Dragging the PMO in the CWG mess, CAG on Friday said Suresh Kalmadi had been appointed Organising Committee chief at its behest in 2004 despite "serious objections" and highlighted how wasteful expenditure worth several hundred crore rupees was caused in organising it.In its voluminous report on the October 2010 mega sporting event, the CAG found "irregularities", "favouritism" and "bias" in award of contracts for various projects like construction and development of Games venues and Village, infrastructure development and beautification in Delhi and broadcasting rights.The government auditor also faulted the government for not setting up a "single point of authority and accountability" and said there was "lack of clear governance structure, a multiplicity of coordination committees were created, disbanded and reconstituted at different points of time."Referring to the controversial appointment of Kalmadi, the CAG said, "The (CWG) bid document of May 2003 envisaged the OC as a 'government-owned registered society' with the Chairman of OC Executive Board (EB) being a government appointee, and the IOA President being only the EB Vice Chairman."However, "the OC was ultimately set up in February 2005 as a 'non-government registered society' with the IOA President Shri Suresh Kalmadi as the Chairman of the OC EB," it pointed out. The CAG said "despite serious objections" from the then Sports Minister late Sunil Dutt, Kalmadi was "appointed as the OC Chairman, based on a PMO recommendation of December 2004."This decision facilitated conversion of the originally envisaged government-owned OC into a body outside governmental control without commensurate accoutability to government and concomitant controls to ensure propriety and transparency (despite full financial guarantee and funding from government)."The auditor said attempts in 2007 by then Sports Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar and then Sports Secretary S K Arora with the PMO, the Group of Ministers and the Cabinet Secretariat, "highlighting the ineffective position of the Sports Ministry in exercising control over the OC, met with strong resistance from the Chairman OC, and were hence rendered unfruitful."It pointed out that the commitment of the central government in conjunction with Delhi government in Sept 2003 to become parties to the Host City Contract (HCC) was "critical to the success of the IOA bid for Delhi" to host the Games."...thus, the Games became the property of the nation, rather than merely that of the IOA. This was, however, inadequately reflected in the subsequent construction of the Organising Committee," the CAG observed."In our opinion, the unique challenge of managing and monitoring the activities of multiple agencies for delivering the Games project should have been met by entrusting its stewardship to a single point of authority and accountability, with adequate mandate to ensure all deliverables in time, to cost and to specified quality standards. (PTI)
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For the past two weeks I've been checking and rechecking the App Store, waiting for Skype, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and various other apps to make an appearance. Of course, it's more because I'm addicted to app updates because I'm always hoping my favourite ones will have new and exciting features to play with. But Skype for iPad has been so much in the news that anyone would be curious. Actually, Skype itself has been rather centre stage lately. You'd think there was no other way to voice and video call on mobile devices. In fact there are many other similar services around, including Google Talk solutions. If you leave aside video, there are more services than you can count. People have been using them on their phones quite successfully for quite a while now.Historically though Skype is an early mover and many users are just accustomed to it, especially corporate users. Skype is available on all other platforms but not necessarily for video chat yet. Recently bringing video chat to Android, it's still only available on a few handsets, though this is surely just a matter of time. Skype couldn't possibly have meant to tease its users when a video of its native iPad app popped up on its Youtube channel in June. When they realised it had gone up, the video was quickly removed. Too late though: most of the world got a peek - and what they saw looked pretty good.And then again, on 1 August , the Skype app became actually available, but was also then removed. Skype apologised for a premature release. Apparently, some bugs were yet to be fixed. But by the next day it was finally officially available.All this time, if you wanted to use Skype on the iPad, you'd have to make do with the iPhone app, available and working, but not a pretty sight. It didn't fit the whole screen and so clearly looked not meant for the iPad. The real thing however, is a very neat looking app with a minimalistic feel. A little like a photo album actually, except that my contacts