Markets want clear time-limit for fiscal stimulus
LONDON (Reuters) – Financial markets want a clear time-limit for any tax cuts or extra spending pledges in the pre-budget report on Monday.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been saying for weeks that higher government borrowing to support the economy is the best way to brace the country against a sharp slowdown.
Economists expect any stimulus package to inject at least 15 billion pounds into the economy, in line with a likely European Commission call for stimulus equivalent to 1 percent of GDP. The IMF has called for 2 percent.
But the government will have to present clear plans for how it will rein back spending or raise taxes once the worst of the crisis is over, or sterling risks weakening further and the interest it pays on new debt may rise.
“A large fiscal expansion that is not accompanied by a robust and credible framework for medium term fiscal discipline can get a punishing response from the markets. The risk premia on UK assets could widen, yields jump higher and sterling depreciates sharply,” said Amit Kara, an economist at UBS.
The economic slowdown and existing government finance pledges mean the IMF forecasts that Britain will run a budget deficit of over 3 percent this year and over 4 percent in 2009, more than any G7 country apart from the United States.
Demand at government gilt auctions has sagged in recent months as borrowing racks up to fund the recapitalisation of high-street banks, and sterling has fallen by almost a quarter on a trade-weighted basis since the start of the year.
Wipro board allots equity shares
The administrative committee of Wipro`s board of directors resolved to issue and allot 32,700 equity shares of Rs 2 each pursuant to exercise of the stock options by the eligible employees under the Wipro Restricted Stock Unit Plan 2004.
Wipro, headquartered in Bangalore was established in 1946. It is a leading provider of IT solutions for customers across Americas, Europe, Asia, Australia and the Middle East.
Wipro provides comprehensive research and development services, IT solutions and services, including systems integration, information systems outsourcing, package implementation, software application development and maintenance services to corporations globally.
Shares of the company gained Rs 10.2, or 4.64%, to settle at Rs 230. The total volume of shares traded was 324,966 at the BSE (Friday).
Killer of Indian American CEO arrested
, California: Jing Hua Wu, who gunned down Sid Agrawal, the Indian American CEO of a semi-conductor company, along with two of his top officials Friday afternoon, was arrested by the Santa Clara Police Saturday.
Jing, 47, now facing triple homicide charge, was arrested by the police Saturday morning outside a business in Mountain View, the neighborhood where the assailant apparently lived. He was let go by the company Friday morning, which the police suspects could have been the main reason for this shooting spree at the office of SiPort Inc in Santa Clara.
Santa Clara Police chief Steve Lodge said the assailant was unarmed and made no resistance at the time of arrest. The arrest followed a massive manhunt launched by the police soon after the shootout Friday afternoon. Following his arrest, Jing was interrogated by police. No details were however available immediately.
The police said Jing has been arrested on charges of killing three top officials of SiPort Inc.
Sid Agrawal, 56, an electrical engineering graduate from IIT Kanpur, was the CEO and director of the company. The other two victims identified by the police included Marilyn Lewis, 67, company’s head of human resources and Brian Pugh, 47, vice president (operations) of the company.
Addressing a press conference after the arrest, Santa Clara Police Chief conceded that the shooting spree has caused “genuine fear in the community”. With global economic meltdown, a lot of people in Silicon Valley are facing job cuts.
India’s growth to be hit, PM suggests measures to tackle crisis
Washington, Nov 16 (UNI) Saying that the growth of the Indian economy is expected to slow down to between 7 and 7.5 per cent this fiscal due to the global financial crisis, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made a host of suggestions to prevent such a crisis in future and protect developing countries from the present turmoil, including the World Bank Group and Regional Development Banks providing an additional 50 billion dollars per year to support infrastructure projects in developing countries.
”This window (for infrastructure projects) can be wound down once normalcy returns to global capital flows,” Dr Singh said in his address to the Summit of the Heads of Governments of the G-20 countries.
