India's upstream regulator said on Monday it had asked Reliance Industries to drill 11 new wells by April 1, 2012, in a key block off the country's east coast where the private firm has failed to meet its gas production target.Reliance is pumping less gas than it should from the key D6 block of Krishna-Godavari basin, the second biggest gas producer in India after Mumbai High. Reliance was supposed to drill nine wells in this fiscal year. It will now have to drill two extra wells that it had failed to drill in FY11.Upstream Regulator S.K. Srivastava said Reliance was currently producing 48 Mmscmd gas from the D6 block, adding it would meet Reliance officials "in a week or two" to discuss the fall in gas output. On April 21, Srivastava said Reliance was producing 50 Mmscmd from the block.The company, which has agreed a broad parternship with multinational BP on field development, said in March it wanted to work to overcome "the technical challenge involved in these complex reservoirs."Srivastava said last month Reliance had not given a satisfactory reason for the shortfall.(Reuters)
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Apple Inc.'s App Store just crossed the 15 billionth download milestone. I have a nasty feeling I've contributed significantly to that number. Apps are so easy to buy; so quick, and mostly painless, until you get your credit card bill at the end of the month. Still, I think it's a small price for the fun and functionality these little programs give you. When I think back to the clunky old days of using Windows 3.11, PageMaker, CorelDraw and other heavyweight software, I can't help but be amazed at how something that costs one-hundredth the price can afford so much functionality - some of it based on entirely new usage concepts. Playing Scrabble with my sister from across the country is not a usage I envisaged or based any purchase decisions on, but now that I discover I can do it, it's fun, and a nice little thing to share with someone you don't have the chance to do something with everyday. I didn't foresee needing to edit my friends' photographs, but now that I can, I have had hours of fun startling them with strange photo results. All of it done with apps that cost less than $3 when it would have needed an extremely expensive piece of software to get the same result. I didn't think I needed to rely on my memory and a notepad to keep track of how many hours I spent on a piece of work. But now that it just means a touch to check-in and another touch to check-out, it's become an indispensible part of organising my work day. There's an app for just about everything you can think of and many things you can't. So it's no wonder that Apple has sparked off a whole huge industry with its App Store. The store has 425,000 apps, 100,000 of them just for the iPad. Pretty soon, you'll also see apps for Apple's desktop and laptop systems, widening the net even further. All the other companies don't touch this figure, the closest though, being apps for various Android devices. RIM, makers of the popular BlackBerry phones and the Playbook tablet, barely have a fraction of this number, bringing to the forefront the question of whether a great piece of hardware is what a tablet or smartphone is all about. When Apple's iCloud services really take off, this will add another level of functionality to apps because you will be able to store, access and share stuff easily for both work and leisure. Much the same is likely to happen with Google, especially with its apps and services being mostly free. To those considering buying either tablets or smartphones, I would seriously say, factor in the apps. A few friends of mine, desperate to buy an iPad and finally managing it, suddenly show a great deal of reluctance to buy apps; quite forgetting that a beautiful tablet is just s blank slate without them. It's important to set aside a sum to populate your tablet richly with apps. If you're on a budget, opt to spend on apps rather than the top-end tablet. That way, whether you have a 16, 32, or 64GB model, it's brimming with things to do. Mala Bhargava is a personal technology writer and media professional. Contact her at mala@pobox.com and @malabhargava on Twitter
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At a time when the Indian automobile industry is strongly opposing lowering of import duty in the proposed India-EU FTA, Tata group chief Ratan Tata has favoured cutting tariff on vehicles and components coming from overseas.In an interview to the market research firm JD Power, Tata said such high import duties are unrealistic and create an artificial barrier of protection for local companies.He also said India does "not have an automobile industry" as "we have assemblers of foreign brands" and only Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Motors actually develop and manufacture products in the country."...I also think that the very high rates of import duty should be reduced. They're unrealistic and create an artificial barrier to protect the manufacturers in India," Tata said.(PTI)
