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^^ Please, dude. Dont expect anything productive from that old windbag.

Regarding economy, Montek Singh keeps his word better than MMS. Now Pranab is Prez., and holy Chidambaram
is finance, how can you expect anything good with such a combo?
 
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Car sales end year with a sputter

January 02, 2013 10:46 IST

Despite record discounts and introduction of new models, tepid sales continued to remain a concern for most manufacturers in the domestic automobile industry, with seven of them together posting a decline of around 15 per cent in sales to 93,540 units:flame: last month.

Industry growth was dragged by Hyundai Motor India Ltd, Tata Motors [ Get Quote ], General Motors India and Toyota Kirloskar Motor: All reported double-digit dip in sales numbers last month.

Maruti Suzuki India, the country's largest carmaker, is yet to release its numbers.

Tata Motors sold only 14,185 units in December, a decline of 51 per cent:argh: over 28,916 units sold in the corresponding month in 2011.

The company reported combined sales of 11,257 units for the Nano, Indica and Indigo series. Sales of utility vehicles added 2,928 units.

Tata Motors said it had received a good response for the new Manza Club Class sedan and the Safari Storme.

But, due to rising demand, the Safari Storme had been released only in the National Capital Region, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Goa, and is being introduced in phases.

At HMIL, too, sales declined 9.6 per cent to 26,697 units in the domestic market last month.

GM India, in the meantime, saw its volumes dip 22 per cent to 7,067 units.

The drop in sales at GM India has come despite the company recently introducing the Sail [ Get Quote ] U-VA, and upgrades of Spark, Cruze and Captiva.

"Despite offering various schemes on the purchase of every car, the market continues to remain depressed.

If the current macroeconomic uncertainties continue, the market is not expected to turn round in the short term.

The only hope now is on a good Union Budget," said P Balendran, vice-president (corporate affairs), GM India.

At TKM, sales dropped 24 per cent to 12,071 units in December, compared with 15,948 units in the year-ago month. Sandeep Singh, deputy managing director and chief operating officer, (marketing and commercial), said: "The passenger car market continues to be slow, as has been in the last few months.

"We hope the new year will usher in good times again with economic revival and better market sentiments."

Homegrown carmaker Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd (M&M), however, managed to buck the trend on the back of demand for diesel-powered utility vehicles, such as Bolero, Quanto and XUV500.

Mahindra sold 22,761 units during December, 18 higher than the 19,341 units sold in December 2011.

Pravin Shah, chief executive (automotive division), while expressing satisfaction over the sales momentum, cautioned: "High interest rates, rising fuel prices and an overall slowdown in economic growth has kept consumer sentiment low during 2012.

"This is also evident in the sales performance for December, which traditionally has been a lean month.

"We do hope that corrective measures are announced and implemented soon, bringing in the much-needed buoyancy and growth for the industry."

The other two that managed to post some increase in sales were Ford India and Honda Cars India.

While sales went up nine per cent to 6,517 units for the former in December due to its marketing campaign, the latter saw a sales push on demand for the Brio.

Honda sold 4,242 units, over half came from demand for the small car.

The two companies have a small share in the overall passenger car industry at present.

In the two-wheeler industry, too, consumer sentiments continued to remain weak.

Sales at Hero MotoCorp Ltd, the country's largest motorcycle maker, remained almost unchanged at 541,615 units in December, compared with 540,276 a year earlier.

TVS [ Get Quote ] Motor Co Ltd posted a decline of 9.6 per cent in December from a year earlier at 151,735 units.

Anil Dua, senior vice-president (marketing and sales), Hero MotoCorp, said: "December, being the last month of the calendar year, usually witnesses sluggish retails as customers tend to postpone their purchases to the new year.

"Despite that, we have been able to despatch over five lakh two-wheelers during the month.

"We also have comprehensive marketing and customer engagement plans lined up for the remaining months of the fiscal to maintain this trajectory."

Car sales end year with a sputter - Rediff.com Business
 
Manufacturing growth at 6-month high in Dec: HSBC

NEW DELHI, JAN 2:India’s manufacturing sector growth improved further in December, registering the fastest pace in six months, driven by a strong pick up in new orders, an HSBC survey said.