have to go and spoil it all by not putting up profile photos, leaving me with a lot of grayed-out mysterious figures.The Skype app works fine, with everything easily and intuitively available without your having to look very hard. But you need a good strong connection. I did find a little faltering and some lag on the Wi-Fi connect. It works on both the original iPad and the iPad 2 and does everything Skype for PC does; video chat, messaging, calling. Its simplicity is really rather appealing - Mac users may find the Mac version nicer-looking though, while PC users will almost definitely think the new iPad version is an improvement. With the formal launch of its app on the iPad, Skype is all over the place. Microsoft bought it up a few months ago and will integrate it into applications or the OS. Facebook has pulled it in for instant chat on its network… not difficult to see how it's Skype that may continue to dominate the online voice and video chat scene for quite some time.Mala Bhargava is a personal technology writer and media professional. Contact her at mala@pobox.com and @malabhargava on Twitter
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The government Tuesday told Parliament that it does not propose to bring out a White Paper on black money."There is no proposal to publish any White Paper on black money," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.White Papers, which are issued by the government, lay out the policy or proposed action on topics of current concern.The minister, however, said that the government has commissioned a study on black money by three national-level institutions.The institutions - the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) and National Institute of Financial Management (NIFM) - were given 18 months to complete the study on black money.Mukherjee further said the government has constituted a committee headed by the Chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to suggest strengthening of laws to "curb generation of black money in India, its illegal transfer abroad and its recovery."The committee, he added, will examine the existing legal and administrative framework to deal with the menace of generation of black money through illegal means.He further said that the committee was given six months' time to submit its report.It will also examine the feasibility of declaring wealth generated illegally as national assets, enacting laws for confiscation and recovery of such assets and making provisions for exemplary punishment of perpetrators.(PTI)
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Confirming fears of a slowdown, India's economy grew by just 7.7 per cent in the first quarter of the 2011-12 financial year, its weakest in six quarters. Further sluggishness loomed as a spate of interest rate increases, high inflation and weak global conditions took a toll. This was in comparison with 8.8 per cent growth in the same three-month period last fiscal, which was mainly due to the poor performance of the manufacturing sector. The government has projected overall economic growth in the current fiscal at around 8.5 per cent, while the Reserve Bank has projected the growth to moderate to 8 per cent from 8.5 per cent in FY'11.India's growth slowed for the fifth consecutive quarter in the latest sign of cooling in the big emerging BRIC economies. Brazil's economic activity fell in June from a month earlier, the first such drop since late 2008, while China posted slower growth in its June quarter.While gross domestic product in Asia's third-largest economy fell below 8 per cent for the second straight quarter, the Reserve Bank of India is expected to continue with its monetary tightening to fight inflation that remains above 9 per cent.In the latest data released by the government Tuesday, GDP growth for the April-June quarter of the 2010-11 fiscal has also been revised downward to 8.8 per cent from the earlier provisional estimate of 9.3 per cent.During the quarter ending June 30, 2011, growth in the manufacturing sector dipped to 7.2 per cent from 10.6 per cent in the corresponding period of 2010-11.In addition, the mining and quarrying sector grew by just 1.8 per cent during the quarter under review, as against 7.4 per cent growth in the first quarter of the previous fiscal.However, farm output showed an improvement, expanding by 3.9 per cent during the quarter under review, compared to 2.4 per cent in the corresponding three-month period last fiscal.Furthermore, the trade, hotels, transport and communications segments grew by 12.8 per cent in the quarter under review, up from 12.1 per cent in the year-ago period.The services sector, including insurance and real estate, grew by 9.1 per cent in the June quarter this year, compared to 9.8 per cent expansion in the corresponding period last year.The Planning Commission has estimated GDP growth at 8-8.3 per cent in the 2011-12 financial year. The Indian economy expanded by 8.5 per cent in the 2010-11 fiscal."The latest growth number reinforces the