Infosys, India&rsquo;s second largest information technology (IT) services company, is set to announce its third quarter (Q3) earnings for FY13 on January 11. It is widely believed that the company&rsquo;s financial performance would fail to meet Street expectations. The company is also expected to revise its already conservative annual revenue growth forecast of five per cent downward, despite the revenue it accrues from its recent acquisition, Lodestone.

Infosys: Will it meet street expectations?

Business Standard

The one-year full time MBA was introduced in India by the Indian School of Business (ISB) in 2001. The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) followed, and over the years, they started offering a one-year full time MBA in addition to the two-year course they already had. While this course has become very popular, a lot of confusion regarding the content and value plagues students, the media and recruiters.

One-year MBA at IIMs decoded

November industrial production numbers would be significant, as those would determine whether the 8.2% IIP growth in October could be called green shoots of recovery for the economy. The index of eight core industries, contributing 38% to IIP, grew a dismal 1.8% in November. Most economists BS spoke to forecast a less than 3% IIP growth in November, citing last year&rsquo;s high base. Some even suggested a contraction.

The decisive numbers

With tax collections in the current financial year indicating a shortfall, the revenue department appears to be getting its act together. Here&rsquo;s how.

Overactive revenue department? 

Every day when I manage to conclude any business.

My Life My Style: Kalyani Chawla

To help select public sector banks strengthen their capital base and comply with Basel-III norms, the government decided to infuse Rs 12,500 crore into these. While industry analysts say capital infusion will lead to marginal improvements in the banks&rsquo; capital adequacy ratios, it will ensure these lenders comfortably comply with the new regulations.

Boosting banks' capital base 

I am a pronunciation junkie. As a child, I was particular to a fault about how the words leaving my mouth sounded. My mortification at being corrected in public knew no bounds &mdash; and attracted scrutiny that made me wish I disappeared. For the longest time, I said &ldquo;hear&rdquo; as if it were &ldquo;hair&rdquo; or &ldquo;hare&rdquo;. &ldquo;Hear me out&rdquo; on my lips became either a convoluted order involving silken black strands or a mock-serious exploration of a rabbity thing.

... As she is spoke

The decision by the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) to increase tuition fees by 80 per cent &ndash; from Rs 50,000 to Rs 90,000 per annum &ndash; is a welcome step in correcting the fee distortions prevalent in most state-owned higher education institutions. The last such fee increase was in 2008 (a 50 per cent hike) and even the worst critics of such fee hikes would admit that another revision was long overdue.

Look beyond govt funding

The Empowered Group of Ministers, or EGoM, on telecom, headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram, has said the base price for CDMA spectrum auction should be cut 30 per cent or 50 per cent, as the last auction in November failed to attract any bidders. At that time, pan-India 5 MHz spectrum was priced at Rs 18,000 crore. The Union Cabinet will take the final decision, and the government hopes to wrap up the auction by March.

Dropping the price, again

Even as the government has bit the bullet and raised railway fares across the board &mdash; by Rs 100-300 on long-haul routes &mdash; the lowest airfares for these routes remain at least twice as much. Even for short-haul routes, airfares are seven to eight times higher than rail fares. Besides, the static nature of rail fares, as opposed to dynamic airfares (higher if a ticket is booked closer to the date of journey), keeps the railways&rsquo; status of an attractive travel option intact.

Rail vs Air travel: Chasm remains

The new US Congress is religiously more diverse than ever before &mdash; it includes the the nation&rsquo;s first Buddhist Senator and the first Hindu in either chamber of the Congress, a new analysis from the Pew Research has said.

Faith of the Congress

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh&rsquo;s spin doctors appear to have finally started managing matters well. Signs of this were evident in the decision not to go ahead with a plan to have Singh address the nation on New Year&rsquo;s Day, as he had done the year before. Apparently, the text of the new year address was ready but media managers decided the timing would not be right given the nationwide outrage over the brutal assault on a paramedic student and her friend.

Sense of timing

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is a doubly pleased man these days because a strong showing at the December Assembly elections has been followed by a strong showing by Amitabh Bachchan. The Bollywood superstar, who is the brand ambassador of Gujarat tourism, recently spent 23 days at a stretch in the state and travelled the entire state by road to shoot promo ads. Bachchan is also promoting the Rann festival and those advertisements are now on air, both in television and radio. Senior officials of the Gujarat government suggested that even though Bachchan is a superstar, he didn&rsquo;t create problems or throw tantrums during shoots.