The HSBC India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) – a measure of factory production – stood at 54.7 in December, up from 53.7 in November, indicating a further improvement in the health of the Indian manufacturing sector.

Output at manufacturing companies in India rose during December, HSBC said, adding that almost one-third of panelists indicated higher production and 18 per cent noted a decline for the period.

“The overall rate of growth was sharp and the fastest in six months in December,” HSBC said.

The index has remained above the 50-mark, below which it indicates contraction, for more than three years now.

“Activity in the manufacturing sector picked up again led by faster output growth and a further uptick in new orders, which led to a faster increase in backlogs of work as companies struggled to keep up with demand,” HSBC Chief Economist for India and ASEAN Leif Eskesen said.

The December reading of HSBC PMI points to the fact that the sector has gained momentum in the last few months, after it registered the weakest pace of growth rate in nine months in August.

The growth in new orders also hit a six-month high. New export orders too expanded, and at a solid pace, it said.

Meanwhile, the purchasing activity in the Indian manufacturing sector increased for the forty-fifth consecutive month in December.

Going forward, the output is likely to hold up in the coming months as the “final goods inventories’ depletion continued”, HSBC said.

On inflation, HSBC said prices eased marginally, but survey respondents noted price pressures from rising raw material costs, firm demand, and the depreciated exchange rate.

“With growth pick up led by firmer demand, inflation pressures are likely to remain firm in coming months,” Eskesen said.

Inflation as measured by all indices has remained elevated and Wholesale Price Index-based inflation has remained above RBI’s comfort zone of 5 to 5.5 per cent for nearly three years now.

In the mid-quarter monetary policy review on December 18, RBI kept key interest rates unchanged.

It left the short-term lending (repo) rate and the cash reserve ratio – the amount of deposits banks have to park with RBI – unchanged at 8 per cent and 4.25 per cent, respectively.

Business Line : Industry & Economy News : Manufacturing growth at 6-month high in Dec: HSBC
 
Tata group to invest over Rs 45,000 cr, expand globally: Cyrus Mistry

NEW DELHI: Tata group will invest more than Rs 45,000 crore on various businesses over next two years and would look to expand its presence in global markets besides in India, the group's new chief Cyrus P Mistry on Wednesday said.

In his first message as Chairman of Tata Sons Ltd, the holding company of over USD 100-billion salt-to-software conglomerate, Mistry also said the 'core of the Tata group' will remain unchanged despite change in its leadership and asked the group companies to play leadership roles in their respective businesses.

44-year old Mistry has taken over as head of Tata group from Ratan Tata, who retired on December 28 after spending nearly 50 years with the group including 21 years as Chairman.

In a message to employees, Mistry said the group has evolved into a global conglomerate with an "incredible" size of over USD 100 billion under Ratan Tata's leadership.

"Handing over of the responsibility of Chairmanship brings with it the winds of change, but the core of the Tata Group must and will remain unchanged," the new chief said. "... without this core DNA that is uniquely Tata, there is nothing to differentiate us from our peers," Mistry said.

Noting that the group has invested over Rs 50,000 crore in the past three years across various businesses while creating over 85,000 jobs, Mistry said plans have been put in place "for additional investments in excess of Rs 45,000 crore over the following two years."

The group's headcount was nearly 4.56 lakh at the end of fiscal year 2011-12. "Apart from India, we will be required to work to both deepen and widen our global engagement with an emphasis on emerging markets in Asia, Africa and parts of Latin America, adding to our existing presence in Europe and America," he said.

Mistry also expressed confidence in the Indian growth story and said the government's recent emphasis on policy clarity and renewed thrust to economic reforms is encouraging.

"With a sustained focus on policy stability and implementation, I believe that India would continue to be an attractive investment destination. I look forward to our Group playing its role in continuing to invest in the Indian growth story," he said.

About global expansion of the group, Mistry said each of its companies would follow a different path "with differing approaches to spreading of risk, acquisition of technology, access to talent, and investment in long-term growth markets." He also warned against any complacency, saying that history has shown that groups "that are happy with resting on their laurels are weeded out by nimble competition".

