Teen Traders' Blog

Said Something ???

Sixty Seven MLAs in Bihar Today were suspended for “unruly” behaviour as slippers were flung at the speaker and pots flung around due to some usual  disagreements.

The politicians or the so-called “leaders”  which included 42 RJD MLAs, were suspended by Assembly Speaker Udai Narain Choudhry and marshaled out of the Legislative assembly one-by-one.

Guess what they were angry about?

Some financial irregularitiesin the state after a CAG report. The Opposition is now  demanding the resignation of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar.

But isn’t the same case in all or at least most of the states and government departments throughout the country.

TOI Reports

As the watch and ward staff lifted RJD MLA Bablu Dev, his colleagues rushed to his rescue. In the melee, a slipper was thrown towards the Speaker’s podium. It was not immediately known who had flung the footwear which, however, did not hit the Speaker.

Note the last line.  ..which however did not hit the Speaker.

I guess now even the media is tired of reporting the throwing of slippers or chappals on leaders which do not hit the leaders/politicians/scamsters.

The slingers should at least go for a confident shot which does hit the target or maybe play some Counter Strike before such ambitious and covert operations.

IF every Assembly starts showing such attitude due to the regular irregularities,  I guess all the assemblies will have to reserve,say, half-an-hour every session  for the slinging of slippers and pots. I think even the Politicians are tired of the regular slow,tedious and lame work that they do in every assembly. I really think they deserve some adventures like these in the assemblies.

Wot say??

High-Tech Jargon

NEW: Different color from previous design
ALL NEW: Parts not interchangeable with previous design
EXCLUSIVE: Imported product
UNMATCHED: Almost as good as the competition
DESIGNED SIMPLICITY: Manufacturer’s cost cut to the bone
FOOLPROOF OPERATION: No provision for adjustments
ADVANCED DESIGN: The advertising agency doesn’t understand it
IT’S HERE AT LAST!: Rush job; nobody knew it was coming
FIELD-TESTED: Manufacturer lacks test equipment
HIGH ACCURACY: Unit on which all parts fit
DIRECT SALES ONLY: Factory had big argument with distributor
YEARS OF DEVELOPMENT: We finally got one that works
REVOLUTIONARY: It’s different from our competitors
BREAKTHROUGH: We finally figured out a way to sell it
FUTURISTIC: No other reason why it looks the way it does
DISTINCTIVE: A different shape and color than the others
MAINTENANCE-FREE: Impossible to fix
RE-DESIGNED: Previous faults corrected, we hope…
HAND-CRAFTED: Assembly machines operated without gloves
PERFORMANCE PROVEN: Will operate through the warranty period
MEETS ALL STANDARDS: Ours, not yours
ALL SOLID-STATE: Heavy as Hell!
BROADCAST QUALITY: Gives a picture and produces noise
HIGH RELIABILITY: We made it work long enough to ship it
SMPTE BUS COMPATIBLE: When completed, will be shipped by Greyhound
NEW GENERATION: Old design failed, maybe this one will work
MIL-SPEC COMPONENTS: We got a good deal at a government auction CUSTOMER SERVICE ACROSS THE COUNTRY :You can return it from most airports
UNPRECEDENTED PERFORMANCE: Nothing we ever had before worked this way
BUILT TO PRECISION TOLERANCES: We finally got it to fit together
SATISFACTION GUARANTEED: Manufacturer’s, upon cashing your check
MICROPROCESSOR CONTROLLED: Does things we can’t explain
AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGY: One of our techs was laid off by Boeing

Via

Essar Group, the Ruia owned multinational conglomerate will buyout the entire 59.1 per cent stake of Avaya in AGC Network.

The deal is valued at $44.5 million USD equivalent of Rs 206.19 crore, or Rs 245 a share, subject to customary Indian regulatory requirements and completion of the open offer.

The acquisition would be done through Essar Services Holdings Limited (ESHL). AGC Networks, earlier known as Avaya GlobalConnect Ltd., is a converged communication solution provider focused on the India and Australia market. The company employs approx 500 people. The current management is expected to continue and spearhead the business post-closing.

