Forex reserves up $858 m to $318.35 b

Mumbai: India's foreign exchange reserves rose by $858 million to $318.358 billion in the week ended October 21, according to Reserve Bank of India's ‘Weekly Statistical Supplement'. In the previous week ended October 14, India's foreign exchange reserves rose by $5.269 billion to $317.50 billion The reserves increased on account of a $861 million rise in the foreign currency assets, taking it to $282.514 billion. Foreign currency assets expressed in US dollar terms include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US currencies such as the euro, sterling and yen held in reserves. In the week under consideration, the euro strengthened against the dollar from $1.3737 on Monday to $1.3896 on Friday. India's reserve position at the International Monetary Fund in the week under review declined by $1 million to $2.635 billion. SDRs also declined by $2 million to $4.542 billion, while gold reserves remain unchanged at $28.667 billion. Rupee may strengthen The rupee is expected to strengthen further if euro continues to remain firm against the dollar. There could also be dollar selling in anticipation of inflows from foreign funds, due to a likely rise in local share market, said dealers. However, dollar demand from importers at higher levels may limit a sharp rise in the rupee around 48.45-48.50 per dollar.

Google paid $151m for Zagat

Google Inc paid $151 million in cash to acquire popular restaurant review guide Zagat in September, the Internet company said in a regulatory filing. The acquisition, which added a valuable brand to Google's content offerings and bolstered its push into the local commerce market, was one of 57 deals completed by the Web search company in the first nine months of 2011. Google, the world's No.1 Internet search engine, has been acquiring companies at a rapid clip, as it moves to expand into new markets and adapt its product to a world in which consumers increasingly rely on mobile devices and social networking services to access the Internet. Google also acquired Daily Deals, a privately held, German online coupon company, for $114 million in cash in September, Google said in the filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. And it completed the acquisition of ITA Software for $676 million in cash in April. Google said it completed 54 other acquisitions and purchases of intangible assets during the first nine months of 2011 for roughly $502 million. During that same period in 2010, Google completed 37 deals for $626 million, excluding the acquisitions of Slide, AdMob and On2 Technologies, for which Google paid a combined $983 million. Google announced its acquisition of Zagat Survey, which polls consumers and compiles reviews about restaurants, hotels and other businesses around the world, in September, but did not disclose a price at the time. Google's largest deal to date, the planned $12.5 billion acquisition of mobile phone maker Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc is pending regulatory approval.

Nokia CEO Sees 'Broader Opportunity' with Windows 8, Hints at Tablets

In a brief interview with This Is My Next, Nokia CEO (and mole for Microsoft, clearly) Stephen Elop hinted strongly at the potential for a Nokia-built Windows 8 tablet. While his statement was, strictly speaking, more of a dodge, it’s clear that this is something they’re at least thinking about. When asked about its role as a consumer electronics brand, Elop explained: The user experience of Windows 8 is essentially a supercharged version of the Nokia Lumia experience that you saw on stage today. And you see the parallels and opportunity for commonality from a user perspective. You say wow, this is more than just smartphones, there’s a broader opportunity here. And clearly we see that broader opportunity as well, without specifically commenting on what that may mean in the future.

eBay census: Delhi is No.1 e-commerce hub

Kozhikode: Kerala has been placed at the 12 {+t} {+h} place in e-commerce transactions by eBay India annual census conducted among the 28 States in the country. The census covered the key trends in online buying, selling, importing and exporting, spread across top 20 e-commerce hubs and seven union territories, apart from the transactions at the State level. The top five States are Maharashtra, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Among the 20 largest e-commerce hubs, Delhi has topped the list, closely followed by Mumbai, Bangalore, Jaipur and Chennai, while Kochi and Thriuvananthapuram in Kerala are at 19th and 20th spots, respectively. The census has found that the metros contributed 51 per cent of all e-commerce transactions and the tier II and III cities 40 per cent. The rural India accounted for the balance nine per cent. It has also emerged that Sony is the most sought after brand, followed by Nokia, Samsung, Apple and Reebok. Among the items purchased online, electronic gadgets have recorded a share of around 50 per cent. Another finding is that women are increasingly getting addicted to online shopping and are buying cosmetics, jewellery, watches and fashion and fitness equipment. Over 45 per cent of all purchases by women are in the lifestyle category. In Kochi, the top five items bought are memory card readers, console games, peelers and slicers, sunglasses and woman's perfumes. And the top five items sold are gold plated necklaces, fairness creams, artificial flowers, mangalsutra and desktop PCs. Besides, the top five brands are Nokia, Apple, Canon, Nikon and Reebok. In Thiruvananthapuram, The top five items on the purchase list are tool kits, men's wallets, 1GB RAM, dumbbells and helmets, while Web hosting services, flight games, West Asian coins, ice-cream machines and insect repellers figured at the top of the list of items sold online. The top five brands are Nokia, BlackBerry, HP and Canon, according to the census.

