TTK Healthcare, a part of TTK group of companies has recorded a phenomenal growth in standalone net profit for the quarter ended June 2009.

During the review quarter, the profit of the company surged 4.43 times to Rs 23.30 million from Rs 5.26 million in the same quarter previous fiscal.

Company's net sales for the latest quarter also grew by 18.18% to Rs 666.63 million, while total income for the quarter rose 17.85% to Rs 674.67 million, when compared with the prior year period.

Government is unlikely to change fundamental norms related to the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) and conduct the eighth round of the auction of oil and gas blocks as per the existing policy according to Mr R. S. Pandey, Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

Mr Pandey, in the sidelines of the NELP VIII road shows in Mumbai, said, "There is no change in policy. We are proposing no modification. Don't believe in misinformation being spread." He maintained that ongoing tussle between RIL and RNRL will not impact fresh auction of prospective gas blocks.

Government's move to allow Mobile Number Portability (MNP) in 2009 may cost very dearly to various telecom service providers as people are said to be waiting for shifting operators after the roll out of MNP. The MNP facility will enable customers to retain their number even if they shift their telecom operator.

Shankari Panchapakesan, Executive Director, Telecom Practice, Nielsen Company, said, ''MNP represents a powerful opportunity for operators to drive in-bound porting of high-value subscribers provided they have a good understanding of who is more likely to switch and why.''

The National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom), in its annual report, has scaled down the growth projections to 7 per cent for India's information technology and outsourcing industry during 2009-10.

It may take some time for the IT segment to completely come out of trouble as the market has started to show signs of recovery due to improvement in global and domestic demand.

Country's first indigenously built nuclear-powered submarine, INS Arihant is all set to enter the sea today when Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh will launch it from the dry-dock at Visakhapatnam.

Dr. Singh along with his wife Gurusharan Kaur, Defence Ministry colleagues and some defense personnel will arrive at the Eastern Naval Command (ENC) airbase INS Dega and present the submarine to the nation.

The move of G8 countries to curb transfer of enrichment and reprocessing (ENR) technology and equipment to the countries that were not signatories to the NPT, has not gone well with India. The country considers the decision against the spirit of the “clean” waiver given by the 45-membered Nuclear Suppliers Group in September last year.

G8 nations, in its recent meet in L'Aquila, which was also attended by Prime Minster Manmohan Singh, had asked to build consensus within a year to ban transfer of ENR technology to non-signatory countries.

According to a recent study, there has been a sharp decease in recruitment activity in the Gulf due to ongoing global recession, which has also resulted in a deep fall-off in the number of vacancies advertised this year in Dubai.

It has been found via a research carried out by Middle East online recruitment firm GulfTalent.com that it has become quite common in the region to adopt discreet and confidential methods of hiring, as well as to shift to low-cost recruitment channels.

Siemens, a well reputed name in electronics and electrical engineering segment, intends to spend Rs 275 crore on expansion of its steam turbine facility at Vadodara.  

The company said the expansion programme would triple its existing capacity.  

The Vadodara unit currently makes single stage multi stage steam turbines up to 45 megawatts for industrial applications. The expansion programme will increase the factory capacity to manufacture steam turbines up to 100 MW.  

With Yahoo's Thursday launch of its social news site Yahoo Buzz in India, the country becomes the first outside-US market to have the product introduced. In due time, Yahoo intends integrating advertisements into Buzz for revenue reasons.

Buzz plays a vital role in shaping the headlines on Yahoo's homepage, as the social news site help identifyong the top news stories and blog posts, by the way of users' votes and comments.

Indian Stock markets opened with huge gap on Monday and both benchmark indices hit the upper circuit within first few minutes of trade. BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty witnessed a decent rally and the trading was halted for 2 hours.

As the trading resumed, Stock markets again hit the upper circuit. BSE Sensex was up by 17.24 per cent at 14272. NSE Nifty gained 17.33% or 636 points to close at 4308. SEBI has halted trading for the day as stock markets hit the upper circuit twice.