"We live in increasingly competitive times. To succeed in such an environment, we will need to differentiate our approach and innovate," Mistry said. "... across our businesses, we need to be able to respond swiftly and adapt to changes in market conditions anywhere in the globe. We must differentiate ourselves from our competitors through a greater understanding of customer needs and a culture built around customer centricity, innovation, and a focus on profitable growth.

"We will need to be relentless in our pursuit of improving our competitiveness and in addressing the small issues that are often overlooked but end up making a significant difference in the value proposition of our products and services," he said.

Tata group comprises of over 100 companies in businesses including technology, communications, engineering, energy, consumer products and chemicals. It has operations in more than 80 countries across six continents. Its total revenue stood at USD 100.09 billion (around Rs 475,721 crore) in 2011-12 with 58 per cent of this coming from businesses abroad.

Tata group to invest over Rs 45,000 cr, expand globally: Cyrus Mistry - The Economic Times

Tata group to invest over Rs 45,000 cr, expand globally: Cyrus Mistry

NEW DELHI: Tata group will invest more than Rs 45,000 crore on various businesses over next two years and would look to expand its presence in global markets besides in India, the group's new chief Cyrus P Mistry on Wednesday said.

In his first message as Chairman of Tata Sons Ltd, the holding company of over USD 100-billion salt-to-software conglomerate, Mistry also said the 'core of the Tata group' will remain unchanged despite change in its leadership and asked the group companies to play leadership roles in their respective businesses.

44-year old Mistry has taken over as head of Tata group from Ratan Tata, who retired on December 28 after spending nearly 50 years with the group including 21 years as Chairman.

In a message to employees, Mistry said the group has evolved into a global conglomerate with an "incredible" size of over USD 100 billion under Ratan Tata's leadership.

"Handing over of the responsibility of Chairmanship brings with it the winds of change, but the core of the Tata Group must and will remain unchanged," the new chief said. "... without this core DNA that is uniquely Tata, there is nothing to differentiate us from our peers," Mistry said.

Noting that the group has invested over Rs 50,000 crore in the past three years across various businesses while creating over 85,000 jobs, Mistry said plans have been put in place "for additional investments in excess of Rs 45,000 crore over the following two years."

The group's headcount was nearly 4.56 lakh at the end of fiscal year 2011-12. "Apart from India, we will be required to work to both deepen and widen our global engagement with an emphasis on emerging markets in Asia, Africa and parts of Latin America, adding to our existing presence in Europe and America," he said.

Mistry also expressed confidence in the Indian growth story and said the government's recent emphasis on policy clarity and renewed thrust to economic reforms is encouraging.

"With a sustained focus on policy stability and implementation, I believe that India would continue to be an attractive investment destination. I look forward to our Group playing its role in continuing to invest in the Indian growth story," he said.

About global expansion of the group, Mistry said each of its companies would follow a different path "with differing approaches to spreading of risk, acquisition of technology, access to talent, and investment in long-term growth markets." He also warned against any complacency, saying that history has shown that groups "that are happy with resting on their laurels are weeded out by nimble competition".

"We live in increasingly competitive times. To succeed in such an environment, we will need to differentiate our approach and innovate," Mistry said. "... across our businesses, we need to be able to respond swiftly and adapt to changes in market conditions anywhere in the globe. We must differentiate ourselves from our competitors through a greater understanding of customer needs and a culture built around customer centricity, innovation, and a focus on profitable growth.

"We will need to be relentless in our pursuit of improving our competitiveness and in addressing the small issues that are often overlooked but end up making a significant difference in the value proposition of our products and services," he said.

Tata group comprises of over 100 companies in businesses including technology, communications, engineering, energy, consumer products and chemicals. It has operations in more than 80 countries across six continents. Its total revenue stood at USD 100.09 billion (around Rs 475,721 crore) in 2011-12 with 58 per cent of this coming from businesses abroad.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-company/corporate-trends/tata-group-to-invest-over-rs-45000-cr-expand-globally-cyrus-mistry/articleshow/17860147.cms
 
The Cloud will be major job creator (for India and China) says study

In the United States, unemployment and the scarcity of new jobs is continually a hot-button issue, especially now in the Presidential primary season. But job creation is a topic of special importance all over the world and residents of countries like Nigeria, South Africa, Canada, Ireland, and Singapore are all doing far more searches on "job creation" than U.S. residents.

