BPO exports grow 21.4 pc
NEW DELHI, Sept 7: India’s third party business process outsourcing (BPO) services exports in 2007-08 grew 21.4 per cent to Rs 264.23 billion, up from Rs 217.60 billion in the previous fiscal, according to a new study. In dollar terms, the growth was even more impressive at 36.6 per cent to $6.6 billion, up from $4.8 billion last fiscal, said the study by Dataquest, the flagship publication of the CyberMedia group.
The magazine, which ranks the top 20 BPO firms in India, once again ranked Genpact as the No. 1 export revenue earner with revenues of Rs 26.59 billion, up by 19.8 per cent from Rs 22.20 billion that the company earned last fiscal. Aditya Birla Minacs, the second ranking revenue earning company last fiscal, maintained its rank this year as well. Its revenues grew 3.1 per cent to Rs 15.63 billion up from Rs.15.16 billion last fiscal. Apart from these two top rankers, the other companies that managed to maintain their ranks this year were Wipro BPO and HCL BPO. Wipro BPO maintained its 7th rank by growing 22.7 percent to Rs 11.47 billion up from Rs 9.35 billion last fiscal. Similarly, HCL BPO maintained its 10th rank by growing 18.1 per cent to Rs 8.8 billion up from Rs 7.45 billion last fiscal. TCS BPO improved its ranking from 4th last fiscal to 3rd this fiscal by growing 38.6 per cent to Rs13.64 billion, up from Rs 9.84 billion. In terms of rankings, the most dramatic improvement has been achieved by Intelenet Global which has moved up six places to come into the top 20 at rank 15. Last fiscal at rank 21 it was not in the list at all. Intelenet Global has grown a whopping 128.1 percent - the highest among the top 20 - to Rs 6.57 b (IANS)

Business clips
Tata to sell over 12,000 Indica Vista in Kerala
KOCHI, Sept 7: Country’s largest automobile company Tata Motors plans to sell over 12,000 units of Indica Vista a month nationally in the next 4 to 5 months, a top company official said on Saturday.
Tata Motors Passenger Car Business Unit, Head Car Product Group Nithin Seth said, “Indica was currently doing 12,000 units a month. The new line will take another 4-5 months to stabilise and then it would sell over 12,000 units”.
The new car would also help the company regain lost ground in Kerala, where it is targeting a market share of 12-16 per cent in the next 6-8 months. (PTI)

Sony, Nokia, HP, ICICI most popular brands
NEW DELHI, Sept 7: Which are the top brands that people chose and depend on when they opt for a product or service. A study across 1,000 brands reveals Sony, Nokia, Hewlett Packard, ICICI have emerged as the most popular brands in their category across India. When it comes to banks, ICICI’s brand image is the best, the study says. It ranks number one and has overtaken nationalised Indian banks. (Agencies)

Boeing machinists strike
NEW YORK, Sept 7: Boeing machinists took to the picket line on Saturday as they launched a strike that halted production and could cost the US aerospace giant more than 100 million dollars per day. Boeing’s 27,000 machinists, who represent 16 per cent of the company’s workforce, began picketing in the wee hours of the morning shortly after the failure of last-ditch contract talks.
It is the fourth strike of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) in the last two decades.
An overwhelming majority of union members, 87 per cent, voted for the strike on Wednesday after IAM rejected company offers that were made in August. (Agencies)

Centre to generate 15 mn jobs in tourism sector
KHAJURAHO, Sept 7: The Centre hopes to generate 15 million jobs by the year 2010 in the tourism sector as it targets to attract 10 million tourists in another two years.
Addressing a two-day round table conference of “World Travel and Tourism Council” (WTTC) here, Union Tourism Secretary Sree Bhadra Banerjee said, the total earning in the tourism sector should touch 20 billion dollar by 2010.
He said, the Tourism Ministry was trying to promote rural tourism as the sector could be the largest generator of jobs in the country. “Domestic tourism forms the backbone of tourism industry and development of rural tourism is very important for positioning the rural tourism of the country as a unique experience,” he said. Banerjee said, the Centre has decided to create 15 million jobs by 2010 in the tourism sector.
The conference, attended by Government officials, industry players, various service providers and eminent economists, harped on collective efforts from all concerned authorities to further exploit the huge potential in the sector. They also emphasised the need to improve the infrastructure facilities such as rail, road and air connectivity between different states to attract more domestic tourists. (PTI)