BREAK UP OF GENERAL ELECTIONS 2009 Finally the day that counts is
here. What happens today is likely to shape the future of the nation.
The UPA or the United Progressive Alliance - formed with a majority of
Congress party, sprang a surprise when they snatched victory from the
defeat predicted by the poll pundits.

Having detected that companies at times do not undertake a buyback of shares even after announcing one, SEBI - Securities and Exchange Board of India - has decided to assess the regulations that pertain to the buyback offers.

Considering the apparently "hollow" buyback offers as a tactic to manipulate share prices, SEBI Chairman CB Bhave opined that after a close re-look at the regulations, the market regulator may make some pertinent amendments to prevent such practices.

The findings of KPMG Business Outlook Survey, carried out for nearly 1,400 BRIC - Brazil, Russia, India and China - service sector firms, hints at an ascend in business sentiment among the service providers across the region.

After having undergone extremes of stress and suffered confidence blows since fall last year – with Lehman Brothers collapsing and the global financial system traumatic – the survey depicts a distinct step up in the evaluation of conditions by the firms.

A recent CII - Confederation of India Industry – survey indicates that despite the still-persistent global economic instability and slackened consumer demand, India Inc’s business confidence index for the first April-September 2009-10 fiscal has shown a 2.4 points improvement to 58.7, vis-à-vis the previous six-month period.

According to government data released Thursday, the wholesale price index, determining inflation in India, for the week ended May 2 was 0.48 percent, after having shown an increase for three weeks in a row. Though the latest week’s figures mark a fall from the earlier week’s annual rise of 0.70 percent, it was still more than the 0.3 percent median forecast by analysts in Reuters’ poll.

Nonetheless, it is for the ninth successive week, the inflation has been below 1 per cent. For the same week a year earlier, the annual inflation rate stood at 8.73 percent!  

The fiscal 2009-10 opened on a negative note, with India’s year-on-year exports plunging by 33 percent in April, marking the seventh consecutive monthly fall! While the official data pertaining to exports, imports, and trade deficits for the month of April will be released on June 1, the provisional import figures have also shown a drop of 32 percent.

The reported plunge in exports presents figures similar to the earlier month, when they fell 33.3 percent – marking the maximum drop in more than ten years. India’s exports aggregated $168.70 billion in the fiscal 2008-09, thereby indicating a measly 3.4 percent growth rate.

Casting a shadow of doubt on the recovery prospects in China, the steeper-than-expected plunge in the country’s exports during April has somewhat eclipsed the country’s strength in capital spending.

According to the government of the world’s third-largest economy, the country’s year-on-year April exports fell by 22.6 percent to $91.9 billion – the figures were not only more than the 17.1 percent drop reported in March, but also surpassed the economists’ expectations of an 18 percent drop.

According to an employee-specific survey conducted by HR solutions company Kelly Services, 90 percent of the employees, questioned about the future value of their current skills, felt that the highly-competitive job market demanded additional training, as the skills they possess now will become obsolete in the next-five year period.

The survey, spread over 34 countries, polled 100,000 employees; 5,000 of which were from India.

Putting into execution its plan of a yearly launch of at least two new car models in the Indian market over the next couple of years, the Korean auto giant Hyundai Motor Company intends launching the diesel variant of its finest hatchback i20 by 2009-end.

Edelweiss Asset Management Limited, the Investment Manager to Edelweiss Mutual Fund, has announced the launch of 'Edelweiss Diversified Growth Equity (E. D. G. E.) Fund' in the domestic market.

Edelweiss claims that this is the first diversified equity fund launched by the company and has a number of unique features to offer - some of which are industry firsts.

The Fund offers three investor-friendly plans namely, Plan A, Plan B and Plan C with varying entry, exit loads and expense ratios, to cater to various investor segments.