Cabinet approves scheme for National Optical Fibre Network

New Delhi: The Union Cabinet today approved a scheme to set up a National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN), which will be used to provide broadband connectivity to village-level bodies — Panchayats. The project cost is expected to be “of the order of Rs 20,000 crore”. A special purpose vehicle (SPV) will be formed to execute the network. “Immediately, the equity in SPV will be from the Government,” Mr R. Chandrashekhar, Secretary, Department of Telecom (DoT), said. Subsequently, he said, BSNL, Railtel, PGCIL and GAIL are likely to be roped in as equity partners. “The details are being worked out. The funding for the project will be done through Universal Service Obligation (USO) fund. The USO fund accruals over the next two-three years will cover the finances,” he said. “At present, the optical fibre cables reach the block headquarters mostly. Now they will reach the Panchayat level…. The incremental layout will be done through the SPV.” The Government has set a target to complete the roll-out in about two years. The SPV will get revenues by charging its customers access charges according to the TRAI guidelines. The key requirement is to get the right of way (RoW) from the State Governments as they have varying rules and charges for providing it. “We will have tripartite agreements between the executing agency, State Government and the Department of Telecom. The State Governments are expected to contribute by providing free RoW,” Mr Chandrashekhar said.

Govt clears manufacturing policy

New Delhi: The much-awaited National Manufacturing Policy was approved on Tuesday by the Union Cabinet. It comes at a time when the country is facing a slowdown in manufacturing and industrial growth. The policy aims to create 100 million jobs within a decade and increase the share of manufacturing in the country's GDP to 25 per cent by 2022 from the current 15-16 per cent (a level that has been stagnant since 1980). Among the key instruments for realising these goals is the setting up of National Investment and Manufacturing Zones (NIMZ). The minimum land area of each NIMZ – or greenfield integrated industrial townships with the modern infrastructure – is to be 5,000 hectares. Announcing the policy, the Commerce, Industry and Textiles Minister, Mr Anand Sharma, told reporters that, “No cultivable, agricultural and forest land will be allowed to be acquired for NIMZs.” The first phase of the NIMZ will be established along the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor which will see early results in the next few years, he added. The policy also has a host of fiscal incentives mainly for the micro, small and medium enterprises. In this regard, an official statement said, “Individuals will be eligible for relief on long-term capital gains tax if the sale proceeds of a residential property are reinvested in equity of a new start-up company,” adding that tax pass through status for venture capital fund will be available if they focus on manufacturing. The other significant features are the single window clearance mechanism to cut red-tape and the high-priority for skill development. “Private sector will be given standard deduction of 150 per cent of expenditure for skill development institutes,” the statement said. The policy was finalised after over 20 months of intense stakeholder consultations. These discussions had seen difference of opinion, notably from the Ministries of Environment and Labour. Green focus With a view to protect the interests of labour in cases of closure of units, the policy has a mechanism of fund to insure the workers against such loss. The policy also features third party inspections in addition to inspections by Government agencies for compliance of both environment and labour norms. The focus will also be on ‘green manufacturing'. In this regard, a Technology Acquisition Fund will be set up to acquire global technologies and build a patent pool especially for equipment manufacturing that seeks to reduce energy consumption. SMEs will be given access to this patent pool up to a maximum of Rs 20 lakhs for acquiring patented technologies, the statement said. The policy statement says that support will be given to employment-intensive industries to ensure job creation, adding that, “Special attention will be given to textiles and garments; leather and footwear; gems and jewellery; and food processing industries.”

