USA economic data

U.S. February consumer confidence 25 vs 37.4 in January

U.S. February consumer confidence below 35 expected

U.S. February consumer confidence at record low

U.S. February consumer expectations at record low

S&P cuts ratings outlook on 12 Indian banks to negative

Standard & Poor's on Tuesday lowered its outlook on the counterparty credit ratings of 12 Indian banks to negative from stable, following its earlier downgrade of India's sovereign rating. The twelve banks ares Axis Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Canara Bank, HDFC Bank Ltd., ICICI Bank Ltd., IDBI Bank Ltd., Indian Overseas Bank, Indian Bank, State Bank of India, Syndicate Bank, and Union Bank of India. In its downgrade of India's sovereign rating, S&P said the country's fiscal position has deteriorated to a level that is unsustainable in the medium term

Apollo Tyres plans to lay off 1500 jobs

Apollo Tyres, a leading Indian tyre manufacturer, on Thursday revealed that it is looking at laying off about 1,500 of its employees.

A company official, who did not want to be identified said, the process has already started and we will shed about 1,500 jobs out of a total employee strength of about
10,000 employees.

However, he revealed that company has no intention to cut permanent jobs.

Siemens picks order worth Rs 212 crore from SAIL

Siemens, well-known firm which operates in the industrial, energy, and healthcare sectors, has notified that it has secured a major order from Steel Authority of India (SAIL) to provide extra high voltage power distribution package at Rourkela Steel Plant, Orissa.

Hindustan Construction wins order worth Rs 296 crore

Mumbai-based Hindustan Construction Co. Ltd. (HCC) has secured a 195MW Kashang hydro-electric power project from the Himachal Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd.

The Kashang Hydro Electric Project is located on Kashang and Kerang Streams, tributaries of river Sutlej, in Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh with an installed capacity of 3x65 MW.

Sun Microsystems issues ‘Pink Slips’ to 150 employees:

latest report revealed that IT giant Sun Microsystems has laid off over 150 employees from its domestic office around late in January this year, due to ongoing financial turmoil. According to sources, most of the laid off employees were software developers working in the company's Bangalore office.

BSNL Launches 3G Services; To Charge 50p For STD Call

BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd) has rolled out the third generation mobile services from Chennai on Sunday.

The nation-wide launch of 3G mobile service in Chennai that permits various upgraded services, comprising rich voice, data and video services, to the subscribers.

The newly launched service will offer up data speed of 2 Mbps over the GPRS and EDGE enabled mobile networks.

Wockhardt gets USFDA nod for Ranitidine syrup

Wockhardt has received final approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) to market Ranitidine syrup, in the strength of 15 mg.

BGR Energy bags contract worth USD 8.57 mn

Oil and Gas Equipment Division of Chennai-based BGR Energy Systems has won third consecutive contract for design, manufacture and supply of 14 numbers of `floating and fixed-roof steel storage tanks` from State Company of Oil Projects (SCOP), Iraq. The contract is valued USD 8.57 million and will be completed over 12 months.

Torrent Power gets LoI from Uttar Pradesh Power Corp

Torrent Power announced that it has been issued a letter of intent (LoI) by Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation (UPPC) for appointment as distribution franchisee for power in urban areas of Kanpur Electricity Supply Company (KESC) for a span of 20 years.

Subhash Projects receives order worth Rs 770.4 mn

The company has received a work order bearing no. F2(27)/EE(C) DR.VIII/2009/2958 dated Jan. 29, 2009 towards construction of ``25 MGD Effluent Pumping Station at Rithala STP including P/L/J twin transmission mains for carrying 33.34 MGD treated effluent from EPS at Rithala to PPCL Plant at Bawana, on Design, Build and Operate (DBO) basis``.

Shriram EPC bags order worth Rs 700 mn for wind turbines

Shriram EPC (SEPC) has been awarded an order on a turnkey basis and total value of the order is Rs 700 million, for 60 units of its 250KW wind turbines from Cape Energy (P), an associate of Bergurruen Holdings (BHI). BHI is a PE funded company with interests in infrastructure and real estate development in India.

Four Soft arm inks contract with Noordex BV

Four Soft, a provider of integrated software solutions for the freight and logistics industries, said that its subsidiary Four Soft Netherlands BV has inked a contract with the Netherlands-based Noordex BV to deploy its freight forwarding software - 4S eTrans SME across Noordex BV`s multiple allocations in the Netherlands.

GMR Infra`s arm buy 33.5% stake in Canadian co

GMR Infrastructure has announced that GMR Energy (GEL), the company`s 100% subsidiary company has acquired ownership of 75,792,027 common shares, approximately 33.5% of Homeland Energy Group (HEG), Canada, listed on Toronto Stock Exchange.

L&T bags orders worth Rs 14.38 bn

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has bagged three new orders worth Rs 14.38 billion. Two orders worth Rs 11.30 billion were booked in the Gulf Region and a third, worth Rs 3.08 billion, was bagged from the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company.

Subex re-brands cost assurance solution as Lucreta

Subex, a leading global provider of operations and business support systems (OSS/BSS), announced that it has re-branded its previous cost assurance solution, targeted at communication service providers, to help them protect and enhance margins by effective cost assurance measures. The solution is now called Lucreta.

Arshiya International to set up SEZ in UP

Arshiya International engaged in providing end-to-end logistics and supply chain solutions has obtained a formal nod from the board of approval (BOA) of the special economic zones (SEZs) for setting up its second free trade and warehousing zone (FTWZ) in the heart of the manufacturing hub in the NCR in Khurja, Uttar Pradesh (UP).

Govt unveils 3rd stimulus package

Keeping its promise, the government today unveiled the third stimulus package.

In order to give relief to the beleaguered industry, the government reduced the rates of excise duty and service tax by 2%.

While the general excise duty has been reduced from 10% to 8%, the rate of service tax cut from 12% to 10%. Duty on bulk cement has been reduced from 10% to 8%.

Micron may cut as many as 2,000 positions

Micron Technology said late Monday it plans to cut 500 employees in the short term and may reduce as many as 2,000 positions by the end of the fiscal year in line with its decision to close down certain manufacturing operations

Chip firm Spansion to cut about 3,000 jobs

Spansion which makes flash memory technology, Spansion Inc. said late Monday that it plans to cut its global workforce by roughly 3,000, making it the latest technology company to resort to job cuts in an attempt to grapple with the recession.

Clinton urges China to keep buying U.S. debt

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrapped up a state visit to China Sunday by urging her hosts to continue to invest in U.S. Treasury instruments and underscoring the two countries' interdependence

China, with its $1.95 trillion in foreign currency reserves, has been the world's largest holder of U.S. government debt, with about $696.2 billion at the end of last year.