Earning My Money

New York, March 11 (IANS) Anil Kumar, a former Indian American partner of consulting firm McKinsey & Co has testified to leaking secrets about his clients to billionaire hedge fund tycoon Raj Rajaratnam in exchange for $1.75 million.
Taking the witness stand in the biggest US insider trading trial in years, Kumar, 52, told a New York court Thursday that Sri Lankan-born Galleon hedge fund founder Rajaratnam practically put the money in his account against his will.
It was because Rajaratnam had paid him so much (the agreement was for $250,000 per year) that he felt obligated to tell him secret information about AMD, a micro chip company whose shares Rajaratnam allegedly traded improperly, he said.
' [I violated my confidentiality agreement with McKinsey and AMD because] Raj kept asking and I felt I owed him something given how much he paid me,' a remorseful looking Kumar dressed in a black suit and a black tie testified.
He said a couple of times that he felt like he had to give information to Raj because Raj was paying him.
Specifically, Kumar said, he told Raj material non-public information about 'Octeron,' a chip that AMD was secretly creating (its code name was 'Maid' because it was so top secret) in order to challenge Intel's big business with HP.
Upon learning about the 'Octeron' chip and AMD's plan to sell the chip to HP or Dell and subvert Intel's business with the companies, Raj said, 'That's very useful information,' according to Kumar.
Raj is the only person with whom Kumar shared info, according to his testimony. And he only told him because Raj had put $250,000 into his account somewhat unbeknown to Kumar.
Kumar says he was only made aware of the payments entering his account a few weeks after the transaction happened.
Kumar alleged that according to Rajaratnam's plan payments would be transferred from 'Instanet,' a company which apparently hedge funds and other financial firms frequently use to make 'soft dollar' payments to experts, to 'Pecos Trading,' an offshore company in Switzerland. From there, the money would be transferred in the name of Kumar's housekeeper, Manju Das.
Kumar said Rajaratnam told him: 'You work very, very hard. You are underpaid. People are making fortunes ... so just keep track of your knowledge and share it with me.'
Earlier the Manhattan court also for the first time heard the voice of Rajaratnam captured on FBI wiretaps. He is heard at times giggling with associates and on other occasions speaking rapidly in a high-pitched voice, rattling off numbers and acronyms for companies.
Along with Kumar, the recordings featured another friend-turned-government-witness, Intel Corp's Rajiv Goel, and former Galleon employee Adam Smith, who will also testify in the two-month trial.
Prosecutors allege that Smith and Rajaratnam conspired to obtain secret information about a potential acquisition of Vishay Intertechnology Inc, a company prosecutors cited in charges against both men.
Kumar's testimony will resume on Monday. He is among 19 people who have pleaded guilty to conspiracy or fraud charges in the broad Galleon probe.
Prosecutors say Rajaratnam made $45 million in illicit profit from 2003 to March 2009 through insider trading. His lawyers contend that he conducted legitimate stock research and did not gain an unfair advantage over other investors
JITENDRA KUMAR SINGH
PGDM SECOND- SEM.

Mumbai, Mar 10 (PTI) Bigger companies, with paid-up capital (PUC) of over Rs 100 crore, are more optimistic about their business and financial situations than the smaller ones for the January-March quarter, according to a RBI survey.
"Bigger companies (annual production above Rs 1,000 crore or PUC above Rs 100 crore) are more optimistic about overall business and financial situations. The smaller companies (annual production less than Rs 100 crore or PUC less than Rs 10 crore) are less optimistic," according to RBI Quarterly Industrial Outlook Survey.
The Survey was conducted during October-December 2010.
The smaller companies are less optimistic as their net response on production, order books and capacity utilisation are at lower levels than those of the bigger companies.
"Bigger companies are more optimistic about domestic as well as external demand," it said.
The Survey also said the manufacturers expect the growth to moderate in January-March, 2011.
The survey findings exhibit the Indian manufacturing sector continued to gain strength as Business Expectation Index (BEI) for the October-December quarter increased to 122.8 from 119.0.
"However, the sentiment is expected to moderate for the January-March, 2011 quarter with BEI moderating to 125.9 from 126.5 in the the previous quarter," it added.
The index is computed from the responses of all the industries on selected nine performance parameters, including overall business situation, production and order books.
The Survey also seeks responses from the manufacturers about their perceptions on change in employment in their companies covering full-time, part-time and casual labour.
"About 25 per cent of the respondents have reported addition to their labour force in October-December, 2010 quarter which is also reflective of growing demand condition,"
JITENDRA KUMAR SINGH
PGDM-SEM-2

