No retirements as India look to put drubbing behind them

Charges of complacency aimed at India are only likely to intensify after they fell to a crushing 4-0 series defeat in Australia and an eighth successive loss in overseas Tests on Saturday. 

The news conference after a fourth emphatic defeat in the series, this time by 298 runs, opened with the team's media manager denying reports back home that a "senior player" - namely Rahul Dravid - would be retiring. 

It continued with stand-in captain Virender Sehwag suggesting that all teams suffer poor runs of form and India should just put the humiliating reverse by behind them. 

"If you look at the Australian team, they were struggling as well in the Ashes last year and they got out for 47 in South Africa, so it happens with every team so we have to rebuild the team," he said. 

"There are experienced players in our team, they are well aware of that and they are working on that, one bad series doesn't make any difference for them, so they are working hard on their batting skills and they'll find a way. 

"The best way out is to forget what happened and concentrate on what we will do in coming matches and coming series and practised hard and plan well and execute your plans in the game," he added. 

By saying the team needed to be rebuilt, Sehwag made it clear that would not mean the retirement of some of the golden generation of batsmen who arrived in Australia hopeful of winning a first Test series Down Under. 

"I don't think (changes) are due because the same team played in the last couple of years when we became the number one team in the world with the same batting and bowling lineup," he said. 

Sachin Tendulkar had a reasonable series despite failing to capture his 100th international century but Dravid, VVS Laxman, captain Mahendra Singh Doni and opener Sehwag himself were all huge disappointments. 

The inexperienced Virat Kohli was the only Indian batsman to score a century in any of the four Tests. 

Sehwag understood the frustration of fans but said it was at moments like these, not just successes like the 50-over World Cup triumph last year, that the support of the fans was necessary. 

"When we won the World Cup everyone was happy and cheering for Team India, and now the time we need the support of the fans and everybody, they should back their own team," he said. 

The 33-year-old, who averaged 24.75 runs over the series, said accusations the India team simply did not care enough about losing a Test series were well wide of the mark. 

"It's very unfair," he said. "I think everybody cares about their performances, about India losing the game. 

"We are very passionate about our game and passionate about our team and it's a shame that people are talking about that. 

"If you lose the game you should work it out what went wrong and come back and perform well in our next games. We are trying that, but it's not happening and it doesn't mean that we are happy to lose here."

Top B-schools like ISB, IIMs revamp syllabus; India Inc unhappy, calls it cosmetic

A year after top Ivy League institutes in the United States began revamping their MBA programmes, in the process challenging decades of conventional business wisdom, India's top-rung B-schools are attempting something similar.

An overhauled syllabus with new subjects thrown in and old ones scrubbed out is expected to be ready for 2012-13 at many premier institutes.

The Indian School of Business (ISB), Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A), IIM-Kozhikode (IIM-K), and S P Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR) are some of the schools attempting to bridge the gap between classroom wisdom and business realities.

Subjects like ethics, corporate social responsibility and management mantras from the Bhagavad Gita have made a debut along with hardship stints in backward villages and mandatory internships with NGOs.

That should come as soup for the soul of a battle-weary India Inc hunting for socially-responsible and innovative leaders, right? Not quite.

The view from industry is that most of the changes in the curriculum are cosmetic and do little to tackle the root of the malaise at Indian B-schools - that they serve to create an elite social network and are clueless about the way business is run in real life.

Senior executives say the top-tier schools, the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), are out of sync with corporates and do not have enough good quality research emerging.

"Some executives I have spoken to find it hard to imagine that a student can grasp concepts of marketing without selling anything to anybody; or the concepts of operations if they have never spent time on a factory floor," says Professor Srikant Datar of HBS, co-author of 'Rethinking the MBA'. 

The B-schools counter that India Inc is fixated on short-term goals, reluctant to provide information for research and has a limited knowledge base. "Our context is learning and not quarterly performance and that may be why there is seen to be no connect between our teachings and corporate life.

But our corporates too are obsolete in their knowledge, yet we take their voices seriously," says IIM-K director Debashis Chatterjee. "Each of us has different mandates; the shared space is defined by learning. That shared space needs to be explored," adds the professor.

IIM-K is doing its bit to become more relevant by cutting back 10% of its regular content and making place for unstructured thinking.

The B-school is also working on breaking silos created in B-schools.

These silos typically have specialised faculty for operations, human resources, marketing and other such fields. "We decided to change curriculum so that these subjects are integrated in some way," explains Chatterjee.

The attempt, he says, is to ensure that when students get into a company, they are able to integrate different functions for one goal.


"In fact last year, 32 members of our faculty got together to teach one course over five days," adds the IIM-K director. 