So is a global shift to the cloud a good thing for job creation? Market intelligence company IDC on Monday released the results of a four-year, Microsoft-commisssioned study (.pdf here,) that says it is. The study predicts the number of jobs that will be created by a widespread shift to cloud computing, and where those jobs will be created.

"Cloud Computing" is, of course, a very broad term, referring to anything from the use of third-party storage facilities, to IT for virtualized infrastructure, and the whole affair, the study ascertained, will create nearly 14 million new jobs worldwide by 2015, and could drive $1.1 trillion in revenue per year.


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IDC calculated the number of "cloud-generated" jobs by weighing several factors, including available country workforce, unemployment rates, GDP, IT spending by industry and company size, industry mix by country and city, technology infrastructure by country and city, regulatory environment, and others.

And even the United States has thus far accounted for 62% of the worldwide spending on public IT cloud services, the majority of the jobs created by cloud adoption are expected to go to India and China. Those two countries will experience job growth that exceeds North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the rest of the Asia-Pacific region combined.

“We tend to think of China and India as emerging markets, but they’re actually early adopters of the cloud,” John Gantz, senior vice president at IDC and author of the white paper said on Monday. “They’re not bound to existing systems. They’ve skipped that step, so there’s less holding them back.”




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The Cloud will be major job creator (for India and China) says study
 

New Delhi: People turned to the Internet to buy everything from diapers to books, houses and even groceries this year, pushing e-commerce revenues in the country to $14 billion with the possibility of even higher earnings in 2013.

Factors like spiralling inflation and slower economic growth failed to dampen the online shopping frenzy as more and more companies opted for selling wares through the internet route, offering innumerable options and discounts to buyers.

While travel still comprises a significant portion of the e-commerce market, other segments are catching up . Reuters
“Increasing Internet penetration and availability of more payment options boosted the e-commerce industry in 2012. Besides electronics, customer traction grew considerably in categories like fashion and jewellery, home and kitchen and lifestyle accessories like watches and perfumes,” Snapdeal Vice President (Marketing) Sandeep Komaravelly said.

While travel still comprises a significant portion of the e-commerce market, other segments are catching up fast. “Apparel, books and lifestyle categories (beauty, footwear and health) will drive e-commerce,” HomeShop18.com Founder and CEO Sundeep Malhotra said, adding that relatively stable and growing domestic economy will also be major growth drivers.

“The coming year looks promising for the industry.” According to Peppercloset.com owner Sumeet Arora, e-commerce segment has doubled to $14 billon this year from $6.3 billion in 2011. This figure is likely to reach 38 billion by 2015.

So, what can one expect in 2013 from the thousands of e-commerce websites. “More personalised offers, loyalty programmes and better customer care is what most e-commerce companies would focus on to offer customers a richer, more relevant online experience,” an industry analyst said.

According to HomeShop18.com, an innovation that will “revolutionise” e-commerce in India is cost optimisation through warehouse and logistics management that will enable companies to do profitable business.

While players like eBay and IndiatimesShopping have been around for a while, one saw many more portals mushrooming in 2012. An important entry in the Indian market was that of one of the world’s largest online retailer —Amazon.com. The website launched the desi version as ‘Junglee.com’. India also got its own version of ‘Cyber Monday’ on December 12 this year as ‘e-tailers’ like Flipkart, Snapdeal, Homeshop18 and Makemytrip, partnered Google India to offer discounts for online shoppers.

Celebrated on the Monday after Thanksgiving, the term ‘Cyber Monday’ was first coined in 2005 as a marketing term and has grown as a phenomenon over the years in the US.

According to analysts, factors like growing Internet penetration, increasing spending power, availability of multiple payment methods like credit/debit cards, cash on delivery, combined with faster adoption of smartphones and tablets are contributing to the growth of the sector.