Super-powered Gujarat

The Karnataka Assembly elections are a few months away but overzealous party workers seem to have begun campaigning in their signature styles already. A Congress party worker has painted his sedan in the party&rsquo;s colours (tricolour without the Ashok Chakra) and has been driving it all over Bangalore. To add to the effect, it had a slogan painted over it in Kannada: &ldquo;Join Congress, bring change&rdquo;. In addition to this, it has pictures of the prominent leaders of the party over the car. The Congress is trying to stage a comeback in the state after seven years, so maybe the hard work is warranted.

Campaign drive

Apropos the editorial &ldquo;Railways moves forward&rdquo; (January 10), modernisation of the Indian Railways will not be possible without doing away with political interference. However, do we need another authority in the form of a tariff board? In fact, the existing railway board can be strengthened with additional members and special responsibilities to fix fares and freight rates. Also, it&rsquo;s time that the government considers the corporatisation of the Indian Railways on the lines of its telecom undertaking, Bharat Sanchar Nigam. Converting the Indian Railways into an Indian Railway Corporation, with subsidiaries for each railway zone in accordance with the provisions of the Companies Act, will pave the way for better administration, improved human resource management and easier mobilisation of funds for expansion.

Letters: Privatise railways

This refers to the editorial &ldquo;Asking for trouble&rdquo; (January 9). One main concern of large business conglomerates getting a direct foothold in the banking sector is that the bank will not be their core business. Even with the best of safeguards, it will be a challenge for the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to keep a watch over infringements. Inter-connected shareholding will perennially stress the regulator. The positive is that the RBI&rsquo;s draft rules for licensing new banks are stiff. Promoters, entities and groups must have diversified ownership credentials and a track record of at least 10 years. Besides, exposure to speculative sectors like real estate and broking over the past three years is barred. But the bank is likely to be at the promoters&rsquo; beck and call &mdash; indulging in cross-lending, and without a prudential restraint in their dealings with industrial houses.

Letters: Pandora's box?

This refers to the editorial &ldquo;A year of weakness&rdquo; (January 2). Increasing import duty on gold is a retrograde step and will leave scope for black market operators. The most effective step will be to demolish people&rsquo;s blind belief that gold is the most secure investment against high inflation. India needs to increase the supply of gold, say 750 tonnes, to the international markets to stabilise the prices, since Indian imports are the key drivers of the price rise. Even if two per cent of the gold holdings with the public can be garnered through an attractive scheme for exporting, the government will be able to influence the international prices. A gold bond scheme that offers the lowest of the market value of gold or an inflation-adjusted assured return can easily attract the public, and accumulating gold stock for export will not be difficult.

Letters: Dump gold abroad

Getting invited for the Congress&rsquo; brainstorming session &lsquo;chintan shivir&rsquo; in Jaipur appears to be quite an exclusive affair. Only 300-odd people have made the cut. While the Congress Working Committee (CWC) members have been sent invites, as have the permanent invitees such as Finance Minister P Chidambaram, the special invitees have been left out. This gave rise to a piquant situation. Former external affairs minister S M Krishna (a special invitee) had been made in-charge of a sub-group at the &lsquo;chintan shivir&rsquo; deliberating on &ldquo;India and the world (foreign policy)&rdquo; but, according to the guest list, he could not have been present at the shivir. Realising this anomaly, with just a week to go for this all-important event, Krishna was appointed as a permanent invitee of the CWC. Incidentally, Krishna is also the Congress&rsquo; seniormost leader in Karnataka, which goes to polls later this year.

On the guest list?

Finance Minister P Chidambaram hopes to contain the fiscal deficit at 5.3 per cent of gross domestic product, and though no one knows how he will achieve this, one thing is for sure: frittering away government energy and funds on a public sector unit that was virtually a non-starter from its inception in 1972 is not the way to go about it. Indeed, given the stringent expenditure cuts imposed on government departments by a regime committed to heavy entitlement spending, the proposal to sink more than Rs 200 crore in reviving Lucknow-headquartered Scooters India Ltd is particularly inexplicable. On Thursday, the Cabinet deferred a proposal to this effect from the Department of Heavy Industry, the ostensible reason being that the minister concerned, Praful Patel, was not present.

Running on empty 

Indians shouldn't be cribbing about their jobs if a recent survey by LinkedIn is any indication. India has topped the list of countries where people are working in their dream jobs, with 44 per cent Indians admitting they have the career they wanted as a child. The networking website surveyed more than 8,000 professionals globally to find out about the most common childhood aspirations.

Indians living their dream (jobs)

Gold
Gold is headed for a 12th straight year of gains on rock-bottom interest rates, concerns on the financial stability of the Euro zone, and diversification by central banks into bullion(Click on graphics)
&nbsp;

Business Standard

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