That is a step in the right direction, but many more similar measures are needed to convince sceptical Indian business heads. As A Mahendran, managing director of Godrej Consumer Products Ltd, says: "There is no real connect between the curriculum and managing real time business complexities." K Ramkumar, group HR chief at ICICI Bank, derides IIMs as placement agencies. "Management is a skill and merely teaching organisational behaviour in classrooms is a waste of time," he says.

The B-schools say it is unfair to expect a sea change overnight as the curriculum overhaul is still work in progress.

Efforts are under way to de-emphasise a lot of what is referred to as the 'normative' part of courses such as theories and discussions within classrooms and including a lot more of the 'subjective' part; the latter pertains to dealing with people, learning how to negotiate and studying consumer behaviour. For instance, IIM-A has set up a 'Negotiations Clinic' course that is based on real-life experiences of negotiation episodes in organisations.

At SPJIMR in Mumbai, faculty member Harsh Mohan says 60% of the curriculum is now focused on learnings out of classroom. These include attitude building, rural visits, how to deal with multiple cultures and getting sensitised to people at the bottom of the pyramid. "We get our students to go and interact with organisations such as the Railways and municipal corporations to learn how to deal with unstructured environments," explains Mohan.

ISB is looking at introducing revised courses to develop leadership traits and emphasise on self-analysis. It is offering more flexibility in the programme structure to allow students to customise their courses.

The effort is also to impart a global perspective by teaching students to manage situations of economic, institutional, and cultural differences across countries.

"The second major review process will be completed by 2012 and implemented from academic year 2013-2014. Currently, we are in the process of collecting data from all the stakeholder groups and, once this is done, the data will be analysed and further deliberated by the curriculum review committee," says an ISB spokesperson.

"The world has changed and we have now made it compulsory to review courses every year keeping the global economy in mind," adds Debashis Sanyal, dean, School of Business Management of NMIMS.

Similar efforts aimed at more diversity are on at other premier B-schools. IIM-K exposes students to a 'spiritual quotient;' the Mumbai Business School is introducing courses in philosophy that include along with the Bhagvad Gita and the Upanishads, eastern philosophies as well; and the Xavier Labour Relations Institute has a compulsory course called 'ethical ways of running a business,' for which it has professors who are not typical academicians but corporate practitioners.

But could the problem lie less with the institutes and more with insatiable students? HBS' Datar says the best students in B-schools want to join management consultancies and investment banks that offer top dollar.

So B-schools automatically tune their teaching methods to pander to their needs. "B-schools are focused on teaching students to advise and analyse and are not preparing them for entrepreneurship, leadership and action-oriented innovative thinking," says Datar. 

Adds TV Mohandas Pai, former head of HR at Infosys: "It is just a case of demand-supply scenario and the hefty packages offered by investment bankers have set the tone for compensation. The corporate engagement at B-schools is superficial."

Still Datar adds "We cannot fault the students on choosing jobs that they think will give the right fillip to their careers." Atanu Ghosh, visiting professor in business policy at IIM-A, avers that the career choices are out of the control of the IIMs. "We do have students who join the public sector but if a large chunk chooses a line that will determine their course of life and lifestyle, we can do little about it. It is a market-driven economy."

Santrupt Misra, head of HR at the Aditya Birla group, says it is difficult to heap all the blame on either B-schools or on industry. "The current curriculum has not kept pace with the changing business environment, and limited research in our academia has aggravated the problem. I must also say that industry is not forthcoming in providing access to its research."

That has to change - and perhaps has already begun to. Says Leena Nair, executive director HR atHindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL): "We are now sharing case studies so that students are not dealing with a 30-year-old case. Instead of blaming each other, we should work together and influence key campuses." 

IIM-Indore seeks external help for job placements

The Indian Institutes of Management, which sit at the top of the business education totem pole, can normally rely on the power of the IIM brand to land their wards well-paying jobs year after year. But as this year's placement season looms, some are being forced to do the unthinkable - seek outside help - in the process, painting a sorry picture of the economy where slowing growth is forcing companies to cut back on hiring.

IIM-Indore, a relatively new member of the IIM fraternity that was set up in 1996, plans to partner with some placement firms to make sure that all 450 students in the current batch receive offers. The institute is in talks with around five agencies.

"We are trying to help our students get good placements," said N Ravichandran, director of IIM-Indore. "At this point, we have to keep the names of these agencies confidential," he said.

Other IIMs may go down the same path. Sunil Goel, director at Global Hunt India Pvt Ltd, said apart from IIM-Indore, Calcutta and Lucknow had also contacted the firm. Tier-II and III B-Schools are also likely to feel the slowdown pinch.

"We are in discussions with some of the institutes, but nothing is finalised as yet. We may help them with some form of consulting if the need be," Goel said. But both the older IIMs - Calcutta was set up in 1961 and Lucknow in 1984 - denied they had sought help from external agencies for placements.