The theme of the Summit is ”Financial Markets and the World Economy.” The other suggestions made by the Prime Minister in this regard are reforming the global financial architecture to prevent similar crisis in future, governments of industrialised counties intervening to ensure that private flows to developing countries are not affected, replenishing the resources of the IMF, governance reforms of the Fund, developed counties providing expanded export credit on reasonable terms to poor countries and ensuring that the Doha Round is completed.
Pratibha Patil’s J&K tour Photos
President Pratibha Patil lifts a weapon recovered from militants, near Tangdhar sector in Jammu and Kashmir on Friday, May 23, 2008.
BSP on the march in ongoing state assembly elections
New Delhi:Itching come out of the confines of Uttar Pradesh, it stunned political observers by winning the majority single-handed — Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party is throwing all its might in ongoing state assembly elections in Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi.
“Our slogan of Sarvajan samaj is attracting support from all sections of the society and we will spring a surprise this time,” says BSP’s Nationa General Secretary, Satish Chandra Mishra.
BSP to undercut Congress in northern states
For now, however, the BSP has only two legislators in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, one in Chhattisgarh and none in Delhi. But this could change, if Mayawati’s assiduous campaign to consolidate the dalits and woo other castes in these states succeeds.
Dalits constitute more than 15 per cent of the population in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi and 11.6 per cent in Chhattisgarh.
The BSP has increased its vote share in all the assembly elections held in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand after its UP sweep. In Himachal Pradesh, though it failed to win a single seat, it ensured Congress defeat in over a dozen constituencies. In Delhi, the BSP now has 17 municipal councillors.
BSP all set to make a mark in Rajasthan
“Yoo pee hamari hai, ab Chattisgarh ki bari hai (After UP now it’s the turn of Chattisgarh) ” says Chattisgar BSP President Dauram Ratnakar.
To help the state unit do better, Mayawati has made BSP veteran Seva Ram as in-charge of the state and two ministers of the UP Government — Lalji Verma and Anant Kumar Mishra — are camping in Raipur for the last one month.
The BSP has enjoyed traditional support from the Satanami community of Chattisgarh, wielding significant influence in Bilaspur and Raipur districts and had won two assembly seats in 2003. One of the winners was later disqualified by the High Court following an election petition.
“In the past five years we have extended over network . The party’s tally in Chattisgarh will be in double digits this time and we may play the role of the kingmaker,” says Seva Ram. The party is contesting all the 90 seats in the state assembly.
The BSP will make a public demonstration of its strength at Mayawati’s Raipur rally on November 16.
The party’s National General Secretary sees similar prospects in Madhya Pradesh and Delhi, where the party is contesting all the seats on its own.
During Kanshi Ram’s hey days, the BSP had acquired pockets of influence in Chambal valley and Baghelkhand regions of Madhya Pradesh along its border with UP and had even won a Lok Sabha seat by defeating Congress heavyweight Arjun Singh.
The make sure that the party does better this time, Mayawati has deputed half a dozen ministers in her government to work in Madhya Pradesh and Delhi.
The CPI(M)’s appeal to its supporters to vote for the BSP where there is no party candidate has acted as a morale booster for the party’s attempts to spread out of Uttar Pradesh.
Independent analysts see little chance of the BSP grabbing power in any of the states where the assembly elections are currently underway. “Figures of previous elections suggest that the BSP has emerged as a threat to both the Congress and the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party). But since both the Congress and the BSP share a common support base, the BSP will be a bigger threat to the Congress,” says Sudha Pai, a political science professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.
Observers feel that even if the BSP does not become a deciding factor in the formation of governments in these election-bound states, the party will play the spoiler for the Congress – thus indirectly determining the electoral outcome in perhaps many constituencies.
Agua Bendita ‘08 Photos
A model displays a creation by Agua Bendita during the Antioquia Mia in Medellin, Antioquia Department, Colombia.
A model displays a design from Agua Bendita collection in Medellin, Colombia, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008.
A model displays a design from Agua Bendita collection in Medellin, Colombia, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008.