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The head of the World Trade Organization on Monday dismissed the notion that the Doha round of trade negotiations was dead, and held out hope that a band of smaller countries might help prod India, China and the United States toward agreement.WTO Director General Pascal Lamy said after nearly a decade of discussion, most of the trade topics on the table were "reasonably ripe for conclusion".Lamy has urged the WTO's 153 member countries to focus on an "early harvest" of what can be agreed now and leave the most difficult issues for later."What if the round fails? This is, I'm sorry to say, a very academic question," Lamy said during a panel discussion on trade at the World Economic Forum on East Asia in Jakarta."International conventions never fail. They never die. They just procrastinate," Lamy added, drawing laughs from the crowd.Ten years of negotiations in the WTO have failed to seal an accord that could generate billions of dollars and alleviate poverty by freeing up trade in goods and services. The WTO last week postponed negotiations on a slimmed-down deal that would require rich countries to make good on promises.The United States has been the most vocal opponent of a one-sided deal, calling on emerging countries to pitch in with concessions.Lamy, who shared the stage with two trade ministers from Southeast Asia, said countries in that region and Latin America might be able to apply some leverage to the major economies at the heart of the Doha stalemate.But Lamy acknowledged that smaller countries had to consider their ties to both sides, which could put them in a bind."They all have trade eggs with the U.S. and trade eggs with China," Lamy said. "They will have to balance these two baskets very carefully."(Reuters)
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India on Monday said the killing of global terrorist Osama bin Laden was a matter of grave concern as it proved that terrorists belonging to different groups find sanctuary in Pakistan.Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said in a statement that perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks, including the controllers and handlers of the terrorists, continue to be sheltered in Pakistan.He said that earlier on Monday the US government informed New Delhi that Osama bin Laden had been killed by security forces somewhere "deep inside Pakistan.""After the September 11, 2001 terror attack, the US had a reason to seek Osama bin Laden and bring him and his accomplices to justice," the statement said."We take note with grave concern that part of the statement in which President (Barack) Obama said that the fire fight in which Osama bin Laden was killed took place in Abbotabad 'deep inside Pakistan'."This fact underlines our concern that terrorists belonging to different organisations find sanctuary in Pakistan," he said.The Home Minister said in the wake of this incident "we believe that perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks, including the controllers and handlers of the terrorists who actually carried out the attack, continue to be sheltered in Pakistan."We once again call upon the Government of Pakistan to arrest the persons whose names have been handed over to the Interior Minister of Pakistan as well as provide voice samples of certain persons who are suspected to be among the controllers and handlers of the terrorists."(PTI)
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On an overcast day in May, a clutch of the world's most powerful investors gathered in a 19th-century mansion in Moscow to hear a proposition from Vladimir Putin: invest in Russia, and we will invest with you.For forty minutes at the government's Vozdvizhenka guest house, the prime minister addressed private equity and sovereign wealth funds representing a combined $2 trillion of wealth. He was pitching a plan to launch a $10 billion state-backed fund that Russia hopes can win over those foreign investors who still regard the country as a no-go zone.There was "a lot of back and forth and some tough questions", one participant said, as guests pressed Putin to convince them that the rewards of investing in Russia can outweigh the risks.Can the Kremlin turn that image around? For many potential investors Russia is synonymous with corruption, weak rule of law and political risk, its reputation hurt by events such as the jailing of oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky.In a straw poll at a major private equity conference in Boston last week, Russia was ranked as the least attractive investment destination of the BRICs -- Brazil, Russia, India and China. Russians themselves are moving money out of the country to hedge their bets ahead of a presidential vote next March, and even President Dmitry Medvedev has called the investment climate "very bad"."I could not agree more with the folks that decided not to vote on Russia (in the straw poll)," said David Roux, co-founder of US private equity fund Silver Lake, who was not at the meeting in Moscow. "It is a high-potential place but ... it is easy to get your money in and almost impossible to get it out."But Moscow says it has listened to the complaints and wants to use the new fund to change perceptions."Many investors have not done any business in Russia, who only read the newspapers and the