Avatar:Special Edition movie Review

Critic's Rating: 5.0

Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Sigourney Weaver

Direction: James Cameron

Genre: Action

Duration: 2 hours 43 minutes

Story: Circa 2154. The US army lands in Pandora, an earth-sized moon in outer space. Their objective: to extract the much needed minerals from Pandora's soil. but before they can do that, they must fight the peace-loving indigenous inhabitants of the alien world, relocate or destroy them with their spies and bombs.

SOURCE:Timesofindia

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Google seeks partners to create Facebook rival

NEW YORK: Google Inc has held talks with gaming companies as it looks to develop a new service to compete with social networking website Facebook, the Wall Street Journal has reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The Internet giant has had talks with makers of online games for the service including Playdom Inc, Electronic Arts Inc's Playfish and Zynga Game Network Inc, the report said.
The report said is unclear when the new offering will be launched.
Google already owns and operates social networking site Orkut. The company could not be immediately reached for comment.
Walt Disney Co earlier said that it is planning to acquire Playdom for $563.2 million, as the young but fast-growing market for Internet games on Facebook and other websites has exploded, increasing the links between social gaming developers and social networking.
Source ::TimesofIndia

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3G mobile calls to cost users dearly, says Mittal

New Delhi, July 11: Market leader Bharti Airtel on Sunday cautioned that 3G mobile services will not come cheap, especially for subscribers in metros, as service providers had to pay dearly for spectrum.

“Take the example of Delhi itself, or Mumbai. The amount for spectrum that has been charged is close to Rs 3,500 crore each... Just to recover license fees and input cost, it works out to be Rs 700-900 per month,” Bharti Group chairman, Mr Sunil Mittal, said.

Amid highly aggressive bidding for 3G spectrum, Bharti Airtel won 13 circles, including Delhi and Mumbai, paying Rs 12,295.46 crore, the highest among service providers.

The company could not achieve the objective of a pan-India 3G foot print as the prices rose beyond a reasonable level due to various factors like the auction format, a severe shortage of spectrum and also ensuing policy uncertainty.

Asked by when the service would be launched by Bharti, Mr Mittal said, “Some time later this year. We will wait for the spectrum allocation, which is promised in September, a few months after that.”

In fact, not only Bharti, but no operator could bag the pan-India 3G spectrum. The three leading mobile operators — Bharti, Vodafone and Reliance Communications — managed to win 3G spectrum in Delhi and Mumbai, which could lead to a tariff war in these two metros. PSU firms MTNL and BSNL together have pan-India 3G.

In the rest of the circles, especially in the C-category, the tariffs may not be very high.

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Sensex rises 384 pt on Anil’s truce

Mumbai, Oct. 12: The markets on Monday soared by over 380 points to regain the 17,000-level after the investor sentiment was bolstered by the robust industrial production in August and hopes of a truce between Ambani brothers.
The markets witnessed a frantic rally soon after the news of 10.4 per cent growth in the industrial output, the highest in 22 months, came out.
Brokers said that the atmosphere was euphoric with a slew of goods news adding to the festive cheer.
The BSE benchmark index, Sensex, opened on a strong note after Mr Anil Ambani on Sunday extended an olive branch for peace with Mr Mukesh Ambani, fuelling investor hopes of an end to one of the most intense corporate battles.
The market also got support from the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh’s statement that the economic growth will accelerate. Brokers said that investors, fortunes of many of them are tied up with the firms run by Ambani brothers, cheered the development. Brokers said while the latest in the Ambani episode gave the push, what propelled the market to 17,000-level was 10.4 per cent industrial growth which had beaten the expectations. “Backed by good IIP figures, the positive news on Reliance front drove the market. Among the top 20 gains in F&O segment in the Nifty, four were from the Reliance pack — Reliance Infra, RNRL, RelCap and Adlabs. It is not easy to say that Ambani dispute will soon be over but at least some steps are taken towards it and that gave a positive boost to the markets, said SMC Global vice-president Mr Rajesh Jain.
The 30-share index finally settled the day at higher by an impressive 384.01 points or 2.31 per cent at 17,026.67
Source::DC