State-run Bank of Baroda will raise up to Rs. 32.8 billion through a preferential allotment of shares to the government at Rs. 902.14 each, it said in a statement over the weekend.

The bank will hold an extra-ordinary general meeting for shareholders' approval on March 29, it added.
Other public lenders such as Indian Overseas Bank, UCO Bank and United Bank of India have also said they would preferentially allot shares to the government in return for capital infusion.
In December, India's cabinet approved additional capital infusion of 60 billion rupees ($1.3 billion) into state-run banks to strengthen their capital adequacy and to increase the government's stake in them.

Manali
PGDM 2NDSEM

India's gold futures extended gains to hit a fresh peak of Rs. 21,232 ($470.3) per 10 grams on Monday morning in step with overseas markets and on a weaker rupee, analysts said.

At 10:05 a.m. gold for April delivery on the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) traded at 21,204 rupees, up 0.5 percent.
A weaker rupee makes the dollar-quoted yellow metal expensive

Manali
PGDM 2ND SEM.

India's manufacturing sector expanded at its fastest clip in three months in February as more new orders poured in, but input prices rose at a record pace, a survey showed on Tuesday.
The HSBC Markit Purchasing Managers' Index , based on a survey of around 500 companies, rose to 57.9 in February from 56.8 in January.
This was the 23rd consecutive month the key index of manufacturing in Asia's third largest economy has been above the 50 mark that divides growth from contraction.
"The momentum in India's manufacturing sector strengthened yet again in February, continuing the good start to the year," said Leif Eskesen, chief economist for India & ASEAN at HSBC.
"Output growth is holding up and the inflow of new orders is accelerating, holding promise of a strong momentum in output in the months ahead."
The new orders index rose for the third consecutive month to reach a seven-month high of 62.4 in February compared with 60.7 in the previous month.
However, growth in input prices accelerated at its fastest since data collection began in 2005, with the index rising for the eighth straight month.
"Manufacturers are facing ever steeper increases in input costs reflecting the tightness of labour markets and rising material costs, which will continue to add upward pressures on output prices," Eskesen added.
Even though the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has raised its policy rates seven times since last March, it said last week that the balance of risks had tilted towards stronger inflation and it was ready to respond again if price pressures increased.
Oil prices rose to 2-½ year highs last week on concerns about supplies from the Middle East after uprisings in Libya slashed exports from North Africa, while food prices have also skyrocketed.
The RBI raised interest rates in late January by 25 basis points, as expected, to clamp down on resurgent inflation, warning higher food prices could become entrenched if steps to boost output are not taken.
The Indian economy grew at a slower-than-expected pace of 8.2 percent from a year earlier in the October-December quarter, compared with 8.9 percent in the previous quarter, government data on Monday showed.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee presented his annual federal budget on Monday, saying the impression of policy drift in the scandal-tainted government was misplaced and that food inflation was still a major concern.
The government boosted spending on hundreds of millions of its poor in a budget gambling on brisk economic growth to cover the cost of appeasing voters angered by corruption scandals and stubbornly high inflation.
JITENDRA KUMAR SINGH
PGDM SEM-2