different horror stories," said Kirill Dmitriev, the new fund's first head.Putin's PitchThe May 18 gathering was a radical departure for Putin, who normally receives foreign executives when they seek his personal blessing to close multi-billion-dollar deals.Speaking through an interpreter to guests including Blackstone's <BX.N> Stephen Schwarzman and Abu Dhabi's Hareb Al Darmaki, he spelled out how the fund would work alongside foreign investors to buy businesses in Russia.The response was encouraging. Lou Jiwei, head of sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp., went on the record to say the fund "could be a flexible way to attract foreign investment" while Bader al-Saad, managing director of the Kuwait Investment Authority, said it would "give us the opportunity to increase our direct investment in Russia".Sovereign wealth funds managing hundreds of billions of dollars are looking to diversify their risks, particularly away from the bulging debt of developed nations that might be tempted to inflate, or even default, their way out of trouble.Experts say the fund, with its inbuilt political insurance, is designed to meet their needs. "It's a very innovative and creative way to tap into long-term investors," said Ashby Monk, co-director of Oxford University's analytical Sovereign Wealth Fund Project. "If I were looking for a partner for private equity investments in Russia, the Kremlin would be top of my list."RolloutThe Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) will be launched at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum -- Russia's answer to Davos -- this week. The product of over a year of soundings with foreign investors, the fund will receive $2 billion in state cash each year for five years.Its structure mimics the private equity model: it would make direct investments of $50-$500 million in firms geared to the growth of Russia's middle class, in sectors like healthcare, IT or infrastructure. Foreign investors would take the lead, and the fund would restrict itself to a minority role."We came up with something that is very unique, and I think very positive," says Dmitriev, a 36-year-old Stanford and Harvard alumnus who made his name in Moscow with Delta Private Equity Partners, a Russia-focused fund that he co-ran.The RDIF can only invest if foreign investors put up at least a matching sum. That will align its interests with its partners' and put a focus on returns which has been lacking in previous initiatives such as special economic zones and Rusnano, a state nanotechnology investment vehicle."If we can show to foreign investors that they can consistently make a reasonable return in Russia, they will put in a dollar now, and in three or four years they will put in $10," Dmitriev told Reuters.He reckons the RDIF could attract as much as $50 billion in co-investment over the next 5-7 years. That capital is sorely needed in Russia, where investment is only around 20 percent of GDP -- less than half China's level.Getting AlignedRussia's dependence on oil and gas, which account for two-thirds of exports and over half of federal budget revenues, was not a problem during the past decade when rising oil prices drove annual growth rates of 7-8 percent.But the crash of 2008 sparked an economic contraction of 8 percent the following year, and exposed weaknesses including Russia's over-reliance on foreign credit, a depleted capital stock and low productivity.Russia has made progress in reducing its vulnerability to external shocks by strengthening the banking system. Hedge fund manager Viatcheslav Pivovarov said the fund marks a further step towards creating a broader base for growth.Pivovarov, who returned from stints at New York hedge funds Third Point and Old Lane to advise the government on the fund, said it would help by meeting the common needs of the state and foreign investors. "The fund aligns the interests between foreign investors -- strategic or portfolio -- and the Russian participants because the government is putting its money where its mouth is," said Pivovarov, now managing partner at Altera Capital, a $350 million Russia-dedicated startup fund.$2 Trillion In The RoomGiven Russia's record, the project was bound to meet scepticism. But the investors at Vozdvizhenka, renamed in the Soviet era as the House of Friendship with the Peoples of Foreign Countries, came away liking what they heard during two days of briefings by top officials.People in the room said they had the impression that both Putin and Medvedev, who floated the fund idea at the Davos World Economic Forum in January, strongly backed the project. That might reduce the risk of it being torpedoed by any tensions that could emerge between the two in the run-up to next year's presidential election."It was very clear at the meeting that Putin is seriously committed to this venture," said a western investor, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter. "It is a very hopeful sign that they have appointed as a CEO an individual who is a highly competent professional ... There was certainly no evidence at the meeting that this was going to be a 'friends and family' thing. That is encouraging."A second western investor who has been