Final placements at Indore may begin in February, with about 60 companies. The 2011 batch had an average salary of about 14 lakh in 2011, up 27% on the previous year's level of 11 lakh.

Average Salary may Get Hit

IIM-Indore had not used external agencies in 2009, the toughest year in recent memory as it followed the financial crisis of 2008. The batch size that year was 180 and the institute was able to place all. This year the external agencies will carry on a parallel placement process, once the institute receives a definite number of offers by itself, a placement coordinator said in a mail to ET.

Officials say that given the large batch size - 450 is the biggest among all the IIMs - the average salary is likely to take a hit. This is because as the placement season draws to an end, the quality of job offers, both in terms of salaries and job profiles, gets affected. "These firms will help us in bridging the gap for the last 100-150 students," said a senior official from the institute's placement committee, who did not wish to be named.

The thinking is that these agencies will function independently of the IIM Indore placement cell and will provide opportunities to the participants beyond the existing pool of recruiters. The IIMs were set up at the initiative of India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, to train managers that were to run factories and businesses of a fast-industrialising nation. The ones at Ahmedabad and Calcutta were set up in 1961, while the business schools at Bangalore and Lucknow came up in 1973 and 1984, respectively. Ahmedabad, Calcutta and Bangalore, the big three, sit at the apex of Indian business school rankings, with Ahmedabad traditionally occupying pole position.


Lucknow, Indore and Kozhikode -- the last-named also opened its doors to students in 1996 -- invariably feature in the top 15. Whether the firms will get paid for their services to IIM-Indore is not clear. "We have not yet decided on how the institute will compensate these firms or what will be the payment structure. But we will choose only those that bring the best job profiles from their clients. We will also give them a threshold figure for salary packages depending on which sector the job offer is coming from," the official pointed out.

The lateral placement process (meant for candidates with work experience) has already begun at campus and the institute has been able to place more than 100 students so far. The process is likely to conclude in another week or so. Saral Mukherjee, chairperson of the placement committee at IIM-A, said the situation is not as bad as it was in 2009.

"There was panic in 2009, but things are not as bad this year. In 2009, many companies had put a hiring freeze, but this year, we have not seen even one recruiter who said it is not hiring. There could be some firms hiring lesser number of people, but the quality of jobs has not gone down as yet. We shall get a clearer picture during the final process."

The idea of engaging any external agency for placements did not seem very prudent to him. "When the institute and recruiters form a partnership, the engagements are on a much higher level. There is a constant dialogue between the two parties. Thoughts and expertise are shared on a regular basis. The relationship goes much beyond recruitment alone. External firms can not bring that on the table. They could be useful only in a few cases, for instance, tapping a new geographical location."

India conducts flight trials of Micro, Mini Air Vehicles

Flight trials of Micro and Mini Air Vehicles designed and developed to meet many requirements including countering low intensity conflicts, counter terrorism and for rescue operations during natural calamities, were conducted at Hoskote near here, DRDO said on Wednesday.

These small vehicles are capable of flying in full autonomous mode and transmitting live day and night video to the portable Ground Control Station in real time, Defence Research and Development Organisation said in a statement.

Aeronautical Development Establishment, a laboratory under the aegis of DRDO, conducted the flight trials on Monday. These products are developed jointly by ADE and National Aerospace Laboratories and supported by private vendors.

Three Micro Air Vehicles named Black kite, Golden Hawk and Pushpak with varying sizes ranging from 300 to 450 mm with a maximum weight of 300 gms to 500 gms were flight demonstrated.

These vehicles have an endurance of 30 minutes and carry a miniature daylight video camera as payload that relays the imagery of the gaming area to the GCS during its flight. The video and telemetry range is about two kms.

Two mini UAVs called Imperial Eagle and Sly Bird, which are categorised under two kg class vehicles and having an endurance of one hour, were also demonstrated. These vehicles carry either a daylight camera or thermal, night vision camera (one at a time) as payload and thus has the capability for both day and night surveillance, it said.

Flying at an altitude of one km above ground level, they are hand launched and recovered through soft landing from sea level to 14000 feet and have a service ceiling altitude of 15000 feet.

These vehicles are fully autonomous with 'programmed way point navigation' and the way points can also be changed through tele-command during the flight, the statement said. The video and telemetry range is about 10 km and with a ground tracker system is capable of providing continuous imagery of the on-board camera irrespective of the attitude of the aircraft.

"The logistics support and skills required for operating these vehicles are very minimal and one or two persons can easily deploy them. This can also be carried as Soldier's back pack", the statement said.

The USP of these projects is the involvement of private Industry from the development phase. The Autopilots developed indigenously by Idea Forge, Mumbai, have been integrated with both mini and Micro Air vehicles. It also took responsibility of integrating the 'gimbal mounted thermal camera.'