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Oil block auction flops

New Delhi

Oct. 12: India’s largest auction of oil and gas blocks on Monday got a muted response as only 36 blocks were bid for as against the 70 blocks offered.
The petroleum ministry blamed the global downturn as the main reason for the poor show. “You may think that the number (of bids) is less but if you look at the performances of biding through out the world this year, we have done better than many. Infact (the response India) got is one of the best,” said the petroleum secretary, Mr R.S. Pandey.
The Centre had launched the eighth bid round of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP-VIII) and fourth bid round of Coal Bed Methane Policy (CBM-IV) in April.
Reliance Industries didn’t bid for the oil blocks but only for one block in CBM.
Oil regulator DGH V. K. Sibal said the message India gave by holding the bidding is that in the downturn “we had guts to go to the market.”
Of 45 companies participated in the bidding, seven were foreign. As many as 20 blocks (eight deepwater, two onland and one in type-S block) got single bids, which no competition.
Results for the offshore blocks, which were available, showed ONGC getting 11 blocks, BHP Biliton of Australia three, Cairn Energy two, Onkar two and BG, Oil India limited and Bengal energy one each. In the onland blocks, ONGC got two, Jubilant two, Oil India one, Harish chandra two.
Source::DC

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Anil calls for Ambani truce

Mumbai
Oct. 11: The Mukesh Ambani camp, while welcoming Mr Anil Ambani’s peace offer on Sunday, said they hoped “it is a positive change in the negative, calumnious and malafide campaign” launched by (Anil Ambani’s) R-ADAG group against the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd.

In a late-night official statement, RIL said: “Sadly, the conduct of the ADAG group so far makes it difficult for RIL to believe that Mr Anil Ambani has had a change of heart.” It said that for the past many years he had indulged in a “malicious campaign against RIL and its chairman. The campaign reached its nadir in recent months through a vicious series of ads, unprecedented in India’s corporate history.”

RIL said problems could be resolved satisfactorily through mutual dialogue “provided the proposal for reconciliation is anchored in good and honest intentions.” RIL reiterated its stand that the dispute was not a family dispute “as Mr Anil Ambani once again tries to make out.” It said “vital national interests in terms of securing the government’s revenue from natural gas, the government’s own policy on gas for promoting India’s energy security are at stake ... as also the interests of RIL shareholders.”
Source::DC

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ADAG threatens to sue oil monitor

Mumbai

Oct. 8: The ADAG company Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL) on Thursday wrote to the home ministry describing as “irresponsible, absurd and baseless” the allegations against the group by director general, hydrocarbons, Mr V. K. Sibal.
In a letter to the home ministry, Mr Sibal sought protection from the ministry, as he feared threat to his life and his family members from the ADA group.
The group also sought a comprehensive investigation into the approvals given by the direct general, hydrocarbons for the Rs 40,000 capex of RIL.
In its letter to the home ministry the ADA group said that Mr Sibal’s sole intention was to divert media attention covering his partisan acts towards RIL against favours and challenged the DGH to bring on record anything to support his wild allegations. The group said that it would file criminal proceedings against the DGH for defamation and character assassination.
Source::DC

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Mallya to settle dues in EMIs

Mumbai, Oct. 8: The private carrier, Kingfisher Airlines, which is facing a legal case from the oil PSU BPCL over payment default, on Thursday offered in the Bombay High Court an out-of-court settlement.
The Court adjourned the matter for hearing on October 15 after BPCL’s counsel sought time to respond.
During the proceedings on Thursday, Kingfisher said it could clear its jet fuel dues of Rs 314 crore at a monthly installment of Rs 10 crore. However, the BPCL’s lawyer, Mr Janak Dwarkadas, said that this formula was not acceptable and asked for a better proposal. “They have the money to run Formula 1...where is that money coming from? They don’t have money to pay us...We are waiting to see the colour of money,” Mr Dwarkadas said.
To this, the Kingfisher’s lawyer, Mr N.H. Seervai said that Kingfisher was ready to sort out the issue at the top level, and the airline’s top officials were ready to sit across the table with the BPCL management and negotiate.
Source::DC

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Telecom price war to hit MFs

