Saturday, February 25, 2012

BSNL launched tablet priced at Rs.3,250

BSNL has launched three tablets including two 7 inch resistive screen based tabs with Android 2.3 operating system while the third tablet comes with an 8 inch capacitive touchscreen.
Made by Noida based company - Pantel, the tablets will be sold with discounted data plans from BSNL. The three tablets are priced at Rs 3,250, Rs 10,999 and Rs 13,500.
The cheapest model is Panta Tpad IS 701r which is priced at Rs 3,250. Panta Tpad is a WiFi only tablet with Android 2.3 operating system, it has a 1 GHz processor (ARM11 IMAP210) clubbed with 256 MB RAM. The tablet also offers HDMI port through which it can be connected to a TV. Its 7 inch resistive touch screen comes with 800x600 resolution and 16:9 aspect ratio.
The second tablet is named 'Panta Tpad_ws704c'. It has the same specification as its cheapest cousin (701r) but offers added 3G connectivity which supports both CDMA/EVDO and GSM, inbuilt A-GPS, Accelerometer and Bluetooth. It also comes with a 2 megapixel rear camera and also has bigger 512 MB RAM for faster performance.
The tablet has a 3000 mAh battery and 2 GB internal memory which can be expanded through micro SD card. The tablet also has a VGA front facing camera for video calling. While Panta Tpad IS 701r has the BSNL branding, the other two tablets images do not have.
The costliest amongst the three is the Tpad WS802C which has an 8 inch capacitive screen. It comes with a faster 1.2 GHz processor and 512 MB RAM. The internal memory is also bigger at 4 GB. Rest of the features like GPS, camera and Bluetooth are same as the 704c.

Saturday, February 25, 2012 by Senthamaraikannan · 0

Friday, February 24, 2012

What the mini-run on the rupee says about India

THE result of headless-chicken financial markets or a canary in the coal mine? India is grappling with this question. On November 22nd the rupee fell to an all-time low against the dollar. The speed of the rout (see chart) has been scary for a place that was supposed to be largely insulated from the rich world’s troubles. It is 20 years since India had a balance-of-payments crisis and for a long time the talk has been about it becoming an economic superpower. But there lingers a memory of when it felt it was a financial hostage to the world, and this helps explain the whiff of panic now in the air. Mumbai’s financial types say that firms are scrambling to find dollars and that desperate euro-zone banks, which supply about half of India’s foreign loans, are cutting off credit lines.

That sense of fear strikes some as overdone. Jonathan Anderson, of UBS, a bank, has tagged the rupee a “drama queen”. India’s high inflation and chunky current-account deficit, financed by capital flows, mark it out from most of Asia. But neither attribute is new. Chetan Ahya, an economist at Morgan Stanley, thinks India has its problems, but that the weak rupee mainly reflects the trauma in global markets, which has caused capital flows to dry up. Hardest hit by global risk aversion are countries with external deficits. The currencies of other places with current-account gaps, such as South Africa and Turkey, have been walloped too.
To be sure, the rupee deserves a beating, given how India’s prospects have dimmed. “The currency markets have been late in reacting,” reckons Samiran Chakraborty, of Standard Chartered, another bank. “The Indian business community has been more negative than foreigners for some time,” adds Roopa Kudva, the boss of CRISIL, a ratings and research firm. India’s growth model has been to run a small current-account deficit, financed with high-quality capital inflows, such as foreign direct investment and equity purchases. As a poor country this makes sense: India should invest more than it saves. But bits of its approach look rickety.
For a start the current-account deficit is likely to overshoot projections of about 3% of GDP for 2011, if October’s trade figures are anything to go by. Exports slowed faster than imports, a chunk of which are non-discretionary commodities and oil. The investment climate has soured due to stubborn inflation, high interest rates and GDP growth that may dip below 7% in the coming quarter. Pessimism about the government’s appetite for reform has surely hurt India’s ability to attract capital. Neelkanth Mishra, a strategist at Credit Suisse and a longstanding bear on the economy, reckons the quality of capital coming in is falling too, with flightier and riskier debt rather than stickier equity investments.
The falling rupee, then, partly reflects India’s economic failings. But will a cheaper currency add to these problems or help solve them? It should eventually narrow the external deficit, by boosting exports and limiting imports. Still, a sharp fall in the currency can be deadly if a country has borrowed in other people’s money. India’s indebted government sells its rupee bonds to locals, mainly banks, not jittery foreigners. The trouble is that since India’s banks are forced to stuff themselves full of loans to the state, Indian firms have had to borrow abroad. Sanjeev Prasad at Kotak, a broker, says that the recent results season saw a host of firms booking losses as the value in rupees of their foreign debts rose. He worries about them being able to refinance these borrowings.
And a lower rupee will fan inflation, which is already at 9-10%. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), India’s central bank, and the government have been praying that it will slow. But a rough rule of thumb is that a 10% depreciation adds 60-100 basis points to inflation, says Mr Chakraborty at Standard Chartered. That’s unhelpful.
For the authorities there are three possible responses. They have already done the first: easing the rules on foreign lending to India, to try to attract short-term funds. The second option would be to intervene in the currency markets by selling dollars and buying rupees. That might, though, complicate domestic policy, by tightening monetary conditions further. If the RBI bought banks’ rupees then those lenders would have fewer available to buy government bonds, further increasing the already high borrowing costs of the state. The RBI could try to offset this by buying government bonds directly, but that might in turn hamper its efforts to support the rupee.

