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Security personnel stand guard in front of SKS Microfinance's head office in of Hyderabad
Lender SKS Microfinance, whose shares have taken a massive beating amid ballooning provisions, expects near-term pain and predicts consolidation in the embattled sector, the firm's top executives said on Tuesday.
"Probably there would be near-term pain for a quarter or two," SKS chief financial officer Dilli Raj told reporters at a briefing on Tuesday.
India's once-thriving microfinance sector has been reeling since Andhra Pradesh, that was its largest market, clamped down on business practices such as high interest rates and aggressive loan recovery practices last October.
Loans as low as Rs 2,000 at interest rates that have topped 30% are used by India's poor for ventures such as buying livestock or opening a tea stall.
Mobile cranes prepare to stack containers at Thar Dry Port in Sanand in Gujarat
Exports in the current fiscal year could touch $275 billion, from $246 billion last year, Ramu Deora, president of the Federation of Indian Export Organisation (FIEO), said on Tuesday.
India hopes to achieve at least 25% exports growth in the 2011-12 fiscal year to end-March, and aims to double its merchandise exports within three years, Trade Minister Anand Sharma had said last month.
India's merchandise exports rose an annual 37.5% in the last fiscal year, surpassing the initial target of $200 billion, as demand soared for engineering goods, oil products and gems.
A page from the Skype website is seen in Singapore
Microsoft is close to buying internet telephony network Skype in an $8.5 bn deal, a source familiar with the situation said, as it seeks to regain ground on growing rivals such as Google.
Buying the loss-making but popular Skype would underline Microsoft's need to gain new customers and platforms for its software as smartphones and tablets explode in popularity.
Skype, which allows people to make calls at no charge, would also give Microsoft a foothold in potentially the lucrative video-conferencing market as global businesses seeking to reduce expenditure shift to lower-cost ways of communicating.