view that although growth is slowing down, it is not collapsing as feared by some," said Ashutosh Datar, economist at IIFL in Mumbai, who said another 25 basis point increase at the central bank's next policy review on Sept. 16 was likely.India's benchmark 10-year federal bond yield rose 2 basis points to 8.35 percent after the data release while stocks pared earlier gains.The 1-year overnight indexed swap (OIS) rate rose 5 basis points to 7.85 percent while the 5-year rate rose 3 basis points to 7.03 per cent, flattening the curve as the case for a rate increase on Sept. 16 strengthened. With the government preoccupied by corruption scandals that have stalled approval of legislation and projects that could help ease bottlenecks in the economy, RBI has struggled in its battle with inflation.The RBI has raised rates 11 times since March 2010, including a sharper-than-expected 50 basis point increase last month, but headline inflation for July still came in at 9.22 percent, well above the central bank's 4 to 4.5 percent comfort zone.The RBI has made clear that containing prices is its priority, even as debt woes in the United States and Europe darken the global outlook.(Agencies)
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India gold futures extended gains for a fourth session on Friday to hit a new peak following a rally in overseas markets and a weaker rupee, which traded at its lowest level in five weeks, pushing physical traders to the sidelines ahead of a slew of festivals starting later next week.# The most-active gold for October delivery on the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) struck a record of 24,300 rupees per 10 grams, before trading 0.75 percent higher at 24,247 rupees.# Overseas gold edged up more than half a per cent as investors used bullion to shelter from the storm engulfing financial markets on concerns that the United States may be facing another recession and Europe's debt crisis is spreading to some of its largest economies.# The Indian rupee slumped to stay around a 5-week low as local shares tumbled, tailing a global equity sell-off, stoking fears of foreign fund outflows on renewed risk aversion.# The rupee plays an important role in determining the landed cost of the yellow metal, which is quoted in dollars.# Retail gold demand is expected to gain pace in August, when the festival and wedding seasons start in the world's biggest consumer of bullion.# "I don't think at this level demand will come in. It looks like the whole world is just trusting gold and nothing else. It is difficult for people to digest new highs," said Pinakin Vyas, assistant vice-president with IndusInd Bank in Mumbai.(Reuters)
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India will receive a loan of 200 million euros from the European Union to finance private sector projects for the development of renewable energy resources.The EU's assistance comes as part of its "strategic partnership" with India and will be made available by the European Investment Bank (EIB) to ICICI Bank, India's largest private bank, in the first-ever cooperation between the two financial institutions.It is intended to provide long-term financing for investments on a number of electricity generating projects, especially in the areas of solar photovoltaic, biomass and onshore wind power by private companies, thereby making a contribution to India's efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the EIB said on Monday in a press statement.The loan is being provided under the EIB's Energy Sustainability and Security of Supply Facility (ESF), a 4.5 billion euro programme designed to reinforce the EIB's goal of promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency in non-EU countries.This is the first cooperation between the long-term financing institution of the 27-nation EU bloc and India under the ESF programme, the statement said.The ESF is used when the bank does not need a credit guarantee from the EU because the recipients are investment-grade countries or where appropriate security can be provided. In addition to the ESF, the EIB has an external lending mandate to implement the EU's lending operations outside the bloc as part of its cooperation with those countries and since 1993, the bank has carried out four successive lending operations for Asia and Latin America.Under the current mandate, covering the period between 2007 and 2013, the EIB is authorised to lend up to 3.8 billion euros for financing projects that contribute to the avoidance or reduction of greenhouse gas emissions through foreign direct investment or technology and know-how transfer.The lion's share of the funds, amounting to 2.8 billion euros, are earmarked for Latin America, while the Asian region will receive 1 billion euros.The EIB's loan for India will "support the EU-India strategic partnership, which provides for cooperation in curbing climate change", the statement said.The projects eligible for financing will bring economic benefits to the region by enhancing the production of energy from renewable resources, reducing the costs for imported energy, expanding the use of domestic resources and curbing greenhouse gas emissions and other airborne pollutants."The EIB will ensure that the projects are economically and financially viable, technically adequate and in compliance with the bank's environmental and social requirements," the statement said. (PTI)