And has India enough firepower? The country has $314 billion of reserves, largely thanks to the central bank intervening in the past to stop the rupee appreciating too much. But that cushion is not as big as it seems. Mr Mishra reckons foreign debts that must be repaid within a year now equal 48% of India’s reserves. Using a similar approach of deducting short-term debts from reserves, Mr Anderson reckons India’s net position has deteriorated. Compared with other countries it is only middlingly good (see chart) and the RBI may be nervous of using too much ammunition.
That leaves a third option: for the politicians to make tough choices. If it cut its fiscal deficit the state would probably lower the current-account deficit. And if reforms were sped up, growth might recover, inflation could fall and foreign investment would pick up. The priorities include freeing the supply chains that have caused high food prices and cutting the red tape that is choking industrial projects. So far the omens are not promising. On November 22nd, the first day of the winter sitting of India’s parliament was adjourned due to raucous behaviour. Sadly, the rupee is not the only drama queen around.

Friday, February 24, 2012 by Senthamaraikannan · 0

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Nokia

Nokia enhances ‘email on the mobile' service :





Nokia has enhanced its ‘email on the mobile' services, for messaging and social networking. It has also introduced a new version of Nokia E63 to enable the use of email services, priced around Rs. 10,500. Speaking to reporters here on Tuesday, Head Online Marketing, Viral Oza said “The service can support up to 10 email accounts''. Rights now Nokia had tied up with mail provider Ovi Mail. Nokia will have corporate and consumer versions of its offering.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010 by Senthamaraikannan · 0

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Padma awards 2010

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 by Senthamaraikannan · 0

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

DVAT changes Mar 2010

As per the Budget:
5 per cent VAT on CNG, rope-making material, bio-inputs like fertilisers, kerosene stoves, etc
12.5 per cent VAT proposed on motion picture distribution and plastic and glass scrap
 5 per cent VAT:
On compressed natural gas, rope-making material like “rassi, ban and newar”, bio-inputs like fertilizers and micro-nutrients and plant growth promoters, kerosene stoves, lanterns and petromax and their spares and embroidery and zari items, 5 per cent VAT has been proposed .

(These items were exempt from tax earlier)

VAT at 12.5 per cent  :
     Similarly VAT at 12.5 per cent has been proposed on motion picture distribution and plastic and glass scrap, which were earlier exempted.

The rate of VAT has been increased from 5 per cent to 12. 5 per cent on all other scraps, dry fruits, saffron and edible seeds ‘magaz' of all types, desi ghee, household plastic items, plastic and tin containers including barrels, wood and timber and plywood and laminated boards, fitting for doors and windows and furniture, wire mesh and metal mesh, paint brushes, tractor tyres and tubes, cocoa and coffee including coffee beans, inverters, all utensils and cutlery items, chemicals likes fertilizers, pesticides, weedicides, insecticides, herbicides, rodenticides and plant growth regulators, glucose D, locks, weights and measures, fibre board and particle board, and tea.
Diesel is the only substance on which VAT has been increased from 12.5 per cent to 20 per cent.

VAT on writing instruments costing over Rs.1,000 from 5 per cent to 12.5 per cent. 

expensive watches are all set to get more expensive with the VAT being increased on them from 12.5 per cent to 20 per cent.

Mobile phones and all mobile accessories above Rs.10,000 would also entail higher VAT of 12.5 per cent as against 5 per cent earlier 

And garments selling for over Rs.5,000 would also attract VAT at this higher rate.

Besides, VAT has also been enhanced on aerated drinks from 12.5 per cent to 20 per cent 

Tuesday, March 23, 2010 by Senthamaraikannan · 0

Thursday, March 18, 2010

hiked excise duties by 2 per cent to 10 per cent on all non-oil products


 Budget for 2010-11: retained service tax at the level of 10 per cent. The tax was cut by two per cent from 12 per cent as part of stimulus.
              Services Tax by levelling both exise duty and service tax to 10 per cent.
Fiscal deficit :
     The fiscal deficit of 5.5 per cent of GDP in 2010-11 works out to Rs 3,81,408 crore.
     The actual net borrowing of the government in 2010-11 would be of the order of Rs 3,45,010 crore. 
     Total expenditure of Rs 11,08,749 crore,  which is an increase of 8.6 per cent over the total expenditure       in Budget Estimates of 2009-10, 
     The plan and non-plan expenditures in Budget Estimates in 2010-11 are estimated at Rs 3,73,092 crore and Rs 7,35,657 crore respectively.
    Budget Estimates for 2010-11, gross tax receipts are estimated at Rs 7,46,651 crore while the non-tax revenue receipts are estimated at Rs 1,48,118 crore.
    The Finance Minister proposed to reduce the current surcharge of 10 per cent on domestic companies to 7.5 per cent  
    But,raised the rate of Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) from 15 per cent to 18 per cent of book profits.  

Thursday, March 18, 2010 by Senthamaraikannan · 0

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