‘Rivalry between Ambanis affecting economy’
LONDON, Sept 7: Moving beyond loss of a few business contracts, the rivalry between two billionaire Ambani siblings-Mukesh and Anil has begun to affect India’s economic development and to reflect on business ethics, an influential British think-tank has said.
Oxford Analytica, an independent consulting firm, has said in a recent country note on India that Mukesh and Anil Ambani figure among the world’s richest men and their empire of Reliance companies “spans the Indian economy”.
While noting that the two have prospered since 2005 in India’s fast growing economy, it said that “division of the family estate has not resolved their rivalry, which goes very deep and reflects fundamental questions of business ethics”. Oxford Analytica regularly comes out with analysis of implications of national and international developments facing corporations, banks and governments across the world.
The report further said that “SP leader Amar Singh is believed to have demanded from the Government, as the price of its support, a windfall tax on private energy companies and a ban on the export of refined petroleum products-both of which would devastate Mukesh’s interests.” “While the Government has yet to respond to these demands, which would hit many more companies than Reliance, they have a populist appeal and could be enacted,” Oxford Analytica said. (PTI)

Damodar Valley Corp to produce 3,500 MW
RANCHI, Sept 7: Damodar Valley Corp (DVC), the multi-purpose river valley project of the Central Government, will start producing 3,500 MW power in Jharkhand in the next four years, a Central Government Minister said here Saturday.
“The work is going on in different thermal power plants of DVC in the State. In the next four years, DVC will produce 3,500 MW power in the State. We also request Jharkhand Chief Minister (Shibu Soren) to give DVC three acres to set up regional office in Ranchi,” Minister of State for Commerce and Power Jairam Ramesh said.
Speaking at the signing ceremony of a joint venture agreement by the Ranchi-based Heavy Engineering Corp (HEC) and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL), he also announced the decision to set up four industrial training institutes (ITIs) at Hazaribagh, Koderma, Bokaro and Chandrapura of Jharkhand.
“We believe that the students of Jharkhand are trained to get skilled jobs in DVC. Till now, most of the people of the State are employed in labour class and skilled persons are imported from other parts of the country,” Ramesh said. He added that DVC would extend financial help if the State Government was setting up engineering colleges.
Chief Minister Soren, who was present on the occasion, said, “we will give three acres of land to DVC in HEC.”(IANS)

Finnair now looks at Bangalore, Chennai
MUMBAI, Sept 7: Buoyed by the success of flying to India, Nordic carrier Finnair proposes to start flights to Chennai and Bangalore to tap the market that has resulted from the growing bilateral business ties and expanding air travel to Europe. “We look forward to the review of the bilateral civil aviation pact between Finland and India since we have been studying two destinations very, very closely - Bangalore and Chennai,” said Finnair’s new director for Indian subcontinent Kari Stolbow. “The Indian market, where we started scheduled operations only in October 2006, has been a major contributor to our overall Asian growth and remains top on our priority list,” Stolbow, who is a veteran at Finnair, told IANS. In the past few years, several Finish companies like mobile phones maker Nokia and the elevator giant Kone have announced major expansion plans in India, even as domestic IT and software giants like Wipro and Infosys have set up bases in Finland, he said. “This means a big potential for us. But the present aviation agreement allows Finnish carriers to operate only seven flights a week each to New Delhi and Mumbai. We do hope for more slots,” Stolbow added. (IANS)