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The illness of Sonia Gandhi, India's most powerful political leader, may have set off a risky succession that could propel her inexperienced son Rahul to government just as the ruling Congress party battles corruption scandals and high inflation.The appointment of the 41-year-old Rahul to a quartet that will administer political affairs for Congress as she is being treated for an undisclosed illness abroad came as a surprise to many - other more senior and experienced leaders were ignored.Sonia Gandhi's illness was not disclosed in Thursday's surprise announcement, but the 64-year-old party chief may be away for weeks. Her absence may be longer if two newspaper reports, which said she had cancer, are correct.The Congress party said on Friday she had undergone successful surgery - but Rahul's appointment may signal her intention for eventual succession - even if she quickly returns to office."He's being entrusted with a very important responsibility to keep the wheel turning. It's an expansion of his purview," said political analyst Mahesh Rangarajan. "One day he will be prime minister, but this is basically continuity. It's a signal of continuity to the party."Stung by opposition criticism that India could not be run by an Italian-born leader, Sonia Gandhi nominated Manmohan Singh as prime minister after her 2004 election win. Since then she has largely run the country from behind the scenes, winning re-election for her party in 2009.She had dictated strategy - such as Congress's emphasis on redistributive policies - rather than micro-managing, and she has pushed key policies such as a food security bill to give subsidised grains to millions of poor families.Rahul will now take these reins just as a raucous parliament debates some key reforms such as a land acquisition bill and battles accusations it turned a blind eye to a huge telecoms licensing scandal that has already seen a minister quit.Where Have All The Heavyweights Gone?Apart from Rahul, the quartet to replace Sonia Gandhi comprises Janardan Dwivedi, a general secretary of the party, Congress political secretary Ahmed Patel and Defence Minister A.K. Antony. All are close advisers to Gandhi.Cabinet heavyweights such as Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee - who usually has a hand in most government affairs and is seen by some as more powerful than the prime minister - and Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram, were ignored."What was baffling was that the top guns who are managing the country ... were not found competent to run the party," the Mail Today said on its front page.Rahul has long been seen as heir apparent to the secular and left-leaning Congress party as family scion to a dynasty that has ruled India for much of independence. Many expect him to succeed Singh, 78, before the 2014 general election.But in a sign of the uncertainty of political life without Sonia, Dwivedi appeared on Thursday confused about what was actually happening - first saying she had surgery, then saying she was yet to have surgery.Then the party stated on Friday that surgery had been successful, a confusing string of statements that underscored a sense that the party struggled without Sonia Gandhi's guidance.Sonia Gandhi's agenda has long been more populist than Singh's - fighting for policies such as food subsidies in the face of government reformists worried about their cost. All signs are that Rahul will carry on from his mother.But until now he has been reluctant to be involved in government, preferring to organise the youth wing of his party and travelling across India to campaign for the land rights of poor tribal people and villagers.Many saw these travels, where he would often stay the night in a remote hamlet or travel by motorcycle to villages, as a campaign to raise his profile ahead of the 2014 election.His key test was expected to be his drive to win the 2012 elections in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous and electorally important state, before securing the credentials to hit the national stage.That rise of his profile may quicken after his appointment, although Congress officials were reluctant to say it publicly."Is this something that has to be said out aloud?" said one senior official when asked if Rahul would become more important.Lacks Gravitas?Critics say he lacks the gravitas and charisma of his mother or grandmother - the assassinated Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. He has made few public statements on key national issues, whether the economy or relations with Pakistan.He has sometimes been