“Mobility most likely will be the trend to look forward to the next year. Mobile commerce would be huge as more and more people access Internet through tablets and smartphones. Most companies are looking at enhancing their mobile presence,” Malhotra said.

According to a study by IMRB International and IAMAI, there were an estimated 137 million Internet users in the country as of June 2012. Of this, while 99 million were from urban parts of the country, the remaining 38 million were from rural India.

The next year is expected to see increased participation from tier 2 and tier 3 cities.”With a gap of demand and supply in physical retail category, online shopping is set to grow in tier 2 and tier 3 cities. The introduction of cash on delivery has helped gain the trust of consumers in these markets and get rid of the apprehension of using credit cards online,” he said.

According to him, there is a rising demand for books and health and beauty products from these cities, but tier 2 markets score highest on kids and baby items and home appliances.The year also saw acquisitions and consolidation activities picking up pace as dozens of online shopping portals set up shop.

Among major deals, Snapdeal acquired Esportsbuy.com, Flipkart acquired letsbuy.com, Madeinhealth was acquired by Healthkart, Yatra.com acquired Travelguru from Travelocity Global, Fashionandyou acquired UrbanTouch and Myntra.com bought SherSingh.com

“Acquisitions and consolidations will continue…its just the begining and will continue happening over the next few years. Bigger players will acquire smaller players and more investments will flow into the segment,” Arora said.

Despite the fact that most of these e-commerce companies are yet to start making money, growth prospects for these companies remain high and there seems no dearth of investors.According to experts, in 2012, the e-commerce companies in India raised over $500 million (about Rs 2,743.3 crore).

In one of the biggest fund raising by an Indian e-commerce firm, Flipkart in August this year raised $150 million (about Rs 822 crore) from four investors.Entertainment ticketing website BookMyShow.com also saw Rs 100 crore investment by Accel Partners, while Yebhi.com raised funding from Fidelity Growth Partners India and Qualcomm Ventures.

While “one will not see obscene valuations”, investors would continue to make small investments and 2013 will be a year of growth and consolidation, Arora said.Online retail has also seen an heavy overlap with social networking due to aggressive marketing on such platforms.

“As smartphones and tablets continue to proliferate, companies will need to embrace multi-channel commerce strategy in 2013,” Purehomedecor.com owner Sandeep Jaglan said.While consumers will be spoilt due to choice, players will have to sweat it out to differentiate themselves from the competitors.

Komaravelly of Snapdeal believes that personalisation would emerge as a key focus area in 2013. “The ability to customise and personalise shopping experience for customers will become a critical differentiator. Social and mobile platforms will see increased customer adoption in the coming year,” he said.

Elitify.com Founder and CEO Amit Rawal agrees. “The market is overcrowded with companies that are competing for the same pie and have very little differentiation in their product offering,” he said.

Differentiation is centered around beating the other in marketing and competing on prices, both of which are not sustainable trends for any industry, he added.”So the only way forward is consolidation of players that can create synergies both in terms of operations and product offerings,” Rawal said.

Marketing campaigns by major players like Flipkart and Jabong have also made e-commerce a household phenomenon, especially in the big cities, say experts.Social media would also become crucial as more brands use social data to not just popularise their brands but also personalise experience for customers on their websites.

Some experts are of opinion that cash on delivery, which is at present the predominant payment mechanism, will become less popular and give way to usage of debit/credit cards.”Given the various disadvantages like longer cash cycles for retailers, collection challenges etc, cash on delivery will become less popular and cards will start becoming more ubiquitous,” Malhotra said.

With more lucrative deals, loyalty plans and newer products hitting the online shelf, netizens can shop to their heart’s content. 2013 surely promises to make customer the king for e-commerce companies.
 
India services PMI jumps to three-month high in Dec

Bangalore: India’s services sector grew at its strongest pace in three months during December, as company order books filled at the quickest rate since last February, a survey showed on Friday.

Services, ranging from banks to restaurants, make up nearly 60% of India’s economic output and a recovery brightens the outlook for Asia’s third-largest economy. The sector has been the lone bright spot in an otherwise slowing economy.