Indian Oil Corp, the country's biggest fuel retailer, said on Tuesday there was a need to raise petrol prices, a day after the budget failed to announce any measures to stem revenue losses of state oil firms.
Petrol prices in India are market-linked, but diesel, cooking gas and kerosene rates are set by the government, which partly compensates state oil firms for their losses when global crude oil prices increase.
Raising fuel prices is politically sensitive in India, with the government struggling to balance maintaining growth momentum and reining in inflation, among the highest of major Asian economies.
The ruling coalition also faces crucial state elections over the next year which also make it unattractive to raise fuel prices.
"I hope the (global crude oil) prices will come down," IOC Finance Director S.V. Narasimhan said.
Narasimhan refused to say by when the company could raise petrol prices. IOC has raised petrol prices at least nine times since state control on its pricing was lifted last June. The last hike was on Jan. 16.
IOC's daily revenue loss on fuel sales now stood at 2.16 billion rupees ($47.72 million), Narasimhan said, adding a desired increase in petrol prices would be 3.5-4 rupees a litre.
Petrol currently sells in Delhi for about 58 rupees a litre.
Oil firms had expected Monday's budget to at least cut customs and excise duties to cushion them against rising global oil prices, as continued unrest in the Middle East and North Africa threatens to further reduce crude supplies, despite Saudi Arabia ramping up output.
But the lack of support in the budget for oil firms has also fed speculation that a ministerial panel on fuel pricing will take up the issue of hiking prices soon.
While the oil and finance ministries have appeared to support an increase in prices, a final decision is often a political one that takes into account its impact on the support bases of the ruling Congress party and its government allies.
Gasoline and diesel have weights of 1.09 percent and 4.67 percent, respectively, in the wholesale price index (WPI), India's main inflation measure, and raising fuel prices has a knock-on effect as farmers and manufacturers pass costs along.
Narasimhan said current revenue loss on diesel stood at 11.16 rupees a litre, while on kerosene the loss is 23.55 rupees a liter. The loss on a cylinder of 14.2 kg cooking gas cylinder is 298 rupees.
JITENDRA KUMAR SINGH
PGDM SEM-2

Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, said the new budget's target to slash the fiscal deficit to 4.6 percent of GDP, a goal many economists deride as optimistic, is achievable even if oil averages $100 a barrel for the year.
Ahluwalia also said no decision had been made on when to submit diesel prices to market forces, a long-delayed move that would ease government's subsidy burden but add to inflation and anger voters ahead of elections in five states.
On Monday, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said India's economy would grow at about 9 percent in the fiscal year starting in April and the government would cut its fiscal deficit to 4.6 percent of GDP from 5.1 percent in the current year, a figure that was flattered by $23 billion in telecoms licence revenues.
"He has committed himself to a 4.6 percent fiscal deficit. In a way it does not matter how he achieves it. I mean, in the course of the year if things turn out to be different, and there are many things that could turn out to be different, he'll have to do something," Ahluwalia said on Tuesday.
"The nature of fiscal responsibility is not that I carefully calculate everything and give the right number. He just says, look, I am going to manage the economy so that I end the year with 4.6 percent. I think he is well within a reasonable margin of that," he told Reuters in an interview.
Monday's budget was greeted with scepticism by many observers worried about a potentially huge subsidy burden if global oil prices remain elevated and India enacts a costly new food security bill during the year.
Brent crude traded around $112 per barrel on Tuesday, down from close to $120 per barrel last week, its highest in more than two years, largely on fears that political upheaval in Libya would spread in the Middle East.
Some economists, meanwhile, expect India's economic growth to slow from the 8.6 percent it is on track to reach in the current fiscal year that ends on March 31.
"It will be difficult for the deficit targets to be met as expenditures have been under-budgeted and revenues have been over-budgeted," Goldman Sachs economists wrote after the budget.
"The expenditure targets are ambitious, especially on subsidies," they wrote, noting that oil subsidies in the next year's budget are 40 percent lower than the oil subsidies in the current year.
Ahluwalia, who along with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was a key architect of India's economic liberalistion in 1991, said he expects the unrest in the Middle East to subside in the next month or six weeks, which would take pressure off crude prices.
"I think if oil prices remain at or just below $100 per barrel on average during the year, then I think he had made a fair amount of provision for petroleum subsidies," he said.
Last year, the government freed petrol to market pricing but it still sets prices for the much more widely used diesel, as well as cooking fuels.
A Congress government on the back foot over persistently high inflation and its handling of a spate of corruption scandals has little appetite to take politically unpopular decisions.
"The policy is diesel should also be adjusted. But you know the problem is this is a politically sensitive issue, so I think there's no clarity on that," Ahluwalia said.
"Deliberately, we've not indicated when the adjustment is going to be made. I think if oil prices had not shot up as much as they did, probably the original intention of decontrolling diesel in phases would have been implemented," he said.
JITENDRA KUMAR SINGH
PGDM-2