embarrassed by unprepared public statements - most recently when he said a mass grave was found in an opposition-ruled state after police battled villagers over land acquisition - but no evidence was found for his claim.There are historical precedents that underscore how hard it could be for Rahul.When Sonia's husband Rajiv - then only 40 years old - succeeded his mother Indira after she was assassinated in 1984, his government was hamstrung by a Congress old guard that refused to back his reforms.Some analysts cautioned it was still unclear if Rahul would use the chance to increase his political influence, given he has so far been reluctant to show prime ministerial ambitions."One would have to wait and see (whether this is a sign of a succession plan in action). After all, Rahul Gandhi has to exercise his option," said Sudha Pai, professor of politics at Jawaharlal Nehru University.(Reuters)
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M&A is going to be the way forward for the BPO industry. Last week, at a summit organised by the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom),top BPO executives said that the increasing focus on verticalisation or vertical specialisation in the IT and BPO space will see mergers and acquisitions as growth drivers of the industry."Growth companies will look for M&As more than stable ones," said EXL Service Holding Chief Executive Rohit Kapoor. Noting that the industry will witness a bit of acceleration in acquisition activity, Kapoor said reasons for firms going for acquisitions include entry into new geographies, bid to attain size and scale, accessing new customers, and acquiring technology. Kapoor said that EXL Service was in talks with six to eight industry players for acquisitions that could total $130 million."Expectation of a seller and price value of a buyer will match more than ever in this environment," Kapoor said, adding that difficulty in customer acquisition, low cost of borrowing and surplus cash will help companies to snap up strategic fits. Explaining the trigger points for its seven acquisitions in last eight years, Hinduja Global Solutions (HGS) Chief Executive Partha DeSarkar said that the 'hunger for expertise' or vertical specialisation was one of the key driving factors as it is the most practical approach for strengthening presence in a particular vertical.The CXOs observed that creating a new green-field set-up is very expensive in the BPO space, and said that the industry will see more consolidation as it is much more fragmented than the IT industry. DeSarkar said that telecom is an interesting sector and has been evolving continuously. "It's not the easiest vertical to make money in but it's an evergreen growth vertical," he added."BFS (banking and financial services) sector is the new whitespace for the BPO industry, and companies will compete strongly to win clients in the sector," Kapoor commented.The top executive of the BPO arm of the Hinduja Group, which has announced two acquisitions in August, also said that integration of a buyout is as significant as the acquisition itself. HGS entered the human resource vertical by acquiring 3i lnfotech's HR outsourcing unit HCCA Business Services for an undisclosed sum. Earlier, the company had acquired On Line Support Inc, a Canadian customer relationship management company, for about C$75 million. These two acquisitions are expected to add annual revenue of about $68 million to HGS. The company had reported revenue of $242 million in FY 2011."Margins have risen five to six per cent due to verticalisation," iGATE-Patni's Senior Vice President and BPO Head Sanjiv Kapur said. He added that the clients today are focused on outcome-based pricing. "It helps them to evaluate the total cost of operations," he says.iGatePatni, which focuses on insurance, banking-financial services and manufacturing, believes in limiting its focus on few verticals by providing clients a full-range of services. Kapur added that the company will not charter into the territories (verticals) it does not understand as each vertical has its own competencies. The company has operations in the US, Canada, Europe, and Asia-Pacific and provides multilingual support including English, German, French, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Italian, and Mandarin.The executives had gathered for industry body summit on BPO Strategythis week. Some of the key topics discussed included globalisation of services, niche opportunities, technology in BPO, virtualisation and consolidation.One of the most talked about topic at the event was the impact of the current slowdown in the market, to which industry leaders gave mixed responses. While TCS' BPO said it saw no immediate impact on its business, others like Infosys and Wipro raised a voice of caution and said that they fear that the sector could suffer due to the turmoil in the western markets.Nasscom sees the Indian IT industry growing at a rate of 16-18 per cent in 2011-2012 despite uncertainties in the US and European markets.