The HSBC services Purchasing Managers’ Index, a survey of around 400 companies, rose to 55.6 in December from November’s 52.1.
The 50 mark separates growth from contraction and the index has held above that level for over a year now.

“The service sector provided some holiday cheer with activity fully recovering after two months of deceleration, led by a sharp rise in new business,” said Leif Eskesen, economist at HSBC.

The new business sub-index jumped to 57.1 in December from 54.9 in the previous month.While there is strong overseas demand for Indian services, the big questions remain about major export markets. The US economy will remain sluggish in 2013, underscoring a very fragile world economic outlook, according to a Reuters poll.

Firms were still optimistic about the year ahead, although the business expectations sub-index nudged lower in December from the previous month.

The Indian economy grew 5.3% from a year earlier in the quarter to September, extending a slowdown that began at the start of this year. It is now headed for its weakest full year growth in a decade.

The survey showed both input and output prices rose at a slower pace during the month. That should take some steam off the headline inflation rate, which at 7.24% in November is well above the Reserve Bank of India’s commonly perceived 5% comfort level.
“Inflation readings, meanwhile, eased a bit. With growth showing signs of recovery and inflation still elevated, the case for a policy rate cut is not yet convincing,” Eskesen added.“However, RBI has clearly teed up for rate cuts in January-March.”

The central bank has held interest rates steady since April, citing high price pressures, even as financial markets and the government have clamoured for rate cuts.

But after RBI’s meeting last month and in October, it said it was likely to ease policy rates in the January-March quarter, as inflation pressures are expected to ease.

A majority of economists polled by Reuters last month expect a total of 50 basis points of cuts in the benchmark repo rate by March, citing weak growth and a generally declining inflation trend.

A PMI survey released on Wednesday showed India’s manufacturing activity surged to a six-month high in December, boosted by strong factory output and a spike in new orders.

India services PMI jumps to three-month high in Dec - Livemint
 
India's steel production grows at fastest pace

NEW DELHI: India outpaced all major steel producing nations, including China in terms growth rate till November last year, but its position in the world order may still remain at number four.

India had produced 70.115 million tonne (MT) steel till November 2012, clocking 4.2 per cent growth over the first 11 months of the last year, according to the World Steel Association (WSA) data.

The second highest growth was recorded by the US at 3.2 per cent, followed by Russia at 3 per cent. China's steel production grew by 2.9 per cent. In South Korea, it grew by 1.6 per cent.

Steel production growth is unlikely to swing very far in the annual figure to be released by WSA a fortnight from now.

During the January-November period of 2011, India's steel production had grown by 5.6 per cent to 66.056 MT.

Barring Japan, which was hit by a super cyclone, all the major steel producing nations had staged a better show in 2011, growing by up to 17.9 per cent, compared to their January-November, 2012 performance.

The world order of steel production is also set to remain unchanged with China at the top, followed by Japan and the US, placing India at its last year's place - fourth.

Till November 2012, China produced 660.125 MT steel. Japan's production was at 98.658 MT and the US at 81.442 MT.

Russia and South Korea are closely contesting to be the fifth largest steel producer in the world. Till November 2012, Russia had produced 64.763 MT steel, and South Korea, 63.497 MT.

India's steel production grows at fastest pace - The Times of India
 
660/70=9.42



India had produced 70.115 million tonne (MT) steel till November 2012,

Source: http://www.defence.pk/forums/indian-defence/27787-indian-economy-news-updates-274.html#ixzz2HmKdbaB6

Till November 2012, China produced 660.125 MT steel. Japan's production was at 98.658 MT and the US at 81.442 MT.

Russia and South Korea are closely contesting to be the fifth largest steel producer in the world. Till November 2012, Russia had produced 64.763 MT steel, and South Korea, 63.497 MT.

India's steel production grows at fastest pace - The Times of India
 
TCS Q3 profit jumps 27% to Rs. 3,550 crore

tata_tcs_logo.gif


Country’s largest software firm Tata Consultancy Services on Monday reported a 26.7 per cent jump in consolidated net profit to Rs. 3,550 crore($650m approx) for the quarter ended December 31, 2012.

It had posted net profit of Rs. 2,803 crore in the same quarter of the previous fiscal (2011-12).