On the occasion Aparup Sengupta, Managing Director, and Global CEO, Aegis Ltd., said, “Essar in a short span has become a key player in the SI space and would benefit immensely from the depth and width of expertise AGC Networks has. We have a definitive plan to grow this business as we aim for bigger chunks of customer spends.”

Kerala is all set Launch its dream project i.e. the Technocity township that is expected attract investments of Rs 3000 crores to Rs 5000 crores and create 100,000 jobs directly and atleast 400,000 jobs indirectly.

Technopark CEO Mr Mervin Alexander and Infopark CEO Mr Siddhartha Bhattacharya and Cyberpark CEO Mr Biu Pazhoor told a joint press conference that the project is concieved under PPP model.

Technocity is said to be the Dream IT project of the Southern state and is planned as a self-dependent satellite city. The project will be developed through multiple Special Purpose vehicles in association with leading developers. It has applied to Japan International Cooperation Agency for funding of Rs 170 crores as Japan had shown interest in developing the country’s infrastructure.

In addition to IT Infrastructures, Technocity shall also have residential apartments, shopping malls, hospitals, hotels, educational institutions and other support facilities and will also have more focus on biotechnology, nanotechnology and high-end manufacturing units.

Boeing, the largest aerospace and defense contractor in the world is facing a huge challenge against its the strategy it embarked during the 1990s to offset jetliner-sales cycles with more stable military revenue. This is mainly because military hardware spending is slowing down throughout the world and at the same time commercial orders are also taking a hit due to a steep fall in global air travellers.

The company is still going strong as it has years’ worth of orders to fill and robust profits. Jim Albaugh, chief executive of Boeing’s defense business says that the company has profited throughout the years and now it has studied how the companies have successfully navigated the last defense downturn,and he told that Boeing plans to invest and make relative acquisitions accordingly. “Jim McNerney(Boeing CEO) is not looking to me to shrink the business and to hunker down,” said Mr. Albaugh.

Boeing has largely been in the public eye ever since it acquired defence major McDonnell Douglas in 1997 and since then has come to count on roughly $32 billion a year in defense sales.

Its European EADS (European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co) rival has been following a similar path and has been aggressively expanding its defence business. “The crisis is confirming that our strategy is more valid than ever,” said EADS Chief Executive Louis Gallois on Saturday.

Taking a cue from Boeing , EADS(EADS is the parent company of  Airbus) is converting its passenger planes into mid air refuelling planes. Currently both the giants are competing for a $40 billion contract from the U.S. Air Force to supply aerial refueling planes.

Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer is set to open its first sales venture in India and has teamed up with Bharti Enterprises to open Wholesale stores in the country.

The Number 2 Fortune 500 company, which has been amongst the best companies to weather recession is planning to enter the country’s vast consumer market and has teamed up with the parent company of India’s largest telecom company, Airtel in a wholesale joint venture to be called Best Price Modern Wholesale.

Raj Jain, chief executive of Wal-Mart India says, “India is first of all a country with close to 1.2 billion people and a strongly growing economy which is driven by personal consumption,There’s a need to start out on a learning curve with the Indian consumer and this is the first significant step in that direction.”he told AFP.

The company isn’t opening up to consumers because of the country’s strict FDI rules in the consumer retail markets in which no overseas chains are permitted in the retail sector — except for single-brand outlets such as Nokia or Reebok. The rules have been setup after massive protests against the organised retailers amid fears that the country’s 15 million “mom and pop” stores shall be out of business.

Thus Wal-Mart can just be a wholesaler and must partner with domestic companies to enter the $400billion retail market which is pegged to grow much further.

Wal-Mart which had revenues of $405,607million in 2008 plans to open 15-20 outlets and employ about 5000 people in India.  CEO Jain hopes that the country opens up the  FDI (Foreign Direct Investments)norms in the sector  so that “Huge investments and better infrastructure ” shall be possible for the country’s unorganised retail sector.