India’s first oil pipeline celebrates 30th anniversary
JAMNAGAR (Gujarat), Sept 7: India’s first oil pipeline to transport indigenous and imported crude to refineries has celebrated its 30th anniversary in Vadinar of Jamnagar district in Gujarat.
The Salaya-Mathura Pipeline (SMPL) was built on Sept 5, 1978 to transport imported as well as indigenous crude oil to two Indian Oil Corp (IOC) refineries in Gujarat and Mathura in Uttar Pradesh. It was later extended to the Panipat Refinery in Haryana.
“This small Vadinar village has come onto international maritime map after the country’s first single point mooring system was built here in 1978,” Indian Oil Corp chairman Sarthak Behuria said at Friday’s anniversary function.
The SMPL system that began in Vadinar is today handling 60 per cent of the crude transportation in the Western region. “Today, the Western region pipeline division (WRPL) is a criss-crossing mesh of crude and product pipelines that traverse arid terrains through Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and is set to enter Madhya Pradesh soon through the upcoming Koyali-Ratlam pipeline,” Behuria said. (IANS)

ArcelorMittal, RIL in WSJ’s respected companies list
NEW YORK, Sept 7: PepsiCo, headed by India-born Indra Nooyi, is the 9th most respected company in the world, NRI Lakshmi Mittal-led ArcelorMittal is ranked 60th and Reliance Industries, India’s largest corporate, makes it at No 83 in the Wall Street Journal’s respectability ranking of the world’s 100 largest publicly-traded companies.
The top five in the list are Johnson & Johnson, Procter and Gamble, Toyota, Berkshire Hathaway and Apple. Search engine Google has jumped from 22nd spot last year to the sixth, its rise is matched by the fall for software giant Microsoft, which has slipped from sixth spot to 21st this year.
In its fourth annual survey, released online Saturday, the reputed business daily asked money managers the degree to which they respect, or don’t, the world’ 100 largest companies (as measured by total market value). The mean score was arrived at by assigning point value to each of the four categories, Highly Respect, Respect, Respect Somewhat and Don’t Respect. (IANS)

City prices of food items
By our Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI, Sept 7: Rice (common) Rs 1,300-Rs 1,350 per quintal, Rice (fine) Rs 1,400- Rs 1,850 per quintal, Masoor dal (bold) Rs 4,880-Rs 5,000 per quintal, Masoor dal (small) Rs 4,950-5,500, Moong dal Rs 3,800-Rs 4,400 per quintal, Arhar dal Rs 4,000-Rs 4,400 per quintal, Gram Rs 3,050-Rs 3,400 per quintal, Peas Rs 2,400-2,600 per quintal, Sugar Rs 1,900-Rs 19,60 per quintal, Mustard oil Rs 1,080-Rs 1,110 per 16.5-litre tin, Refined oil Rs 1,035-Rs 1,050 per 16.5-kg tin,Veg ghee Rs 790-Rs 950 per 16.5-kg tin, Atta Rs 1,200-Rs 1,220 per 90 kg sack, Maida Rs 1,280-Rs 1,300 per 90-kg sack, Potato Rs 350-Rs 380 per quintal, Onion Rs 1000-Rs 1,200 per quintal, Urad dal Rs 2800-Rs 4,000 per quintal, Spices: Haldi (gota) Rs 2,500- Rs 3,150 per quintal, Haldi (powder) Rs 4,600 per quintal, Dhania (gota)(Asom)
Fruits: Apple (20 kg pack) Rs 2,200, Grapes (4 kg) 250, Pomegranate (5 kg pack) Rs 350, Papaya (per kg) Rs 20, Mango 20-25 (Kg), Orange 20-40 (dozen).
Vegetable: Cabbage (per qntl) Rs 1,500, Cauliflower 3,000, Cucumber Rs 400, Tomato Rs 2,000, Potato Rs 300-400, Onion Rs 550-600, Chilli Rs 2,000, Green Peas Rs 3,000, Capsicum Rs 3,000, Bean Rs 3,000, Bitter Gourd Rs 800, Brinjal Rs 600, Pumpkin 500, Beat Rs 3,000, Ladiesfinger Rs 600, Lemon (100) 70-110.