — with suspicion. To this day, I carry insights with regard to leadership that I learned from Toyota in that period. Toyota could learn a lot from studying its past.
While today’s Toyota’s leaders may be flailing, in its heyday, the company knew what it stood for. It came from the top. Then, Eiji Toyoda ran the company in strong-willed but humble way. He had tremendous respect for his workers. Because it was relatively small, Toyota licensed a great deal of its technology from other companies. As a result, much of what has been called the Toyota Way was based on the continuous refinement of processes and products invented by others. This could be infuriating. When I rebuilt the carburetor of my 1975 Corolla, I was dismayed to find that there were five versions of the carburetor for that year, each one slightly better than the last, each with a different parts list. Such a process could have prevented today’s problems with gas pedals and brakes.
Toyota’s second strength was that Eiji Toyoda allowed leadership to permeate the organization. He listened to his employees and trusted them. He installed suggestion boxes and read what was in them. He gave assembly workers the authority to pull a cord and stop the entire production line if they detected anything that might affect product quality.
Granting that level of authority to assembly workers was unheard of at the time — not just because the rest of the world’s car makers didn’t think the people putting together their products had enough judgment but because stopping the line was expensive. A delay could back up the entire system, from parts deliveries to putting finished vehicles onto trucks, trains, and ships, and onto dealers’ lots. Despite the costs, Toyoda let his workers know they could stop the line.
When I consulted to Toyota it was what I call a Common Purpose organization, in that everybody around the world seemed to know what the company stood for, which, in turn, helped them understand how to do their jobs better. For example, everyone knew that quality was more important than profits, that part of everyone’s job was to fix something that went wrong, and that if they had a concern about a product or process they would be heard. They also knew that selling a second car to a customer was more important than the first. Loyalty counted for a lot.
Back then, in all likelihood, someone would have spotted and fixed a problem with an accelerator pedal or braking system immediately, not after two years and not after it affected more than 2 million cars. Someone would have pulled the cord.
What happened? Some have pointed fingers at the company’s suppliers. But Toyota has always been the least vertically integrated of the automobile companies. It was a networked company of autonomous and semi-autonomous suppliers as far back as the 1950s; some have worked with Toyota since its inception. Its managers were adept at managing supplier relationships to make certain everyone understood the company’s goals. Much has been written on this point. It’s unlikely that Toyota’s managers simply forgot what had been widely hailed as one of the company’s most important attributes.
Others have suggested Toyota’s problems are a result of its size. As the world’s largest automobile company, it has grown too big to manage. This is also not likely the case. Toyota did not grow through mergers or acquisitions, it did so organically. This meant that there was nothing new to integrate into the Toyota system and that there were no clashes of corporate cultures. In addition, Toyota became No. 1, not because of a growth spurt, but because its main rivals fell.
Toyota’s quality problems run deep, but they are not simply a failure of design, or a retreat from best-in-class manufacturing. They are a failure of leadership. The company recently lost its much-respected head of North America to Chrysler, and also went through a transition at the top in Japan. From my own recent experience with the company, many of the executives I met with felt second guessed by their bosses. Numbers, not people, are in the ascendency and workers have lost respect.
When the spirit of Common Purpose is on the wane in an organization, missteps are sure to follow.
Joel Kurtzman is the author of 25 books including: “Common Purpose: How Great Leaders Get Organizations to Achieve the Extraordinary” (Jossey-Bass, March 2010). He is a former Editor of the Harvard Business Review and consults to organizations around the world