Business News

Vodafone shelled out Rs 20 lakh for being the presenting sponsor of the Indian Premier League. Airtel had to dish out Rs 50 lakh for the same distinction on Star Plus's Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass Se Tez Hain? (KAPPSTH).

Satyam Computer Services said on Thursday it plans to appeal in the United States against a UK appeals court verdict that went against it in a case of alleged fraud, forgery and intellectual property rights violation filed by a British firm, Upaid Systems.

The Securities and Appellate Tribunal (SAT) has set aside the Securities and Exchange Board of India's order imposing a fine of Rs 1 crore on Goldman Sachs Investments and also asked the market regulator to pay up Rs 1 lakh to the investment firm as a refund of costs it incurred in the process.

During the busy month of March 2008 when a lot of insurance policies are bought – Indian consumers bought bigger policies. The average policy size compared to March 2007 was 64 per cent bigger in March this year according to a study on Indian life insurance by a global bank.

Lafarge, the world's second largest cement-maker, is in talks with Indian financial institutions, including Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC), to raise over Rs 620 crore to part finance its acquisition of Larsen and Toubro's ready-mix concrete business--L and T Concrete.

The children's apparel business, after seeing small but strong homegrown brands such as Gini and Jony and Lilliput making an impact in the organised ready-to-wear segment, is now attracting the attention of big retailers. A reasonably large market dominated by the unorganised sector, the children's apparel market has now begun to see more focused interest from large organised players.

In a bid to cater to the 24.87 million housing shortage in the country, Delhi-based realty developer Omaxe Ltd. is proposing to invest a whopping Rs 80,000 crore in the next five years to build 1 million affordable housing units in the country. The company has set up a separate subsidiary by the name of National Affordable Housing and Infrastructure Ltd. to develop these affordable housing units.

An early sign emerged on Wednesday that the mega IT acquisition of EDS by old behemoth Hewlett Packard Company (H-P) would bring cheers to techies looking for better pay and prospects amid a US economic slowdown. The $13.9 billion marriage of the two giants is set to heat up the war for talent in the industry – and that probably means salary gains for competitive software experts.

French locomotive giant Alsthom would be interested in setting up a manufacturing facility in joint venture with an Indian partner if manages to win a handsome contract for supplying locomotives to Indian Railways, the French Minister of State for Transport, Dominique Bussereau said on Wednesday.

The government and the Indian toy industry are seeing a major opportunity in the huge US market, but first want to set its house in order. A committee has been set up comprising industry representatives, government officials and civil society members to frame safety standards compatible with the stringent Europe's E N 71 norms for the domestic toy industry.

How can playing musical instruments build a team? That's probably what the 160 employees of Walt Disney India were thinking when a company that is in the business of corporate teambuilding came to the session equipped with percussion instruments that would possibly make for a fine Samba performance.

In a deal with major implications for India, Hewlett-Packard Co (HP), the world's largest PC-maker, is set to acquire service company Electronic Data Systems (EDS) Corp for nearly $14 billion in a deal to take on giant IBM. EDS controls Bangalore-based MphasiS, India's fifth-largest IT company.

The Tatas, one of India's largest business conglomerates, will soon be involved in the modernisation of the Indian armed forces. After signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in February 2008, the Tatas and Israeli defence major Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) have on Tuesday signed a 'framework agreement' to produce defence and aerospace products.

Exporters could rejoice and foreign travellers may find it a tad worrying, but the rupee is on the weak path again, thanks to a surging demand for dollars in the wake of a growing oil import bill, while foreign institutional investors are taking money away from the domestic system.

Minister of state for communications and information technology Jyotiraditya Scindia has urged Finance Minister P Chidambaram to raise interest rates on post-office savings schemes to make them more attractive investment instruments.

Refusing to hold up Tata Motors' project to roll out the world's cheapest car, the Nano, the Supreme Court on Tuesday sought a reply from the West Bengal Government on why it had acquired fertile land in Singur and permitted the car manufacturer to set up the plant.

After witnessing high volatility for about five months since the beginning of calendar 2008, stability is slowly returning to the Indian equity markets. And that is good news for traders and investors as stable times and safer market conditions see cheaper derivative contracts.

The Export-Import Bank of the US (US Exim Bank) has set a target of granting $6 billion (over Rs 25,000 crore) through letters of credit (LoC) to Indian carriers for acquiring aircraft from US producers.

The rollout of Apple, Inc's iPhones in India is set to be the largest, anywhere in the world. It is understood from industry sources that Apple's iPhones will be sold through about 2.5 lakh Vodafone and Airtel retail outlets including franchisee owned shops.