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The government on Monday said it may further increase duties on iron ore to discourage its export in order to keep it for meeting domestic demands."We have increased export duty from five per cent to 20 per cent. We may increase it further," Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma told the Lok Sabha during Question Hour.Verma said government was discouraging export of iron ore and trying to keep it for domestic consumption.Nearly 50 per cent of the iron ore produced in the country has been exported over the last three years, he said.In 2008-09 212.96 million tonnes (MT) of iron ore was produced of which 105.86 MT (49.7 per cent) was exported and in 2009-10 218.64 MT ore was produced and 117.37 MT (53.7 per cent) was exported, Verma said.He said in 2010-11 the estimated production was 208.11 MT of which 97.66 MT (46.9 per cent) was marked for export."The production of iron ore in the country is about to double the consumption of iron ore by the domestic iron and steel industry and therefore is sufficient to meet the present requirement of iron ore by the steel sector in the country," he said.As regards iron ore supply to PSUs, Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) has is own captive mines which cater to its full requirement of iron ore, he said.Verma said the requirement of iron ore of other PSUs - Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited and KIOCL Ltd - is fulfilled by National Mineral Development Corporation.(PTI)
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Bangalore-based e-commerce startup Flipkart is speculated to be raising a $150 million from private equity investor General Atlantic Partners. The four-year-old company has so far raised $31 million from Accel Partners and Tiger Global. Flipkart's co-founder and CEO Sachin Bansal elaborated on the company's growth plans for the current year in an email interview with Businessworld's Snigdha Sengupta. Excerpts:Are you in the market to raise a fresh round of funding? How much and why?We are not commenting on speculation regarding any future rounds of funding.As of March 2010, as per Registrar of Companies (RoC) filings, Flipkart had revenues of Rs 11.6 crore. What were the company's revenues as on March 31, 2011? The cumulative revenue for 2010-2011 under RoC will be in the region of Rs 50 crores. However, we have exited the year at the running rate of Rs 80 crores for the last quarter of 2010-2011.What are the company's growth targets for the current financial year, both in terms of revenues and profits? Did the company report profits as on March 31, 2011?We will comfortably exceed the revenue target of 600 crores that we had set for this year; currently we are clocking sales of more than 1 crore per day. Flipkart became profitable within six months of launch and at a per transaction level, we are still profitable. However, at an operational level we are investing aggressively in scaling up all aspects of our business (technology, supply chain/logistics, customer support & marketing) to cater to a much larger customer base. These investments will keep us in the red for some time to come. We plan to continue investing for growth till we continue seeing a 100 per cent growth year on year.How many book titles does the company offer on the site at present? How will this grow in the current fiscal?Currently, we offer over 10 million book titles on our website. We are already the largest importers of books into India and are among the largest buyers from several leading publishers in the country. We are also actively pursuing tying up with international suppliers in order to make more and more international titles and editions available to our customers. What percentage of your revenues come only from books?While books remains the largest category and Flipkart the biggest online retailer of books in the country by far, it now contributes less than 50 per cent to our revenues. The new categories we have introduced over the past few months are seeing remarkable growth both in terms of customer base and revenue generated. What percentage of your transactions are cash-on-delivery?Almost 60 per cent of our transactions today are cash on delivery.What percentage of the book titles that you offer are discounted? What is the average discount? How are you able to protect margins with a sustained discount policy?We offer discounts on almost all the titles that we offer. The average discount is around 25 per cent on the cover price. The online business model (with low overheads and larger volumes) means higher cost savings, which we pass on to customers in the form of discounts. Amazon.com is set to make an India entry. How do you propose to counter the competition from such as large and dominant player?E-commerce in India is at a very nascent stage. The categories are evolving fast and this growth will only escalate with the entrance of serious players. We do not view this as a development impacting Flipkart's plans to a great extent. We have met all the benchmarks that we had set for ourselves and will continue to do so in the near future.
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