Reuters) - The BSE Sensex extended gains to 3 percent on Tuesday, tracking firmer global markets and as a strong growth outlook for Asia's third-largest economy boosted sentiments.
Auto makers led the gains after top car makers Maruti Suzuki and Tata Motors posted a rise of 15.5 percent and 12 percent, respectively, in February sales.
The government's move to not raise excise duty on cars in the budget on Monday also lifted the sector.
At 1:49 p.m. (0819 GMT), the 30-share BSE index, or Sensex, was trading up 3.1 percent at 18,378.06 points, with all but one of its components advancing.
The 50-share NSE index was up 3.2 percent at 5,502.80 points.
(Reporting by Bharghavi Nagaraju; Editing by Aradhana Arav
JITENDRA KUMAR SINGH
PGDM-2

International Monetary Fund warned on Monday that global economic growth could suffer if the price of oil stays at its current high level for an extended period.


Oil prices jumped toward $120 a barrel last week for the first time since 2008 as a revolt against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has hit crude exports from the country, which is the world's 12th largest producer.
"I am concerned," said IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, during a visit to Panama. "The hike to something which is between $110 and $120 a barrel is something which may affect (growth) if it lasts too long."
At the same time, Strauss-Kahn said oil prices were not likely hitting growth yet. "We are not there today," he said.
Oil prices have eased in recent days, partly because top world exporter Saudi Arabia has promised to meet any shortages.
Crude oil shipments from Libya are at a virtual standstill, shipping sources said on Monday.
Gaddafi's forces have been trying for days to push back a revolt that has won over large parts of the military, ended his control over eastern Libya and is holding the government at bay in western cities near Tripoli.
PANAMA CREDIT?
Strauss-Kahn said Panama, seen as a safe bet for sovereign bond investors, could be included in the IMF's safety net for emerging markets, known as the Flexible Credit Line.
The IMF facility aims to be a backstop should investors sour on emerging markets or rush back into safe havens like U.S. Treasuries this year or next.
"There may be a high probability for Panama to qualify," Strauss-Kahn said, reiterating the IMF's policy that the credit is "really strictly limited to our members having the right policy in place."
Mexico qualified for an extension of its credit line from the Washington-based lender in January.
(Writing by Jason Lange and Robin Emmott; Editing by Gary Hill)

Name - Rakesh prasad
PGDM - 2nd sem

On Tuesday, Microsoft Corp. revealed its plans to soon initiate Web-based versions of some of its most popular office software including Word, Excel and PowerPoint, providing users with the ability to work with documents through a Web browser or mobile phone whenever the PC is not available.
These Web-based programs, which are described as "lightweight versions"of the Microsoft Office programs that are installed on PCs, actually have been initiated to over show Google


From-pankaj choubey PGDM-2ND

New Delhi:In a big relief from cumbersome tax filing process for the salaried class, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee proposed to exempt them from filing tax returns unless they have other sources of income.

The government will be issuing a notification exempting 'classes of persons' from the requirement of furnishing income tax returns, said the Memorandum to the Finance Bill 2011.The decision, which will come into effect from June 1, 2011, will reduce the compliance burden on small taxpayers, it added.

Salaried taxpayers who do not have other sources of income and whose incomes are subject to Tax Deduction at Source (TDS) will be excluded from filing returns.