Aurora Integrated Systems was also associated in the development of Auto pilot and production of MAVs. It also integrated its auto pilot with ADE's data link and single axis tracker developed by Badave Engineers, Pune.

Seagul Technologies, Bangalore, was involved in the fabrication of carbon composites based airframes.

V S Chandra Shekar, Programme Director, National Programme on Micro Air vehicles (NP-MICAV) said a number of activities/projects have been initiated under this programme across various R & D labs and the academic institutions.

He reiterated that it is possible, in due course, to demonstrate cooperative missions using multiple heterogeneous air vehicles and possibly acting as a force multiplier. The flight demonstrations were witnessed by Subhananda Rao, Chief Controller, R& D (Aero) and P S Krishnan, Director ADE.

Republic Day: Remove bad fruit but do not bring down the tree, says President Pratibha Patil

President Pratibha PatilWednesday cautioned against losing sight of the long term goals while dealing with short term pressures and said that a tree should not be brought down while shaking it to remove the bad fruit.

In her address to the nation on the eve of the63rd Republic Day, the president said the country's institutions may not be flawless but they have coped with many challenges.

In an apparent reference to the contentious debate on the Lokpal bill between the government, Team Anna and the opposition parties, the president said the tree should not be brought down while shaking it to remove the bad fruit.

She hoped solutions will be found between different stakeholders on matters of national importance "in the spirit of national interest."

"While bringing about reforms and improving institutions, we have to be cautious that while shaking the tree to remove the bad fruit, we do not bring down the tree itself. There will be short term pressures but in the process we must not lose sight of the long term goals and must work together on our core national agenda. I do hope in the spirit of national interest, matters of national importance are discussed and solutions are found," the president said.

The Lokpal bill was passed in the Lok Sabha but could not be passed in the Rajya Sabha. Several key legislations of the government are pending in Parliament.

Patil said solutions to matters of national importance in the spirit of national interest will strengthen "roots of democracy and the foundation of our nation".

She said India can set an example before the democratic world of progress and growth.

"We have a shared future and we should not forget that it can be achieved if we demonstrate a sense of responsibility and a show of unity," she said.

The president said the parliament had enacted path-breaking laws and the government had put together schemes for the progress and welfare of the people. "Our judiciary has a reputable standing. Our media too has played an important role. With all institutions working together for the same national purpose it will create a stream of positive energy. Our effort to improve is an on-going process," she said.

SEBI imposes price bands for shares to curb manipulation in IPOs

The securities market regulator has made it tough for stock market operators to make stellar gains on the listing day of a share. The Securities and Exchange Board of India has imposed price bands for shares making their debut on the stock exchanges in its attempts to curb in initial public offerings (IPOs).

The regulator has decided to include IPOs in the pre-opening session on the stock exchanges. The normal trading session for stocks making their debut will start only after the conclusion of a one hour call auction session from 9.00 am to 10.00 am, Sebi said in a circular on Friday. A pre-call auction is a process of determining a stock's opening price.

The move is also a fallout of the recent investigation by the market regulator, where it found evidences of manipulation in some of the recent IPOs.

"If the regulator puts a circuit filter on the first day of listing, it will become difficult for the operators or market makers to get an easy exit fully on the first day," said Arun Kejriwal, director at KRIS, an investment advisory firm.

"Most of the volatility happens on the first day aimed at trapping retail investors or traders. The first day sees volume of over 10 times of the total shares offered in most cases, giving a clear indication of artificial trading and price manipulation," he said.

For IPO size up to Rs 250 crore, the price band in the normal trading session will be 5% of the equilibrium price that is discovered in the call auction, Sebi said. For an issue size of more than Rs 250 crore, the price band will be 20%.

However, if the equilibrium price is not discovered in the call auction, the price band in the normal trading session will be 5% and 20% of the issue price respectively, the circular said.

Besides, the trading will take place in trade for trade segment for the first 10 days from commencement of trading.

IIM-Lucknow student arrested in murder case

The CBI has arrested a student ofIIM-Lucknow for his alleged involvement in the four-year-old murder of fashion designer Aadesh Bajpai whose remains were found in IIT-Kanpurcampus in 2008.

Rahul Verma is a first year management student and a pass-out of IIT-Kanpur.

Bajpai was allegedly killed in 2008 and his remains were found in IIT-Kanpur campus. The case was handed over to the CBI on the instructions of the Allahabad High Court last year.

The agency arrested Verma yesterday and got his custody from the special CBI court.

Mumbai-based Bajpai had gone to Kanpur to meet his cousin Vivek Trivedi on August 10, 2008. After the meeting, he told his cousin that he was going to meet his friend Verma at IIT who left him at the scheduled place where Verma was waiting.