skittish said he had heard enough to reconsider. "They put a ton of thought into taking away the excuses why you wouldn't invest," said the investor, who also requested anonymity. "I had a better view of investing in the country coming out of that meeting."The RDIF would have a 5- to 7-year investment horizon and allow investors to sell out even if their partner wanted to stay in: a tweak included on the wishes of investors concerned that they may not be able to get their money out of Russia.Foreign Cash In, Russian Cash OutBut while Moscow is hard at work selling the project, rich Russians are sending their money offshore. Net private sector capital outflows, which spiked in 2008, have been rising again since Medvedev ousted Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov last year. The outflows exceeded $20 billion in the first quarter of 2011. Some of that, though not all, represents capital flight as oligarchs and officials seek safety abroad ahead of the presidential vote, when either Putin or Medvedev will run.Then there's the question of whether the state can pick winners. Investors point to the remarkable success of the $1.4 billion U.S. float last month by Yandex <YNDX.O> -- known as the Russian Google. That deal, a pure private equity play, delivered a 500-fold payout to investors who bought into the internet startup in 2000.One Moscow-based investor said the fund's relatively complex investment process meant it would be hard for it to pull off a repeat of the Yandex story, although it would reduce the risk of losing money. But he warned the Kremlin's involvement may reduce the returns, as well as the risks."It's bets with capped upside. If they got lucky the state would be, like, that's too much money. So it's heads you win a bit and tails you don't lose."(Reuters)
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India's exports registered a robust growth of 46.4 per cent year-on-year in June to $29.2 billion on account of increasing demand in Western markets.Imports, too, grew at a high rate of 42.4 per cent to $36.9 billion, leaving a trade deficit of $7.7 billion for the month."$29.2 billion figure is a very, very high number for exports. Virtually all sectors grew well," Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar told reporters here.During April-June, 2011-12, exports grew by 45.7 per cent to $79 billion and imports shot up by 36.2 per cent to $110.6 billion, Khullar said.During the first quarter of the current fiscal, the trade deficit stood at $31.6 billion.The exporting sectors that registered strong growth during the quarter include engineering, petroleum products, gems and jewellery, readymade garments and electronics.(PTI)
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Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed Sunday in a firefight with US forces in Pakistan and his body was recovered, President Barack Obama announced Sunday.Earlier, the news of the death of the Al-Qaeda founder and leader Osama Bin Laden had spread like wildfire quoting US surces. Osama killed in a ground operation in Pakistan on Sunday."Justice has been done," Obama said in a dramatic, late-night White House speech announcing the death of the elusive mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the New York and Washington.Obama said U.S. forces led the operation that killed bin Laden. No Americans were killed in the operation and they took care to avoid civilian casualties, he said."The United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda and a terrorist who is responsible for the murder of thousands of men, women and children," Obama said.It is a major accomplishment for Obama and his national security team, after many Americans had given up hope of ever finding bin Laden.A crowd gathered outside the White House to celebrate, chanting, "USA, USA."Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, had repeatedly vowed to bring bin Laden to justice "dead or alive" for the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington that killed nearly 3,000 people, but never did before leaving office in early 2009.U.S. officials said that after searching in vain for the al Qaeda leader since he disappeared in Afghanistan in late 2001, the Saudi-born extremist was killed in the Pakistani town of Abbotabad and his body recovered.Having the body may help convince any doubters that bin Laden is really dead.He had been the subject of a search since he eluded U.S. soldiers and Afghan militia forces in a large-scale assault on the Tora Bora mountains of Afghanistan in 2001.The trail quickly went cold after he disappeared and many intelligence officials believed he had been hiding in Pakistan.While in hiding, bin Laden had taunted the West and advocated his militant Islamist views in videotapes spirited from his hideaway.Besides September 11, Washington has also linked bin Laden to a string of attacks -- including the 1998 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and the 2000 bombing of the warship USS Cole in Yemen.Stocks Up, Crude SlipsAsian stocks rose on Monday and US stock index futures extended gains on the back of media reports that Osama bin Laden was dead.US crude slid more than 1 percent to $112.51 a barrel after CNN reported that Al Qaeda's elusive leader Osama bin Laden was dead and his body has been recovered by US authorities.US stock index futures rose 0.9 per cent and MSCI's gauge of Asian stocks excluding Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS rose 0.2 percent.U.S. Treasuries fell, pushing yields higher across the curve. The 10-year yield climbed 2.4 basis points to 3.314 percent.(Agencies)
