18 may

INDIA FINANCE IN TROUBLE

A Merrill Lynch survey says shows that while fund managers are increasing their allocation to the emerging markets, India is one of their least favoured markets. "Investors are underestimating some of the structural issues that could come through in the next few years," said John-Paul Smith, Deutsche Bank global markets strategist. India is currently battling the inflation issue which is seen as a big threat to growth. FIIs have been pulling out of the market due to a bearish sentiment.

SBI BAD QUARTER

SBI's poor Q4 results rattled the Dalal Street yesterday and worsened the market sentiment. However analysts are still bullish about banking stocks and said SBI was just a one off phenomenon. Experts believe the market is still in the correction phase. Globally the picture is still confused about the unstable commodity market and the overall recovery. On the other hand, Asian markets are currently trading firm in the morning.  Here is a live update of what is happening around the business world.

Corp debt mkt: RBI, Plan panel differences come out in open

Mumbai, May 17 (PTI) What the industry and observers have been saying that there is a lot of regulatory confusion on developing a corporate debt market came out in the open on Monday, with the RBI Governor and the Plan panel chiefs taking divergent views on the issue.

Reserve Bank Governor Duvvuri Subbarao questioned the feasibility and the ability of both the government and banking system to meet the ambitious USD 1 trillion infrastructure investment for the next five years (2012-17).

Subbarao along with Plan panel deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia was attending the foundation day of the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, chaired by the RBI Governor here yesterday.

Montek Singh Ahluwalia said a corporate debt market could take the burden off by pitching to meet the USD 500-billion funding gap in this regard.

However, Subbarao-- who also disagreed with the finance ministry and the Planning Commission on inflation management and fiscal deficit cuts--said, "corporate bond market looks more like an impressionist view and not exactly based on proven facts. We need to really study the issue before going ahead with (it)." Ahluwalia, in his address on the Challenges in the 12th Plan, has underlined the imperatives for pumping USD 1 trillion into infrastructure such as highways, roads, ports and airports among others, so that the country could achieve the 9 percent growth trajectory over the next five years.

Girl beat boys once again in ISC and ICSE

Girls outperformed boys once again with better pass percentages in the Class-X and Class-XII boards exams this year conducted by Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE).

While the pass rate of students in Class-XII was 97.24 per cent, up by 0.13 per cent from last year, the pass percentage is 98.61 in Class-X which is 0.30 per cent more than last year, the Board announced today.
There were 57,487 candidates in Class-XII while 1,22,347 students took the Class-X ICSE exam held in March.
The pass percentage of girls in Class-X was 99.15 per cent against 98.19 of boys. Similarly, the pass rate of girls stands at 98.40 per cent in Class-XII while it is 96.30 per cent in case of boys.
The Southern region posted the best result in Class-X with a pass percentage of 99.72 per cent, followed by Western region with a pass percentage of 99.63 per cent.

IMF executive board holds informal meeting in WashingtonBreaking New

WASHINGTON: The executive board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) held an informal meeting at its headquarters in Washington on Sunday to discuss the fallout of the arrest of its Managing Director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, on rape charges in New York.

"The executive board convened this afternoon in an informal session to receive a verbal report from senior Fund officials, including John Lipsky, Acting Managing Director, and Sean Hagan, the fund's General Counsel, on developments related to Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn," IMF spokeswoman Caroline Atkinson, said.

"The Board was briefed regarding criminal charges that have been brought against the Managing Director during a private visit to New York City," she said.

"The IMF and its Executive Board will continue to monitor developments," Atkinson added.

New hope

According to scientists, a rocky world orbiting a nearby star was confirmed as the first planet outside our solar system to meet key requirements for sustaining life. Modelling of planet Gliese 581d shows it has the potential to be warm and wet enough to nurture Earth-like life, they said. It orbits a red dwarf star called Gliese 581, located around 20 light years from Earth, which makes it one of our closest neighbours. A spaceship travelling close to light speed would take more than 20 years to get there, while our present rocket technology would take 300,000 years.