Bajpai had gone missing from that day. After six days, his father Suryakant Bajpai file an FIR with the Kanpur police which determined from cell phone records that he was present at the campus. After 13 days, the remains were found on the campus. The DNA profiling had established that these remains were his.

Verma who is now studying at the IIM-Lucknow was arrested yesterday and is in police custody.

Indian Computer Emergency Response Team Warns Wi-Fi Users To Be Alert

So are you a happy Wi-Fi user ? If yes you should now take extra precautions to protect your Wi-Fi network .

The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team has issued a advisory which cites a design error on all Wi-Fi setup that can help unauthorized access to affected system.

As per the advisory Belkin,Buffalo,D-Link System, Cisco/ Linksys, Netgear, Tp-Link Modems are among the affected one which has the design flaw which means if you don’t use  proper precaution your PC can be compromised.

We spoke with Gokul C Gopinath from WarDriving Kerala team which analyze wireless security statistics of kerala cited “For those who are concerned the stakes are high! Since most of the modern routers are coming with WPS enabled as it’s relatively new kind of attack – people are less aware of this issues/problem.Since there is no patch/fix from the vendor side , the basic fix would be disabling the WPS.

He also added as we are in a scenario where we can still see WEP enabled networks – This gonna add an extra finger for the attackers

The only way now to secure your Wi-Fi modem now can be to disable the WPS on the router as shown below.

Axiata Eyeing Indian 4G Market via Tikona

It seems that 4th generation mobile communication is going to be a serious play for all telecom players.Airtel, Vodafone and Idea are fighting against TRAI to enable Intra Circle Roaming Agreement to offer commercial 3G services in those circles they do not have 3G spectrum.

Experts are saying if 3G roaming can be made legal, it would be easier to make the roaming pact on upcoming 4G services legally acceptable.Currently 4G space in India is complicated- though none of the operators goes commercial it is obvious that pan India BWA license holder Reliance Infotel is playing the safest bet.

Reliance Industries already picks shares or inks agreements with different companies including TV channels, Siemens Security, e-Edu farm and cable operators to create contents for its 4G services.

Business Standard reported that Malaysian telecom player Axiata is eyeing some stakes in Tikona Digital.Tikona is a reputed ISP in India offering wireless broadband using MIMO on unlicensed spectrum in major cities.

In 2010 Tikona won BWA spectrum in 5 five key circles – Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh east and west—for over Rs. 1,058 crore.

Now who is this Axiata?

Axiata has some stakes (>20%) in Idea Cellular. If the deal happens in future Idea/Aixata will welcome Airtel to their circles via ICRA like they are doing on 3G platform and Airtel will ascend another step to offer pan India 4G services to compete against Reliance Infotel.

But if Reliance Infotel plays the price game the future of these agreements are in trouble for sure!

Citigroup pays $750,000 fine for analyst conflict

An industry regulator fined Citigroup Inc $725,000 for not disclosing conflicts of interest in the bank's research division.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority said Wednesday that Citigroup Global Markets failed to disclose the conflicts in reports that it published between January 2007 and March 2010.

FINRA, which is industry funded, said Citigroup was paid for services to some companies but did not disclose the relationships in research reports.

Ordinary investors often rely on such research reports when deciding whether to buy or sell stock in a company. So banks must disclose if they do business with a company in their reports.

Citigroup said in a statement that it began improving its disclosure process even before FINRA's inquiry began. The bank did not admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement.

Rajnikanth website really runs without internet

It may sound like another Rajinikanth joke, but a new website dedicated to the superstar runs 'without an internet connection'! 


Visitors to www.allaboutrajni.com are greeted with a warning that "He is no ordinary man, this is no ordinary website. It runs on Rajini Power" and are advised to switch off their internet connection to enter the website. Only when the web is disconnected, one is allowed to explore the site. 


Netizens can trace the story of the legend from the beginning, read inside scoops from his films and get a glimpse of behind-the-scenes action, while browsing through famous Rajini jokes about impossible feats only he can achieve. 


"The unbelievable spectacle of running a website without the internet is a tribute to Rajinikant's larger than life image," claimed Webchutney's creative director Gurbaksh Singh, who developed the site for Desimartini.com. 


With a heady mix of foot-tapping music, vibrant splash of colours, quirky quotes and illustrations, and icons in true Rajni style and lingo, the unique website reflects Rajini's signature style. 


Singh told PTI that the website is based on a complex algorithm running in the back-end that keeps an eye on the propagation of data packets between two terminals. 


Magic kicks in soon as the internet speed is down to zero, which is the basic premise on which the site and the concept has been constructed. The humour element on the website is accentuated by the error message in typical Rajini style that appears if a visitor attempts to re-connect the internet. 


