India will spend about Rs 1.12 lakh crore per year if the Food Security Bill is passed in its current shape, KV Thomas, India’s minister for consumer affairs, food & public distribution said. The amount is nearly 10% of what the central government spends in a year. The number is nearly twice the amount the […]
Wednesday’s statement by the Union minister of Telecom and IT Kapil Sibal has left many decisions intentionally vague. The biggest area where clarify has not been provided by the minister is also the most important — spectrum pricing. Spectrum pricing itself can be divided into two areas — spectrum pricing for new entrants and that […]
The central government seems to have decided to rethink its strategy with regard to the presentation of the Lokpal bill in Parliament, according to remarks by V. Narayanasamy, Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, at the All-India Editors’ Conference on Social Sector Issues. While the government had previously maintained that it had brought […]
The United Steel Workers (USW), the largest labor union in North America, has attacked the Republican presidential nominee candidate Mitt Romney for trying to rob millions of American workers of their jobs and play into the hands of Chinese politicians. The USW, whose members include workers at tire, rubber and other auto-related factories, mentioned only […]
Future Group, the biggest and the most prominent large-format retail chain in India, has chosen India’s third biggest IT services firm Cognizant for its IT needs for the next five years, the companies said in a statement. Future group is estimated to have or have served around 220 million customers — higher than the total […]
Google and HP led the companies with the most number of influential Indians in IT field, a list compiled by Dataquest magazine revealed. IBM, which employs more people in India than in the US, does not have a single top executive who is Indian and is the only significant tech company that is missing from […]
Taiwanese chip company MediaTek, which indirectly led to the boom in low-priced Indian-branded mobile phones with its chips, has launched a new Android platform for companies. Phones based on the platform will hit the market before March-end, the company said. The MT6575 platform has a 1GHz processor based on Cortex-A9 technology from Britain’s ARM Holdings […]
China’s military spending is nearly 3 times that of India’s, according to a new report by ‘Research and Markets’ – a market research firm based in Dublin, Ireland. According to its latest report on defense spending by BRIC countries, China emerged on top with a spending of $108 billion in 2010. India spent just $36 […]
A new report on ‘the future of families’ has pointed to an increase in single parent homes in developed (OECD) countries, even as one third of the children are being born outside marriage even now. All the countries, including Korea, Australia and England, will see the highest increases in one-person families except Germany by 2030, […]
Airtel, India’s largest telecommunication company has introduced an online service to let prepaid users manage their accounts. The facility will be in addition to the online recharge facility offered by Airtel. Most operators in India offer online recharge facilities, but rarely go beyond it. Some of the other operators, including some new ones, have similar […]
China is set to emerge as the country with the second largest number of wealthy families and overtake Japan, financial and professional services information provider VRL said. China currently has 0.85 million (8.5 lakh) families with assets of more than $1 million (Rs 5 crore). This number will more than double to 2.1 million by […]
Oil prices may hit $115-120 if Middle East instability continues, prominent industry consulting firm Frost & Sullivan has warned. The agency also warned that the fall of oil reserved into the hands of radical groups would be disastrous for the entire world. “On the advent of a civil war, it is expected that the radical […]
Apple said the Fair Labor Association will conduct special voluntary audits of Apple’s final assembly suppliers, including Foxconn factories in Shenzhen and Chengdu, China, at Apple’s request. The FLA conducts independent monitoring and verification to ensure that the FLA’s Workplace Standards are upheld wherever FLA company products are made. A team of labor rights experts […]
International credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s has given a ‘BBB’ rating to Reliance Industries’ latest move to raise funds in the United States to finance its shale gas activities in the country. Reliance plans to issue U.S. dollar denominated senior unsecured notes through its subsidiary Reliance Holding USA Inc, S&P said in a note. […]
The economic recession has impacted American consumer behavior — particularly their credit card, living, spending and saving habits, according to a survey in California by Citibank. In keeping with the recent uptick in consumer sentiment across the country, Californians too believe the conditions of both their own and the state’s finance will improve in the […]
Air Asia, credited with popularizing the low cost airline phenomenon in Asia announced special Rs 6,666 return tickets for its new flights from Chennai to Bangkok in Thailand. Tickets must be booked online at the company’s website between 9 to 14 February for travel during anyday between 23 March and 27 October 2012, it said. […]
Indian companies expect industrial growth, already slipping in the last 2-3 months, slow down further in the next six months, according to a pre-budget survey by the industry association FICCI. FICCI’s latest survey showed a fall in the overall business confidence index from 76.2 in the previous round to 63.8 in the current one. The […]
January was not a good month for U.S. home prices, especially in the Midwest, according to Clear Capital’s monthly Home Data Index (HDI). Home prices fell 2.6% in January on a nationwide basis, thanks primarily to a 5.2% dip in the Midwest and a 3.5% fall in Western United States, the report said. Midwest had […]
According to an online poll by global research company Ipsos, 28% of employees in India have a strong desire to go abroad for a full-time job and another 39 percent would “consider” the option. The survey asked employees in 24 countries to consider the opportunity of a full-time job available in another country at least […]
Indian consumers continued to be the most optimistic in the world while confidence levels in the United States and China rose markedly in the last quarter of 2011, according to the Nielsen Global Survey of Consumer Confidence and Spending Intentions. All three countries saw consumer confidence and optimism increasing during the last three months of […]