UID evangelists set up business incubator

Three veterans from the technology sector who were previously advisers to Nandan Nilekani's unique identification ( UID) project have established a business incubator firm called Angel Prime in Bangalore to mentor and build startups right from the ideation stage. The three co-founders, Bala Parthasarathy, Shripati Acharya and Sanjay Swamy, between them have years of experience in technology giants like Cisco and HP and in setting up startups. Parthasarathy and Acharya were among the cofounders of Snapfish, the web-based photosharing and photo printing service that was bought by Hewlett-Packard in 2005. Swamy was CEO of mobile payment platform firmmChek between 2006 and 2010. The trio will act as general partners and have raised a fund from 12 individual investors. The investments they make are typically in the sub $1 million range and would be made in 2 to 4 companies at a time. Incubators provide mentorship services, offer real estate and infrastructure as well as industry contacts to the startup. They come in prior to the angel investor or venture capital (VC) investment stage, when the company is a mere business idea. They take stakes in these companies and could exit at a later stage when strategic investors enter. Parthasarathy said that Angel Prime would focus on the domain expertise of the team, which includes mobile payments, e-commerce as well as smart phone and tablet phone applications. He said they understand the common mistakes entrepreneurs make and can help them scale to a stage where they attract institutional funding. Angel Prime is currently incubating a startup in the mobile payments space, an announcement on which is expected within the next month. It will also unveil a company in the e-commerce space in the within 90 days, Parthasarathy said. Sachin Maheshwari, director at growth stage fund Zephyr Peacock, said that in India business incubators have generally been the forte of large government institutions like the IITs and IIMs. Outside of the universities, incubation is a relatively new phenomenon, the most notable being Morpheus and eBhana. Morpheus co-founder Sameer Guglani calls incubation outside of universities as accelerators. He said that universities primarily provide infrastructure and plug and play facilities on a rental basis, while accelerators add greater value through mentorship, contacts, funding etc. Business accelerators are popular in the US. Investments are made in different batches of say six months, after which the role of the accelerator becomes more consultative. Guglani said one major reason why the concept has not caught on in India is that it works on a fee or commission basis. As these funds are typically small in size, the earnings of general partners are not as lucrative as in the case of a VC fund. Morpheus for instance recently raised a new fund of Rs 6 crore. Despite this, more incubators are said to be in the works. Senior professionals from India and those returning from abroad are looking for something more exciting to do with their time. And thanks to the emergence of newer technologies, talented skill base and lower costs, the Indian entrepreneur is generally viewed as promising.

Android beats Apple iOS to become app leader

Google Inc's Android operating system passed Apple Inc's iOS as the most popular software platform for application downloads as consumers bought more Androidsmartphones. The Google platform accounted for 44 per cent of all app downloads in the second quarter, eclipsing Apple's 31 per cent share, according to ABI Research. That was fueled by a 36 per cent jump in Android phone shipments from the previous three months, ABI said. Google, based in Mountain View, California, introduced Android in 2007 as an open-source platform, allowing any phone maker to use it for free and focus on designing hardware rather than software. Android has helped propel Samsung Electronics Co into the ranks of top smartphone makers and drive a recovery at Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc even as sales of Apple's iPhone surged. "Android's app downloads per user still lag behind Apple's by 2 to 1," said Dan Shey, practice director of mobile services at ABI. Global downloads of games, music, news and other apps are expected to rise to 29 billion this year, more than triple the 9 billion downloaded in 2010, ABI said.

Olympus blasts ex-CEO

Olympus Corp lashed out at its former chief executive officer for publicly questioning $687 million in advisory fees for a 2008 takeover, saying he used his position "to leak internal company secrets" and was "trying to ruin the credibility of Olympus." The Japanese camera maker also said it was "hard to forgive" Michael C. Woodford, whom it fired as CEO on October 14, and the company was "naturally considering legal action," according to a letter posted on its internal website yesterday, a copy of which was obtained by Bloomberg News. The statement came after Olympus employees received an e- mail saying Chairman Tsuyoshi Kikukawa would respond to allegations by Woodford, according to two people who declined to be named because they were not authorized to speak for the company. Olympus last week said it was forming an independent committee to investigate previous acquisitions after demands from Nippon Life Insurance Co., its largest shareholder, and Southeastern Asset Management Inc. to explain the fees paid in its $2 billion takeover of Gyrus Group Plc. "I am sure you all want to know more," the statement said. "I will continue to speak out. My next message will be about Gyrus."

Why Obama Needs Social Media to Win in 2012

It’s no secret that President Obama’s 2008 campaign success was due in large part to the overwhelming support of voters age 29 and younger (66%). By all accounts, winning a second term will be almost impossible without that demographic’s continued support. On the other hand, securing the youth vote will be challenging. As a voting bloc they are historically unpredictable, and their approval of the president has dropped 13 pointssince June. To counter his waning popularity, the president’s campaign, Organizing for America (OFA), will need to deploy a social media strategy that combines innovative outreach techniques with a focus on youth turnout. Before addressing the “must-haves” for the president’s digital strategy, it’s important to understand said demographic, both as a consumer and as a voter. Not surprisingly, this audience dominates the online and social networking space. A recent Pew Research Center survey found that 83% of Internet users ages 18-29 use social networking sites. The percentage drops off significantly as the age range increases (only 51% of those between the ages of 50 and 64). Second, according to the most recent census, voters ages 24 and younger made up 10% of voters in 2008, and were the only age bloc that increased its participation since 2004. Finally, a staggering number of people age 20-29 do not have jobs. The Census Bureau found that in 2010, one in three were unemployed. As a result, this demographic presents an enormous challenge as well as an opportunity for OFA. The president must connect with this group and make his case for why they should support him as strongly as they did three years ago. After Obama’s 2008 victory, OFA received widespread praise for its social media strategy. This admiration was deserved, mainly because OFA implemented a tool that was foreign to almost everyone else in professional politics. David Axelrod, top strategist for the 2012 campaign and former senior advisor to the president, acknowledged that “so much of our support [in 2008] came from younger, more wired people.”