"Aiyyo! That was unexpected. To keep browsing, switch off your internet," reads the message. "The website has received a phenomenal response and has gone viral with several thousand hits and counting, along with innumerable shares and mentions across the web, especially on popular social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter," Singh said. 


"After a few iterations and testing, we cracked the code required to build the world's first website that runs without the internet, a website that runs offline, which is as awesome and unbelievable as miracles and stunts associated or performed by Rajni himself," he said.

Reliance Communication gets biggest ever overseas loan refinancing deal worth Rs 6,125 crore

Reliance Communications said on Tuesday it has secured loans from a host of Chinese banks torefinance $1.18 billion worth of outstanding foreign currency bonds due for redemption on March 1. 

The deal will provide respite to the No. 2 Indian mobile operator by subscribers, controlled by billionaire Anil Ambani, that has been trying for more than a year to sell its telecoms tower unit to cut the company's about $6.5 billion debt. 


Reliance Comm said Industrial and Commercial Bankof China , China Development Bank Corp, Export Import Bank of China and other banks were funding the refinancing of the outstanding foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs). 

The company said it would benefit from extended loan maturity of seven years and "attractive" interest cost of about 5 percent, sending its shares up as much as 5.7 percent in a Mumbai market that rose 1.5 percent. 

The FCCBs were issued in February 2007 when the Indian markets were booming, with a conversion price of 654 rupees a share. Cut-throat competition among India's mobile phone operators has since hit earnings and shares have plunged. 

Reliance Comm shares were trading around 90 rupees on Tuesday, a fraction of the conversion price. 

A source told Reuters last week Reliance Comm was in talks with China Development Bank for a syndicated loan to redeem the bond. 

China Development Bank arranged loans worth $1.93 billion for Reliance Comm last March, which the company used to finance radio airwaves it acquired during a costly 3G auction, as well as for the purchase of equipment. 

With its bruising debt load and a ferociously competitive 15-operator market, Reliance Comm has reported eight straight quarters of falling profits. 

The company is in talks with U.S. buyout giants Carlyle Group and Blackstone Group on a deal for the towers business which could be worth more than $3 billion, sources have said, but a deal is not close to completion. 

Reliance Comm is looking to secure a leasing agreement for its towers from Reliance Industries, controlled by Anil Ambani's once-estranged brother Mukesh, before pressing forward with a tower sale, the sources said.

Alliance Air pilot mistakes Kozhikode for Kochi

A rude shock awaited passengers of an Alliance Air flight when they found the pilot had landed at Kochi though they were told they had reached their destination Kozhikode.

The Thiruvananthapuram-Kozhikode-Kochi-Agatti flight with 23 passengers landed at Kochi at 10.30 AM on Monday without proceeding to Kozhikode as the crew was likely to cross the Flight Duty Time Limit (FDTL) if it was operated on schedule, Air India sources said.

Kozhikode-bound passengers were asked to disembark and accommodated in hotels. The flight was operated to Agatti and back here after which they were taken to Kozhikode by the same flight with 22 passengers as one person cancelled his onward journey, airport sources said.

The Kozhikode-bound passengers thought they had landed at Kozhikode while they had actually disembarked at Kochi. Airport sources said the crew might have misinformed the passengers that the flight had reached Kozhikode while it had actually landed at Kochi.

Gold, silver to become costlier

Gold and silver are set to become more expensive as the government has changed the duty structure on precious metals from specific to value-linked, which will enable the exchequer to rake in an additional Rs. 600 crore during the remaining months of the fiscal.

The ad-valorem rates of excise and customs on precious metals like gold, silver and platinum have come into effect from Tuesday, said a government notification. Diamonds, too, will now attract an import duty of two per cent.

As per the changes, customs and excise duty will now be levied on the value of the precious metals instead of a fixed amount, meaning that the incidence of duty will move up with the rise in prices of the goods, thereby making them more expensive.

According to the notification, the import duty on gold has been fixed at two per cent of the value, instead of the earlier rate of Rs. 300 per 10 grams. On silver, the import duty has been pegged at six per cent, as against Rs. 1,500 per kg earlier.

With respect to excise, the duty on gold has been fixed at 1.5 per cent of the value, as against the earlier fixed rate of Rs. 200 per 10 grams. Silver will attract excise of four per cent, as compared to a fixed duty earlier of Rs. 1,000 per kg.

“The old rates were fixed four-five years ago. In the last few years, prices have increased substantially so the change has been made to bring duties in line with market prices,” said Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) Chairman S. K. Goel.

According to Finance Ministry estimates, “The increase in the duty is expected to fetch an additional Rs. 500-600 crore for the balance fiscal year.”

