Indian whiskies, which were unaffected by the recession, have now emerged as new power brands in the global arena.

The millionaire brand list is dominated by India with six whisky brands figuring in the list of world's top 10—

Bagpiper,

McDowell No.1,

Officer's Choice,

Original Choice,

Royal Stag and

Old Tavern. Johnnie Walker, Jack Daniel's, Ballentine's and Jim Beam are the

other brands in the list.

Contd…….

Officer's Choice, at fourth position, is the latest entrant in the list. While Bagpiper and McDowell No 1 sit pretty at No. 1 and No.3, respectively, Johnnie Walker occupies the No 2 slot.

The change in the ranking of Johnnie Walker, which occupied the numero uno position for at least a decade, is the fallout of recession that gripped the developed economy in 2008 and a major part of 2009, forcing many tipplers to opt for a brand a notch below.

Deepak Roy, a one-time blue-eyed boy of Mr Mallya, currently heading the operation of ABD, said "Officer's Choice can easily replace McDowell No.1 from its position as the third largest-selling whisky.”

GTL Infrastructure said its deal with Reliance Communications to merge their telecoms tower businesses has been called off.

A deal would have lowered Reliance Comm's debt by $3.9 billion.

In June, GTL and Reliance Comm agreed to combine their tower operations that would own more than 80,000 towers and have an enterprise value of over $11 billion.

Contd…..

The non-binding term sheet signed by the companies expired on Aug. 31, GTL said on Monday.

"Subsequently despite efforts, both parties have neither extended the term sheet nor entered into any definitive transaction agreements," the company said in a statement.

It did not give specific details about why the deal was called off.

Yamuna flowed nearly two metres above the danger mark. Over 2,000 people from flooded areas in east and north Delhi

were evacuated. The swollen Yamuna's water level touched a high of 206.78

metres Saturday and officials hoped the level would come down to 206.35 metres by 4 p.m. Sunday.

Around 100 National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel have been deployed to assist the authorities to tackle the situation, which is similar to the situation in 1978.

Contd…….

As part of precautionary measure, the irrigation and flood control department decided to close the vintage rail-cum-road double-decker iron bridge that links the Walled City to Shahdara neighbourhood across the river.

The railways also cancelled or diverted 53 trains, including several short-distance services.

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit visited low-lying areas in the capital affected due to rise in water level of Yamuna and assured that the government was fully geared to meet any challenge.

IT major Wipro's FMCG arm Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting (WCCL) plans to focus on getting into more categories rather than entering new geographies as a part of its growth strategy, a top company official said.

The company is open for further acquisitions but only if the product suits and fits into Wipro's portfolio, the official said.

Wipro has been aggressive on inorganic growth just like its competitors such as Dabur or Godrej.

Contd……..

It has so far acquired five international brands such as Glucovita, Chandrika in Sri Lanka, Yardley (UK and Middle East), Unza (Singapore) and Enchanteur (UK).

With these acquisitions, the consumer firm now has its global footprint in regions ranging from the Middle-East to South-East Asia and is now eyeing Africa, the current hot-bed for FMCG players.

It is present in the African market, though in a small way, through exports of Unza products to Nigeria and Egypt.

Japanese durable major, Panasonic has decided to enter mass product segments like direct cool refrigerator, semi-automatic washing machine and small-size LCD TV in an attempt to penetrate India.

Panasonic’s strategy is a contrarian one in the country’s Rs 30,000-crore white goods industry where competitors like Sony, Samsung and LG are slowly shifting their focus away from the mass to the premium segment to shore up margins and what they claim is part of the market evolution.

Contd……..

For washing machine, the penetration is less than 5% in smaller towns and less than 10% for refrigerators.

The company earlier this month forayed into the smaller size LCD TV segment, in the 19 and 24 inch segments.

It now plans to enter the direct cool refrigerator in six months and is undertaking feasibility studies on ways to enter the semi-automatic washing machine segment.

Panasonic, which is eyeing around Rs 6,500-7,000 crore-revenue in India from the consumer electronics and home appliances space by 2012.

The non-executive employees union of the state-run MTNL said it might decide to go on strike during Commonwealth games next month, if the management tries to cut jobs at the Telco.

The company has been designated as the official telecom service provider for Commonwealth Games 2010, to be held in Delhi, and it has already received Rs 182 crore from the government for providing infrastructure.

"We are going to meet the management . If they try to cut workforce, we will demonstrate and may go to the extent of calling strike during the Commonwealth Games," Brijesh Upadhyay, General Secretary of MTNL Mazdoor Sangh.