Mumbai
Oct. 8: The mutual fund investors having exposures to the telecom companies stocks are likely get affected due to the tariff war between telecom companies.
The investment by the mutual funds in telecom stocks is estimated at Rs 8,000 crore. According to the experts, the tariff war between the telecom companies would hamper the profits of those companies and consequently it would affect the NAVs of mutual fund schemes having exposure to the telecom stocks.
Admitting that there is a concern over mutual funds’ exposure to the telecom sector, Mr Alok Mahesh-wari, the executive vice-president and head equities of DSP Blackrock AMC, said: “Fund houses on a regular basis reduce or increase their exposure to various sectors depending upon the performance. Since the last few days, when concerns have been raised about the profitability of telecom companies, fund houses across the board have started reducing the exposure to telecom companies.”
According to some experts, already investors in the mutual funds have seen NAVs declining on account of poor performance of telecom companies.
Mutual funds have invested about Rs 8,000 crore in five major telecom companies. According to valueresearchonline, mutual fund’s share of exposure is largest at 39.06 per cent in Bharti Airtel followed by Reliance Communications (20.38 per cent), Tulip Telecom (18.24 per cent), Sterlite Technol-ogies (13.34 per cent) and Idea Cellular (8.07 per cent).
According to Mr Binu Joseph, research analyst, capital markets of JRG Securities, “Fortunately mutual fund houses have not launched schemes dedicated to the telecom sector. Otherwise, the losses to the investors would have been far more. In the last couple of days the market capitalisation losses of telecom sto-cks were about Rs 35,000 crore and the mutual fund investors also had to bear their share in these losses which was evident in the declining level of NAVs.”
He said: “Though, mutual fund houses would take corrective measures, the bigger threat in the near term would be mobile number portability.”
Source::DC

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RIL gives bonus shares

Mumbai
Oct. 7: In a surprise move designed to woo its shareholders, many of whom are also shareholders of the Reliance ADAG, the board of Reliance Industries on Wednesday declared a 1:1 bonus for the first time since 1997.
The board also proposed an interim dividend of Rs 13 per share for the financial year 2008-09 which will result in a payment of Rs 2,219 crore inclusive of taxes of Rs 322 crore.
Reliance Petroleum shareholders will also be eligible for the bonus and dividend.
Analysts were taken by surprise as there was not a hint of bonus from Reliance Industries.
The company has declared a net profit of Rs 14,950 crore for the financial year 2009 against Rs 19,523 crore for the financial year 2008. The company’s net turnover stood at Rs 1,51,224 crore in the fiscal 2009 as against Rs 1,37,147 crore a year-ago.
RIL has told the Supreme Court that it cannot sell natural gas to ADAG firm Reliance Natural Resources Ltd at a price 44 per cent lower than the government-approved rate and said that it would incur huge cash losses if it is forced to do so.

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Low rates may end

Mumbai
Oct 7: The Reserve Bank of India is likely to hike interest rates marginally in the fourth quarter of this fiscal to rein in the steady rise in prices, a top financial sector expert said.
“To give a signal that the government is concerned about inflationary pressures, there is a chance of a marginal hike in interest rates in the January-March 2010 quarter,” the HDFC chairman, Mr Deepak Parekh, told reporters here. The hike in interest rates could be by at least 0.5 per cent, he said.
Mr Parekh said that lending to top commercial real estate developers is unlikely to pick up and disbursements may not happen in the sector. Mr Parekh, who was speaking on the sidelines of a forum here on private equity said, “Comme-rcial real estate is in surplus today and I don’t see real estate picking up.”
The demand for home loans in the retail sector has increased significantly, he said. The sequential growth in loan approval for July-September has been 30 per cent and he expects good disbursements in the second half of 2009-10.