Gold prices firmed up by Rs. 35 to Rs. 27,925 per 10 grams in the bullion market on Tuesday, while silver gained Rs. 575 to Rs. 52,725 per kg.

Undergraduate students from Shri Ram College of Commerce, Hansraj College bag plum job offers

While students at most premier management institutions are nervously gripping the edge of the placements seat, six undergraduate students at Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), University of Delhi, have walked away with offers from Deutsche Bank with a salary package of Rs 16.5 lakh per annum.

But the SRCC offer is tempered with a stiff dose of reality: the offers are half of what the bank had given out to students of the college last year, and none of the postings are abroad.

The Rs 16.5-lakh salary package is the highest at SRCC so far. "This includes a fixed salary of Rs 10.5 lakh, a joining bonus of Rs 3 lakh and a performance bonus of Rs 3 lakh per annum," says CS Sharma, professor in charge of placements at SRCC. The bank has offered jobs to three students each in global markets and corporate finance.

Over the past two years, the bank had offered jobs to two students from SRCC, with an annual salary package of Rs 39 lakh in 2011 and Rs 32 lakh in the year before. The jobs came with training in London and posting at a global location.

The bank did not comment on its hiring plans from undergraduate colleges. SRCC appears to have scored over other colleges due to its high cut-off and a legacy for quality education.

In June 2011, the 'first list' cut-off for science students at SRCC, was at 100%. "Employers are more likely to believe that even the average students from SRCC would be better than those at colleges with a lower cut-off," explains NS Rajan, partner & global leader - people and organisation at Ernst & Young.

Chinmaya Golecha, a 20-year-old student of BCom from SRCC, is among those who have received offers from Deutsche this year. "We were hoping the bank will come up with offers similar to the past two years, but that did not happen. The bright side is, there are six people likely to get hired this year, instead of only one," he said. The second highest offer in terms of salary package has come from Citibank for two students, at Rs 10.5 lakh per annum. Citibank had hired only one student from SRCC last year.

SRCC has placed about 160 students so far. Among other recruiters at SRCC are McKinsey & Co, Bain & Co, Deloitte India and KPMG. The consulting firms have offered annual packages between Rs 2.2 lakh and Rs 8 lakh. KPMG alone has hired 24 students from the college. The placement process is expected to continue till April.

Apart from SRCC, the bank had also made presentations to students from Lady Shri Ram College for Women(LSR) and St Stephen's College in Delhi, but no offers are said to have been made so far at these colleges. While St Stephen's College did not disclose details regarding job offers, LSR is hopeful Deutsche Bank will make offers in the next few days.

At Hansraj College, at least 75 students have received offers from companies such as Google India, Ernst & Young, Deloitte India, Milestone Interactive and Verity Knowledge Solutions.

Another 25-30 offers are in the process of getting finalised, says Devender Kundalia, one of the placement coordinators.

The annual salary packages being offered so far range between Rs 2.4 lakh and Rs 5.6 lakh. Jesus & Mary College too has placed 30 to 40 students so far, with a salary package of up to Rs 4.5 lakh per annum.

In Mumbai, however, placements for undergraduate students do not seem to be attracting such hefty pay packages.

While St Xavier's College did not comment on its placement process, Sydenham College of Commerce & Economics said it has placed about 40 students so far. List of recruiters at Sydenham include Google India, Ernst & Young and Protiviti.

JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley are also likely to participate in placements at the campus in the coming days, said Jharna Kalra, placement coordinator at the institute. Ms Kalra did not disclose any details regarding salary packages being offered this year, but said Ernst & Young had offered about Rs 3 lakh per annum at the college last year. This was the highest package at the college during the previous placement season. 

The huge disparity between what undergraduate students are getting in Delhi vis-a-vis in Mumbai is perhaps due to employers' belief that the best lot of students are at SRCC. "Companies hire from one college based on factors that include, whether this institute serves as a one-stop shop for the employer's talent needs, is there an acknowledged pedigree and do the competitors hire from the same institute?" explains Rajan of E&Y.

During last year's placements at SRCC, Shrey Gupta bagged the highest pay package in Delhi University, at Rs 39 lakh. He bettered the record of his senior, Adit Mathur, who received a Rs 32-lakh pay package from the same bank, which was the highest salary in 2010. While Gupta preferred to work in India, Mathur took up the offer.

‘Matchstick’ ATM thief held

A Pre-University drop-out from Jharkhand, who used matchsticks to manipulate ATMs in Bengaluru, has been arrested by the police.

Manish Kumar Singh, 22, who came to the city in search of a job, did not realise that he was being monitored by 'Big Brother' or the CCTV installed in ATMs. A resident of Saptagiri Extension on Hesaraghatta Main Road, he was staying here along with his younger sister, an engineering student studying in a reputed college.