Revenues rose 21.7 per cent to Rs. 16,070 crore in the third quarter of 2012-13, from Rs. 13,204 crore in the year-ago period, TCS said in a statement.

“We have had an excellent quarter of well-rounded performance and have driven a higher quality of revenue and increased profitability through focus on productivity and innovation,” TCS Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director N. Chandrasekaran said.

The company had good revenue growth, balanced across service lines, industries and geographies, he added.

“The overall performance has been in line with what we had outlined at the beginning of the year. Our superior execution in this seasonally weak quarter has delivered productivity gains and an expanded operating margin,” TCS CFO and Executive Director S. Mahalingam said.

The operating margin of the company went up by 56 basis points to 27.3 per cent.

The company saw addition of 17,145 (gross) and 9,561 (net) people, taking its total headcount to 2,63,637.

“We have hired almost 50,000 professionals in the first three quarters of this financial year to support business growth and we continue to forecast a healthy growth in the workforce numbers going forward,” TCS Executive VP and Head (Global HR) Ajoy Mukherjee said.
 
Plan to build neutrino detector may drive steel demand

New Delhi: India now plans to build a small neutrino detector in Tamil Nadu as a precursor to the bigger underground one that’s already in the works for the state, potentially driving up demand for steel.

The smaller version proposed in Madurai is to kick-start the research aims of the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO), an underground detector of cosmic particles known as neutrinos, people associated with the projects said.

The smaller detector will also help provide experience to Indian industry that will have to supply nearly 50,000 tonnes of specialized steel for the bigger one—the largest such order for a single project. The steel estimate was made by the INO consortium that consists of the atomic energy department and a plethora of Indian universities.

The INO “will be one of the biggest projects of its kind in the world and so there will be a smaller detector at Madurai that will be a test model for the bigger, underground one”, said R.K. Sinha, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission.

India already has a much smaller neutrino detector at the Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre, Kolkata, a department of atomic energy research unit, and the construction of the INO will make the country a leading international hub for neutrino research.

“While the land clearances are done, we are yet to begin practical construction such as tendering for the steel, etc.,” said Naba Mondal, spokesperson, INO. “But the smaller detector will help research students already signed up for the programme.”
The detectors will together require about 50,000 tonnes of steel and the proposed one at Madurai will use only some of it and much less equipment than the main detector.

“We expect much of the demand to be supplied bv the Steel Authority of India Ltd, though such a big order cannot be executed by just one supplier,” Sinha said. He added that a formal tendering process would soon be announced.

The INO is expected to cost at least Rs.900 crore and will be built underground and connected to the outside world by a 2km tunnel. It will be funded by the government’s department of atomic energy, the department of science and technology and the University Grants Commission.

The observatory ran into opposition from environmentalists as it was initially proposed to be set up in Mudumalai, close to a tiger reserve, in Tamil Nadu. The detector now has been shifted to Pottipuram in the Bodi West hills of Theni district in the state.
As part of the project, about 150 layers of glass-based detectors known as Resistive Plate Chambers, or RPCs, which will be sandwiched between layers of iron constituting the 50-kiloton, 1.3 Tesla magnet.

Charged particles such as muons produced during the rare interactions of neutrinos with the iron will be detected by the RPCs and tracked in space and time to identify their momentum and charge. The properties of the neutrinos will be inferred from these tracks.
Globally, the study of neutrinos is at the forefront of basic science research in particle physics. These particles, discovered in 1956, are neutral (have no electric charge) with a mass that is almost zero. Though research into these tiny particles have resulted in two Nobel Prizes, scientists still do not know much about them.

Scientists say neutrinos hold vital clues to questions such as the age of the universe and the underlying structure of matter. They travel great distances—sometimes over billions of light years—and being electrically neutral, hardly react with anything. Several experiments are under way globally to understand the fundamental particles of matter, the most high profile of these being the underground Large Hadron Collider at the France-Switzerland border near Geneva, Switzerland. India, which has contributed to the project, announced many new proposals to boost particle research in its 11th Plan (2007-12).

Plan to build neutrino detector may drive steel demand - Livemint
 

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