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IDBI to promote green tech

Hyderabad
Aug. 27: IDBI Bank on Thursday signed a project agreement with the World Bank for the implementation of Chiller Energy Efficiency Project (CEEP) in India.
The project would aim at reducing Greenhouse Gas emissions and to support the phase-out of the use of chlorofluorocarbon (CFC), an ozone depleting substance, under the Montreal Protocol, said a statement issued by the IDBI Bank.
This purpose would be achieved by stimulating the acceleration of replacement of old CFC-based centrifugal chillers, with more energy efficient non-CFC centrifugal chillers.
The green technology project would provide financial incentives directly to chiller owners to encourage them to overcome barriers such as up-front capital costs and perceived technology risks.
The World Bank-aided project would also strengthen the national capacity for carbon finance intermediation

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K-G gas becomes an emotive issue for AP

Hyderabad
Aug 26: The allocation of gas from the Krishna-Godavari basin is slowly turning out to be an emotive issue for political parties and the people of the state.
A Congress leader from Nalgonda district, Mr G. Narayan Reddy, had first raised the demand that the state should be given the right to determine the allocation of gas.
He has organised a pada yatra from Kakinada to Zaheerabad, the 520-km course along which pipelines were being laid.
He disagreed with the decision by the Central em-powered group of ministers that the price of gas should be $4.2 per MMBTU (million metric British Thermal Units) and said the state should be given gas at a price that did not exceed production cost.
The Krishna-Godavari Gas Reserves Protection Committee has also dem-anded that the Centre should redefine the gas allocation policy by giving 50 per cent of the gas produced in the basin to Andhra Pradesh.
The former power secretary, Mr E.A.S. Sarma, found fault with the state government for not protecting the interests of Andhra Pradesh in the issue.
“For some reason, the state government chose to remain a passive spectator while both the Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and the Central government continued to trample on the interests of the people of the state,” he said.
Local television channels have also seized the moment and are organising debates, seminars and talk shows demanding more gas to the state.
Of course, political parties including the Left and the Praja Rajyam are in the forefront demanding more gas for the state at cheaper rates.
The Praja Rajyam chief, Mr K. Chiranjeevi, is planning to conduct a dharna in East Godavari district over the issue and the Left has already started a campaign of public awareness.
“There is absolutely no rationale in the state not being given sufficient gas,” said the CPI state secretary, Mr K. Narayana. “We will fight it out in the coming days.”
The state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party too has launched a state-wide agitation demanding fair share in K-G basin gas.
“Gas-based power plants in the state are unable to produce adequate power because of acute shortage of gas, resulting in losses to the tune of Rs 1,200 crore,” said the BJP state president, Mr Bandaru Dattatreya.
“The gas taken from the state should be given first to it.” Industralists are also expressing scepticism about the state getting its quota of gas in the backdrop of Centre’s proposal to lay a national gas grid.
“We might be starved of the gas found in the Krishna-Godavari basin if this grid takes shape in next two to three years,” said Mr Y. Harish Chandra Prasad, chairman of the Andhra Pradesh chapter of the Confederation of Indian Industries.
“As an industrialist, I feel that the state government should buck up and do something about this,” he said.

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SRK-Fox in a Rs 100 crore deal

"I'm only tying up with Fox because I want to marry Megan Fox," said Shah Rukh Khan
as the actor laughed his way through to the bank with a mega deal of Rs 100 crores with FOXSTAR Studios for My Name is Khan.

FOXSTAR would market and distribute the film in India while Fox Searchlight Pictures, which marketed and distributed the Oscar winning Slumdog Millionaire in the US, will release the film in United States.

Slumdog Millionaire was a global success and also swept the Oscars this year. So, SRK fans could expect an Oscar for the Badshah of Bollywood too with My Name is Khan. "I've been waiting for my Oscar for 10 years," said SRK.

But Oscar or not will this blockbuster deal finally establishe Shah Rukh Khan as Bollywood's number one Khan? "I don't care about being number one or two or seven," he said.

Well, clearly the Bollywood's number game is no longer of interest to SRK, but with so many bigger numbers floating around who can blame him!

The film, which has been co-produced by Khan and Johar, examines how a life of a Muslim man from India, living in San Francisco, embarks on a remarkable journey across the United States and inspires people, inviting debate, creating an accidental revolution. (With PTI inputs)

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RIL agrees to CAG audit as 'exception'

NEW DELHI: Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd has agreed to a special audit by the comptroller and auditor general (CAG) of its Andhra
offshore (KG-D6) contract, but said it hopes this will be a one-off case. In a letter conveying its `no objection' to such an examination by the government's auditor, the company told the oil ministry it hopes "this is a one-time exception which does not create a precedent for the future".