According to the police, the accused would target ATM centres which had two or more machines. He would insert matchsticks below the ‘Enter’ key of the machine to render it non operational.

Unaware of the trap laid by him, customers would enter the ATM centre and key in their PIN number. Pretending to be a fellow customer, he would enter the centre and note the PIN number.

After the customer left the centre realizing that the machine was not working, Manish would remove the matchstick and withdraw money from their account.

He was caught after a complaint was filed at Halasur Gate police station on December 27 by Ms Nandini, executive engineer of KPTCL and Mr Lakshman a KPTCL employee who reportedly told the police that Rs 15,000 and Rs 10,000 were fraudulently drawn from their accounts.

The incident reportedly took place at the ATM centre of SBI in Cauvery Bhavan.

The police kept a watch on the ATM and retrieved the CCTV footage. The accused who returned to ATM on Sunday was caught by Halasur police.

During questioning, he confessed that he used to target customers who were not familiar with the functioning of ATM cards.

Sunday Times: Mossad agents behind Iran scientist assassination

Report reveals the step-by-step procedure behind the killing of Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan as he was on his way to the Natanz uranium enrichment.

According to the report, the assassination of Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan was similar to that seen in “espionage films” - planned over a period of many months, and including extensive surveillance and intelligence gathering. The Sunday Times quoted an unnamed Israeli sources who claimed that the killing was a precursor to a military strike, which would make rebuilding nuclear facilities more difficult for Iran, should they be bombed.

The report further claimed that small groups of Israeli Mossad agents had carefully observed key areas in Tehran deemed relevant to the Roshan’ assassination.

"There is zero tolerance for mistakes. By nature, every failure not only risks the neck of the agents but also risks turning into an international scandal,” said the Israeli source.

According to the Sunday Times, Roshan, 32, was monitored from a makeshift control room in a safe house nearby as he was preparing to leave for work. Israeli agents were also watching the entrance to Iranian intelligence headquarters in the city center, when they noticed a number of cars and people running, followed by police rushing into the nearby streets. Another agent monitoring radio traffic between the Tehran police and security forces confirmed unusual activity, said the paper.

The report states that as Roshan’s bodyguard was driving him to Natanz uranium enrichment site, where he served as director, a masked person on a motorbike weaved through traffic, planting a bomb on the car shaped to deliver its full force at the passenger.

The Sunday Times report stated that hundreds of regime supporters swore revenge at Roshan’s funeral on Friday. "Two targets were always in Mustafa's mind," Reza Najafi, a friend, said. "To fight Israel and to become a shaheed (martyr). He achieved both his targets."

The United States ruled out any connection with the assassination. "We were not involved in any way with regards to the assassination that took place there," said Secretarty of Defense Leon Panetta, although he did hint that he had "some idea" of who was.

According to the report, the British Foreign Office also said Britain had "no involvement whatsoever" in the attack.

Singapore govt buys into Reliance Industries

The Government of Singapore has acquired 1.09 per cent stake, now worth about Rs 2,500 crore, in Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries (RIL), the company's latest shareholding data shows. 

The Singapore government held 3,57,72,679 (more than 3.57 crore) shares of RIL as on December 31, 2011, accounting for a 1.09 per cent stake in the company. 

At the current price of Rs 713.40 a piece, these shares are worth about Rs 2,550 crore. 


At the end of every quarter, listed companies have to disclose the list of shareholders having more than one per cent stake. 

While the exact time of share purchase by Singapore government could not be ascertained, its name did not figure in the list of shareholders with a minimum one per cent stake in the quarter ended September 30, 2011. 

Another major non-promoter shareholder, state-run insurance giant Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) held 7.31 per cent stake as on December 31, 2011, up from 7.18 per cent at the end of previous quarter. 

LIC's stake is currently worth over Rs 17,000 crore. Besides, Franklin Templeton Investment Funds also holds a 1.08 per cent stake in RIL, which has been increased marginally from 1.05 per cent at the end of July-September 2011 quarter. 

RIL has presence in businesses like energy, polyster and retail, while it is looking to foray into segments like telecom and financial services, among areas. 

The promoters held a total of 44.71 per cent stake in the company, while the stake held by FIIs (foreign institutional investors) dipped from 17.32 per cent to 17.03 per cent during the September-December 2011 quarter. 

During the same quarter, the stake held by domestic institutional investors rose from 11.07 per cent to 11.35 per cent. The holding of insurance companies rose to 8.10 per cent from 7.96 per cent. 

The holding of small individual investors (having shares worth up to Rs 1 lakh) fell from 11.51 per cent to 11.38 per cent, while that of larger individuals (with holding of shares worth over Rs one lakh) fell to 0.85 per cent from 0.86 per cent.