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China faces a "meaningful probability" of a hard economic landing and the euro zone is storing up problems for the future by not tackling the debt crisis head on, said Nouriel Roubini, the economist who predicted the global financial crisis.He said US Treasury prices, which have risen sharply as investors sought a safe haven from the euro area debt crisis and worries about a slowdown in the global economy, were fairly valued although he was cautious about US equities.New York-based Roubini is closely followed by Wall Street because he predicted the US housing meltdown that precipitated the global downturn.China avoided a hard landing during the global credit crunch but faces a downturn after 2013 as it will struggle to keep increasing fixed investments, Roubini said."There is a meaningful probability of a hard landing in China after 2013," he told a financial conference in Singapore.Roubini said investment was already 50 per cent of gross domestic product. Sixty years of data had shown that over- investment led to hard landings, he said, citing the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 70s, and East Asia before the 1997 financial crisis."I was recently in Shanghai and I took their high-speed train to Hangzhou," he said, referring to the new Maglev line that has cut travelling time between the two cities to less than an hour from four hours previously."The brand new high-speed train is half-empty and the brand new station is three-quarters empty. Parallel to that train line, there is also a new highway that looked three-quarters empty. Next to the train station is also the new local airport of Shanghai and you can fly to Hangzhou," he said."There is no rationale for a country at that level of economic development to have not just duplication but triplication of those infrastructure projects."US, EuropeRoubini said the risks confronting the global economy were evenly balanced. U.S. corporates had strong cash balances of some $2 trillion and the fact that the global financial crisis was not followed by a great depression were positives.Persistent debt problems in advanced economies and the fact that U.S. consumption is being sustained by tax cuts and other government support were negatives, he said."It is a glass that is half full and half empty," said Roubini, head of an investment advisory firm that bears his name.Asked about his outlook on US financial markets, Roubini said he would stay defensive on equities but he did not believe there was a bubble in treasuries."At current levels, U.S. treasuries are fairly valued. I don't think there is a bond bubble," he said, adding U.S. 10-year bond yields at 3 percent or slightly lower were consistent with the low growth and low inflation outlook for the world's largest economy."Every time there is a global bout of risk aversion, and every other week there is another tail risk or black swan event, people dump the euro, dump yen and go to the safety of the U.S. dollar and U.S. treasuries," he added.U.S. 10-year yields edged up just over half a basis point in Europe on Monday to 2.9802 percent. But they have fallen from 3.7 percent in February and 3.9 percent in April last year.Other risks to the global economy include the debt problem in Europe's so-called periphery countries and the euro zone's reluctance to address issues head on.Greece, Portugal and Ireland have been financially bailed out over unsustainable debt levels.The EU is currently thrashing out a second package for Greece to ensure the country is funded through 2014 but many analysts believe Athens will struggle even then to avoid a harsh debt restructuring in the future."Kicking the can down the road, muddling through, extending and pretending that Greece will be better and you buy time... may make the collapse more disorderly over time," he said.(Reuters)
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The country's largest car-maker Maruti Suzuki India's Manesar facility continues to be completely shut down, with a workers' strike at the plant entering its 10th day today."The talks are going on, but the strike is still continuing. The production at the plant is stopped," a company spokesperson. In the morning, shares of the company were trading 1.19 percent down at Rs 1,215.15 apiece on the Bombay Stock Exchange.Around 2,000 workers at the plant have been on strike since June 4, resulting in a loss of about Rs 390 crore for the company on account of a 7,800-unit hit in output till Saturday.The factory had its weekly-off on Sunday.The striking workers are demanding the recognition of a new union -- Maruti Suzuki Employees Union -- formed by those working at the Manesar plant, among other things.(PTI)
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