Minutes of the meeting notes RIL stating that though the PSC (production sharing contract) does not allow special audit, it was willing to accept a CAG audit for the ensuing year but not 2006-07. It said it did not understand the "scope" of such an action "since audit upto 2006-07 has already been conducted by the government-appointed auditors and RIL has been supplying all information required by DGH from time to time".

The government officials responded by telling RIL that the special audit has been ordered under Section 1.9.1 of the accounting procedures in the PSC. Asked for its reaction, RIL said, "The inference that RIL has agreed for a special audit under the insistence of government is totally incorrect and unwarrated. There is no difference between the letter by RIL and the minutes as far as RIL's position under the PSC is concerned.

However, RIL has accepted the audit voluntarily, as a one-time exception without creating any precedence, for the sake of transparency and cooperation with the government. This is clearly reflected in the minutes and the decision in the meeting which was confirmed by RIL in its letter."

RIL wrote the letter on August 17 after a meeting with officials from the ministry and Directorate-General of Hydrocarbons. The meeting was called in the backdrop of CAG denying a recent posting on DGH's official website claiming the auditor has completed audit of the Andhra offshore field. CAG also said it was having problems with accessing books of oil/gas field developers, although it did not point out RIL.

The government had in November 2007 ordered a special audit of eight contracts, including RIL's, which involve substatial financial stakes for the government.

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RBI limits free usage of third-party ATMs

The Reserve Bank of India, which made third party ATM transactions free from April, has said not more than Rs 10,000 can be withdrawn each time they are used and limited the number of such transactions to five a month.
The apex bank has sent a communication in this regard to Indian Banks' Association (IBA) and this is expected to be implemented shortly, IBA Chairman K Ramakrishnan said.
"The Reserve Bank has agreed to put a cap of Rs 10,000 per withdrawal in such (third party) transactions. Also, the number of such transactions will be limited to five times a month," Ramakrishnan said.
IBA, which is the industry lobby of Indian banks, had submitted its recommendations to the central bank last month citing the financial burden faced by banks on account of huge number of third party usage and small-ticket withdrawals.
Since April 1, RBI had declared third party ATM usage, including cash withdrawals and account enquiries, free for all customers and said that banks can charge Rs 18-20 per month from other banks in case of third party ATM transaction.

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HAL to supply components for Sukhoi fighters to Russia

Zhukovski: The Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) will supply components to Russia for its Sukhoi range of combat jets for export to third countries, even as India's premier aviation giant prepares to roll out the first fully indigenous Su-30MKI multi-role fighter next year.

India and Russia are expected to sign an inter- governmental agreement on supply on components by the end of this year, a top HAL executive has said.

"We are already supplying navigation and communication equipment for installation on the Su-30MK series of fighters exported by Russia to other countries," GM of HAL's Nasik based Aircraft Manufacturing Division, V Balakrishnan said on sidelines of the International Aerospace Show-MAKS-2009.

The new agreement would provide for expanding the inventory to include the supply of airframe components for the multi-role jets to be exported by Russia, he said.

Russia has supplied Su-30MK series fighters to Malaysia and Indonesia and there are plans to export this powerful weapons platform to Algeria and Venezuela, media reports said.

"Next year HAL will achieve 100 per cent indigenisation of the Sukhoi aircraft - from the production of raw materials to the final plane assembly. We're currently testing the locally produced engine for Su-30MKI and are planning to launch its production in 2010," Balakrishnan said.

"HAL will manufacture 60 Su-30MKI fighters in the full production cycle till 1015," Balakrishnan said.


The aerospace company has a long history of cooperation with Russian aviation industry since it started licensed production of MiG-21 fighters in 1960s, the best combat jet of the Cold War-era. It is now involved in the production of Su-30MKI, believed to be the world's best in its class.

HAL's stall at the MAKS-2009 was inaugurated by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin here.

The IAF is acquiring a total of 230 Su-30MKI multi-role jets by 2015, tailor-made to meet its requirements over next two decades. Under the Sukhoi deal HAL is to produce 140 jets under license involving 'deep' transfer of technology.

The work began in 2004 with the assembly of knockdown kits provided by Irkut Aircraft Corporation, now part of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC).

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