Lamy upbeat on Doha trade talks

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) Director-General, Mr Pascal Lamy, on Monday confidently said that the deadlocked global trade talks could be wrapped up before a crucial June deadline when the special US legislation on the negotiations expires.Addressing a news conference here on the sidelines of an international seminar on `Saving Doha and delivering on development', Mr Lamy said: "The prospects of closing the gap appears more plausible and probable than ever. There has been a pretty good movement and we have the opportunity of closing the gap by the end of June."

The Doha Round of multilateral trade talks have remained in suspension for quite sometime because developing countries, including India, have sought deeper cuts in tariffs on agricultural imports levied by rich nations, as well as hefty cuts in farm subsidies the rich world doles out to its farmers. However, since February, some modest momentum was gained following bilateral and small group meetings in London and Geneva.

Read more at Moneycontrol

Govt may widen money laundering act

NEW DELHI: THE government is planning to enhance the coverage of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) by way of an amendment. The amendment, which could come in the current session of Parliament, would place strict reporting and record-keeping obligations on these entities.

Both restricted and full-fledged moneychangers, casinos and offshore banks would have to comply with the PMLA rules, a government source told ET. Fullfledged moneychangers get licence from RBI to sell or purchase Forex for private or business visits abroad. Restricted ones cannot carry out all these activities. It may be noted that casinos have been allowed offshore at a few places in Goa.

Read more at Economic Times

EDS to acquire RelQ Software for $40 million

Electronic Data Systems (EDS), the $21 billion global software services major, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Bangalore-based software testing firm RelQ Software.

RelQ Software, with 700-people on rolls, had recorded $22 million revenues last year. According to industry estimates, the company is expecting to close the fiscal with $30 million in revenues.

EDS is understood to have paid around $40 million (around Rs 180 crore) to acquire this firm. No confirmation on this was available from EDS as no financial terms of the transaction were disclosed Read more at Business Standard

500-acre Rly land open for commercial use

The railways have decided to offer over 500 acres of prime land to private developers at over 13 locations across the country.

The cities that have been earmarked for the purpose include Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Bangalore, apart from Lucknow, Vishakapatnam, Gwalior and Gaya.

The newly set up Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA), which was formed to commercially exploit the large tracts of land available with the Indian Railways, will offer the land through a public-private partnership (PPP) model.

Under the PPP model, the railways will form joint ventures in which the land will represent the railways’ portion of the equity. The plots will be developed for commercial use in the form of shopping malls, office space, plazas and multiplexes. Read more at Business Standard

Indians can earn better than Uncle Sam

WASHINGTON: Real pay increases for workers in the United States will substantially lag those in China, India and Eastern Europe in 2007, according to new research from a global consulting firm.

US administrative, professional and senior management employees are predicted to see real increases of just 1.4 per cent as against increases approaching 8 per cent in high-growth economies, said Philadelphia-based Hay Group that conducts annual research on Most Admired Companies for Fortune magazine.

"Much like their colleagues in Europe, US employees will be seeing relatively modest increases in base salaries when compared to the emerging economies," said Iain Fitzpatrick, general manager of Hay Group's US Reward Information Services.

"Projected 2007 increases are fairly consistent with real increases seen in the US over the past several years," the Group said Monday announcing the results of its Global Pay Day Analysis based on data in 19 job families across a number of industries in 50 countries.

Read more at Economic Times

Vodafone, Essar near partnership agreement

As a prelude to a new partnership agreement, senior Vodafone and Essar executives have held joint meetings with officials in the government, including the finance ministry.

The Vodafone team was led by Paul Donovan, chief executive officer (emerging markets). From Essar, vice-chairman Ravi Ruia, accompanied by Prashant Ruia and Rewant Ruia, attended.

Sources said things were moving towards a positive outcome for the Essars and the two sides were expected to “shake hands shortly.” In fact, the terms of the partnership agreement, including a four-year put option, are learnt to have been finalised and an announcement is likely in a couple of days.

A source familiar with the Vodafone-Essar negotiations said, “Things have been almost resolved between Essar and Vodafone. The meetings with government officials are partly aimed at providing them the information they had sought, as also to allay any misgivings.”

All three parties involved – Vodafone, Essar and Hutchison Telecom, which recently sold its stake to Vodafone – appear keen to resolve the issue and avoid legal complications and investigations.

These moves come after weeks of shadow boxing, including a recent petition in the Delhi High Court. The court, on a petition filed by Telecom Watchdog, directed the Foreign Investment Promotion Board to complete its enquiry into the Hutch-Essar shareholding within two months.

Realty firms' IPOs under Sebi scanner

Market regulator Sebi seems to be concerned about the spate of real-estate company IPOs on the market, reports CNBC-TV18.Sebi seems to be worried about property public issues. Sources say it has stalled several IPOs from real estate firms apparently because it is concerned by the number of such companies floating issues. Sources say Sebi questioned many companies regarding the valuation of development rights and the their land banks. Sebi is also learned to be scrutinising their financials.

Some of the delayed issues are from companies such as DLF, HDIL, Orbit and IVR Prime, a subsidiary of IVRCL Infrastructure.

The Reserve Bank also attempted to cool the real-estate market by increasing the risk weightage for developer loans last year.To top it all, rising home loan rates have slowed disbursals in the past few months and property companies are feeling the pinch. Most real estate counters have been hit in the past few months and many new listings are trading below their issue prices.

That's probably why SEBI seems to be advocating caution and is in no hurry to clear dozens of IPO applications pending before it.

Marketmen clueless about MindTree's phenomenal rise

After an impressive debut on the bourses, MindTree Consulting, an international IT and R&D Services Company, is up about 28% in the first half-an-hour of trade.After generating a demand of over Rs 23,300 crore through its through IPO, the shares of the Mindtree Consulting made a dream debut at Rs 662 with 56% premium on Dalal Street.

Today, the stock has soared to 900 levels. It is indeed one of the buzzing stocks this morning and is continuing to move up. What is the trigger for this sudden rise in the stock - is there some news on the anvil? Marketmen analyse.

Rajen Shah of Angel Broking feels that the valuations are getting absurd and that he would not want to pay so much for a stock like MindTree, which is not a frontliner vis-a-vis Infy, Wipro or Satyam. MindTree's market cap does not even stand at one-fourth the size of any of the IT biggies like Infosys.

Read more at Moneycontrol

Asian markets slightly weak; Nikkei slips 114pts

Most of the Asian markets were marginally in red.

While the Nikkei ended with a loss of 114 points at 17,179, the Hang Seng was down 49 points at 19,394. The Shanghai Composite index was down nine points at 2946.

The Straits Times index had slipped 19 points to 3163, and the Seoul Compositie index was down five points at 1436. The Taiwan Weighted index, however, was up 55 points at 7684.