"Therefore, in cases where there is no other source of income, filing of a return is duplication of existing information," the Memorandum said. jite
JITENDRA KUMAR SINGH
PGDM-2

Brent crude rose above $112 a barrel on Tuesday as continued unrest in the Middle East and North Africa threatened to further reduce crude supplies even as Saudi Arabia ramped up output to cover disruption to Libyan exports.



Gains were capped as February manufacturing growth in No. 2 oil importer China slowed to a six-month low. In top consumer the U.S., crude oil inventories likely increased for the seventh consecutive week last week on higher imports.
Brent futures for April rose 41 cents to $112.21 a barrel by 0736 GMT. The contract gained over 10 percent in February, its biggest monthly percentage rise since May 2009. U.S. crude rose 33 cents to $97.30 a barrel.
Both benchmarks surged to their highest in 2- years last week as the revolt in Libya cut supply and spurred fears that tensions could spread to other oil producers in the region.
Demonstrators blocked roads into Oman's main oil product port on Monday, although exports were unaffected.
"There's a very large fear premium in oil prices due to the geopolitical situation," said Ben Le Brun, markets analyst at CMC Markets.
"The potential is there and the risk is very high if it (the unrest) spreads to countries such as Saudi Arabia," he said, adding that in that scenario prices could "rocket up."
Crude oil shipments from Libya are at a virtual standstill as reduced output and bad weather hamper exports from the world's 12th-largest producer, shipping sources said.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch said Libya's oil infrastructure on the eastern side of the country could be prone to attacks, "creating the risk of a prolonged output loss.
The bank added that the oil market's ability to deal with further unrest in the Middle East was limited. Still, a Saudi source said on Monday that the kingdom has another 3.5 million barrels per day (bpd) of spare capacity, even after it raised output to around 9 million bpd to plug the gap left by Libya.
OIL SPIKES TO HIT GROWTH
The IMF has warned that global economic growth could suffer if the price of oil stays at its current high level for an extended period.
"A steep rise in oil prices that is caused by a supply loss is likely to be more damaging than one that is driven by robust demand," JPMorgan analysts led by Lawrence Eagles said in a February 28 note.
In China, manufacturing growth slowed in February to a six-month low, according to an official survey, as the government's sustained campaign to tame inflation weighed on industrial activity.
A slowdown was expected, but China still has strong demand for crude and products to feed its expansion, said Yuichiro Sakaki, a Tokyo-based trader at Mizuho Securities.


Name - Rakesh prasad
PGDM - 2 nd sem

New Delhi: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee proposed to enhance the income tax exemption limit to 1.8 lakh ( 180,000 or $4,000) for the next financial year, from 1.6 lakh now.

He announced this while presenting the federal budget for the next fiscal.

The minimum alternate tax levied on the corporate sector has, however, been increased to 18.5 percent from 18 percent and the surcharge has been lowered to 5 percent from 7.5 percent. Mukherjee also said he was proposing a very senior category of income tax payers, above the age of 80, for whom the tax exemption will be up to 5 lakh. The qualifying age limit for senior citizens was being lowered to 60 years from 65 years.

State-run Coal India said that Director (Technical) N C Jha will hold the additional charge of Chairman and Managing Director of the firm till further orders.

"... N C Jha, Director (Technical), Coal India Ltd (CIL), has assumed the additional charge of Chairman-cum-Managing Director (CMD) of Coal India Ltd with effect from March 1, 2011, for a period of 3 months, or till regular appointment is made or until further orders, whichever is earlier," the company said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Jha took over after Partha S Bhattacharyya stepped down from the post on February 28 on attaining superannuation, the company said.
"Partha S Bhattacharyya, on attaining the age of superannuation, relinquished the charge or the office of Chairman-cum-Managing Director of the company with effect from February 28, 2011," it added.
Before assuming the charge of the CMD of CIL in 2006, Bhattacharyya was the CMD of Bharat Coking.
NAME- DEEPAK KUMAR JHA
ROLL. PG/10/06
PGDM(2010-12)