Contd……….

MTNL, which provides services in Delhi and Mumbai, has about 36,000 employees which are in the non-executive category and over 7,000 are executives.

Concerned over huge wage bills eating into its revenues, MTNL is understood to have approached the government for reportedly laying off up to two-thirds of its workforce.

The company spent Rs 717 crore as staff costs for retirement benefits during the quarter ended June 30, 2010. MTNL incurred a loss of Rs 451 crore for the quarter.

India is expected to hike interest rates for a fifth time in six months after a surge in industrial output strengthened the case for another dose of monetary tightening, economists say.

Although India has been the most aggressive in the Asia-Pacific region in raising rates to check prices, the country's inflation remains among the highest of the leading Group of 20 economic powers, at nearly 10 per cent.

13.8 per centleap in industrial output in July from a year earlier -- nearly double the market forecast of 7.8 per cent-- have dispelled that speculation, experts say.

Contd…….

Production of capital goods such as machinery in Asia's third-largest economy soared a massive 63 per cent, while output of consumer durables such as washing machines climbed 22 per cent.

Analysts are looking for a 25-basis-point increase in the bank's repo rate and a 25-to-50 basis-point rise for the reverse repo, the rate the Reserve Bank pays to banks for deposits.

The benchmark rates now stand at 5.75 per cent and 4.50 per cent respectively, still far below historic highs.

India's first robot-assisted multi-level car parks that can collectively accommodate over 1,100 vehicles will come up at two private commercial building projects in the city, a company official said here Monday.

The fully automatic, multi-level underground parking system covering an area of over 1.5 lakh square feet at the new upcoming projects Ackruti Star and Ackruti Solari, being developed by Ackruti City in Andheri east, according to its chairman Hemant Shah.

Contd…….

While Ackruti Star will have a capacity of over 350 vehicles and the second complex Ackruti Solaris will have a capacity of over 750 vehicles.

The entire system would be fully automated, a state-of-the-art facility with no human interference and 100 percent round-the-clock power back-up.

The system would provide parking space to thousands of visitors in the recently-developed business hubs of Andheri east where space is a major issue.

The industry ministry plans to do away with an old rule that requires foreign investors, already having tie-ups with Indian companies, to obtain clearance from existing partners before making fresh investments in the same field.

The department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) has invited comments from stakeholders before taking a final decision to scrap the restrictive practice.

The paper argues that if an industry is discouraged from being set up in India, increased competition might lead to the business going into some neighbouring country.

Contd…….

The norm restricts foreign investors, who had set up a joint venture (JV) in India before January 12, 2005, from setting up new businesses independent of their existing domestic partners.

While they need no objection certificate from their Indian partners, the same is not applicable for the foreign investors, who ventured in the country post January 12, 2005.

The rule has become a stumbling block for attracting more foreign direct investments in India.

India had received $25.8 billion foreign direct investments in 2009-10.

The Supreme Court held that the Competition Commission of India can ask for investigations into unfair trading practices by companies without being challenged before the Competition Appellate Tribunal.

The judgement delivered in the case of Steel Authority of India versus Jindal Steel & Power makes it one of the first instances of an appeal.

The CCI had contested the order of the Competition Appellate Tribunal that had questioned investigations into allegations by Jindal Steel & Power over an exclusive agreement between the state-owned SAIL and Indian Railways on purchase of rails.

Contd……..

Both SAIL and Jindal Steel make rails used by the Indian Railways.

But Jindal Steel said that after making huge investments in building a rails-making facility to supply to Indian Railways, the company was informed that there was exclusive supply pact between SAIL and Indian Railways.

“The pact blocks out other players from supplying to the railways,” said a Jindal Steel executive.

Based on a complaint filed by Jindal Steel, the CCI ordered an investigation by the Director-General of Investigation into the “exclusive supply agreement” between SAIL and Indian Railways.

Contd……….

SAIL approached the Tribunal and the Tribunal stopped the Director-General from probing the matter, terming it as obstruction to natural justice because SAIL was not given an opportunity to be heard.

The apex court in its judgement, clarified the authority of the CCI to initiate such investigations and also said that such powers by CCI have to be exercised sparingly and put some conditions saying that the investigations have to be completed in a time-bound manner within 60 days.

Amarchand Mangaldas, Economic Laws Practice and counsel Harish Salve and Gopal Subramaniam represented CCI. Senior counsel Rohinton Nariman represented SAIL.