But even when the Regional players like the Pantaloon  Retail(parent company of Food Bazaar and Big Bazaar) Reliance Retail (Reliance Fresh & Reliance Trends) there were concerns that the mom and pop stores shall be threatened by the organised players. But they weren’t. The consumers in India do not go to the organised retailers to buy good in small quantities. Only when they have to buy goods in greater quantities like buying stocks for the week, they go to the organised retailers which have been quite successful in getting the upper middle class of the country to their shops , largely by providing better discounts.

Lately, the country’s large retailers have been in debts due to the downturn as they has borrowed a lot when the situation was bright and things were looking very good. But when the optimism started to decline and the consumer sales fell, many retailers like Food Bazaar, More etc. had to shut down shops ,cut down spending and try their best to increase same-store sales in which the Pantaloon Retail group has been the most successful till now.

But whatever happens with a population of 1.2 billion and a large middle-class population, the country can surely not be avoided by the large enterprises who are looking at emerging markets after things the mature markets started looking bleak.

The software giant launches Bling search engine, the next-generation search service  at D7 Conference.

On Thursday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer himself officially unveiled the Bling search engine at the D7 conference in California.  The product shall be rolled over the next couple of days until 3rd June by which it shall be available to everyone . The search engine has been designed as a “decision engine” to help people search the web more intelligently and is “aimed ” at giving people more ways to organize their search results.

The company also plans to spend $80 million-$100million on the promotion of the search engine through print , air and the web.

Microsoft has been trying real hard to be successful on its online business,  But just couldn’t make it to be the best. It had a decent start with the Hotmail email service but then slowly it started to  decline and despite the CEO’s claims that the company shall have the number 1 search engine, its services have been massively under performing with analysts even saying that Microsoft should just sell off its online business as it just can not handle it properly. This is the latest effort by the Software giant to get itself a decent online share and probably even the best yet after Hotmail.

The EU(European Commisioan) fined Intel, the giant chipmaker for $1.45billion on Wednesday and ordered it to halt the the illegal rebates and other illegal practices to squeeze out the rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc(AMD).

Though Intel said it would appeal against the fine, but the decision reminds of the once fearful fine the EU imposed on Microsoft for similar monopoly practices. The huge fine from EU is the largest ever for a single corporation exceeding an 896-million euro penalty last year against glass maker Saint-Gobainand the 497-million euro fine on Microsoft.

Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini said that Intel would appeal at Europe’s Court of first Instance. He told in a statement “Intel takes exception to this decision. We believe the decision is wrong and ignores the reality of a highly competitive microprocessor market.”

The markets didnt react much and Intels Stocks rose+2.70% at 13.05.

European Union Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said in  a news briefing, “Intel has harmed millions of European consumers by deliberately acting to keep competitors out of the market for computer chips for many years. If we smell that there is something rotten in the state, we act.”

The EU told Intel to stop the problematic rebated, discount, concessions. The fines account to almost a fifth of the $7.79 billion cash on Intel’s balance sheet.

EU accused the Santa Clara based company of giving rebates to computer manufacturers such as Acer, Hewlet Packard Co., Dell Inc., Lenovo Group and the NEC Corp.

The commision said the company must pay the fine within three months from the date of notification.

Because it wants to do everything that every major online company does.

Well this peice of article on Fortune just couldn’t stop me blogging about.

Microsoft , the owner of the immensely popular windows programme has been profitable enough but it just cant carve a niche out for itself on the online businesses. It does evruything it can, buys out businesses, tries to be innovative (though after seeing someone), it just cant be a Google or even Facebook. It bought if a piece of Facebook for $240 million.

Whatever it does we certainly cant see a Youtube, Facebook, Myspace or anything “really” big under the “M” umbrella.

MSN has been loosing out marketshare and Hotmail has been loosing its shine. But still Microsoft seems to be strong and as CEO Ballmer puts it “Our PC muscles are very well developed, and our server and enterprise muscles are very well developed,” he told a group of financial analysts. “Our Internet muscles aren’t yet as well developed. But we want to go after it with the same energy.”

Here is a Image What Fortune published:

Fortune

The April consumer price inflation remained at a record low in 16- nation Eurozone at just 0.6% accordin to stat agency Eurostat.
That nearly matched the pace seen in March