Intellectual thoughts by Sanjay Panda

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Articles: 1, 2, 3, 4

India's space mission
2007-04-28 19:34:00
The flawless 11th flight of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C8) of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is more significant than all its previous missions, though each one so far has marked a step forward in the country?s space capability. For one, the PSLV-C8 is the first purely commercial flight that has successfully put an Italian 352-kg astronomical satellite, called AGILE, into space orbit on a contract won against stiff global competition. In fact, Isro had to modify the standard configuration of the PSLV to meet the requirements of the low-weight AGILE, which, additionally, had to be placed in a low inclination orbit. For this, Isro had for the first time to do without the six solid propellant strap-on motors of the first stage and reduce the propellant in the fourth stage by 400 kg, compared to the previous PSLV flight. Despite these design modifications, Isro has managed to recover the bulk of the PSLV cost, reckoned at around Rs 65 crore, by charging th...
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Pfizer Earnings Fall on Drop in Norvasc, Zoloft Sales
2007-04-22 17:36:00
Pfizer Inc.'s first-quarter profit fell 18 percent and the drugmaker cut its 2007 forecast, as competition from cheaper drugs hurt two of its best-selling products, Norvasc for blood pressure and Zoloft for depression.Net income for Pfizer, the world's largest drugmaker, declined to $3.4 billion, or 48 cents a share, from $4.1 billion, or 56 cents, a year earlier.Revenue this year will be $1.2 billion less than Pfizer projected after an adverse court ruling accelerated generic competition to Norvasc, and sales of the inhaled insulin treatment Exubera missed targets, the company said. Zoloft also faces generic rivals. Pfizer has said it is cutting 10 percent of its workforce by 2008 to offset the lost revenue. The impact of generic Norvasc, coupled with increased promotional spending around Exubera, are contributing to a greater decline.Pfizer shares fell 10 cents to $26.97 at 4:02 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The stock has risen 8.1 percent in the past ...
More About: Economy , Sales , Earnings , Pfizer , Fall

Who pays for low rupee volatility?
2007-04-16 18:19:00
The recent high volatility in the rupee market is likely to continue in the months to come. This is an outcome of the RBI running into its limits of sterilised intervention. As the cost of sterilisation rises, the pressure on the RBI to step away from purchasing dollars and pushing more liquidity into the system will grow. As the latest RBI bulletin shows, the biggest event on the monetary policy front in February was not the public announcements made by RBI officials. It was the currency trading done behind the scenes. The RBI purchased dollars worth $11.9 billion, thus pumping liquidity into the economy. In other words, the monetary tightening is largely lip service to the cause of fighting inflation. While firms and households will find their interest burden and credit contraction painful, it is unlikely that the rate hikes will do much to quell inflation unless the behind-the-scenes story of dollar purchases also aligns itself to the same effect. Why should ordinary people pay...
More About: Economy , Finance , Rupee , Pays

BASF sells Wibarco to Hansa Chemie
2007-04-16 17:48:00
BASF has agreed to sell its Chem ische Fabrik Wibarco subsidiary, which had been part of its Performance Chemicals division, to Hans a Chemie International, a Swiss-based holding company with stakes in a number of chemicals companies in Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands? Terms were not disclosed. Once regulatory approval is granted, the deal should be completed in July.Wibarco is based at Ibbenbüren, northern Germany, and employs about 80 people, who will all transfer? It mainly produces linear alkylbenzene (LAB), a starting material for linear alkylbenzene sulphonate (LAS), an ingredient in most modern detergents. BASF explained that it regarded Wibarco as non-strategic, because LAB is not fully integrated into its Verbund concept, although it remains a strong player in detergents and cleaners. Hansa, by contrast, will be able to integrate Ibbenbüren into its surfactants value chain. It will add a new sulphation plant to the 37-year-old LAB facility at the site." type="text/ja...
More About: Economy , Sell , Arco

Dow Chemical May Become Takeover Target
2007-04-14 07:07:00
Dow Chemical co, may become a takeover target even though Chief Executive Officer Andrew Liveris said he isn't interested in selling the largest U.S. chemical maker. Liveris fired executives Pedro Reinhard and Romeo Kreinberg yesterday for holding unauthorized talks with possible private- equity bidders. Shares of Dow jumped 2 percent yesterday, giving the company a market value of $44.1 billion. Shareholders may be open to a buyout. Dow had gained 8.5 percent in the 12 months before April 8, when the possibility of a buyout was reported in Britain's Sunday Express newspaper, trailing the 16 percent gain for the Standard & Poor's 500 Chemicals Index.The shares trade at 10.8 times annual earnings, the lowest in the 13-member index, compared with 17 times for DuPont Co. and 37 times for Monsanto Co. Dow's profit excluding items, $3.82 a share last year, may drop to $2 to $3 a share by 2010. Sales totaled $49.1 billion last year.U.S. buyout firms, including Kohlberg Kravis Roberts ...
More About: Economy , Takeover , Dow Chemical , Over , Come

RBI tigtening monetary policy to contain inflation
2007-03-30 19:47:00
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today abandoned its monetary policy stance of equal emphasis on price stability and growth, and decided to remain solely focussed on inflation containment.As part of its further monetary tightening, the central bank raised the cash reserve ratio (CRR) for third time since December 2006 by 50 basis points to 6.50% with effect from April 28 and also raised the repo rate by 25 basis points to 7.75%, the rate at which it lends to banks against securities.?The stance of monetary policy has progressively shifted from an equal emphasis on price stability along with growth, to one of reinforcing price stability with immediate monetary measures, and to take recourse to all possible measures promptly in response to evolving circum stances,?RBI said.The central bank?s monetary tightening measures came even as the banking system was reeling under severe liquidity strain, with call rates having in recent days shot up to ridiculously high rates of 70-80% and year-o...
More About: Economy , Technology , Finance , Monetary Policy , Inflation

Abbott Dissolving Stent, Xience Product Show Promise
2007-03-24 20:08:00
Abbott Laboratories' experimental heart stents may threaten the market dominance of Boston Scientific Corp. and Johnson & Johnson based on positive results from two studies released today.A new form of stent made by Abbott that dissolves in arteries after it's been implanted for about three years delivered a promising finding in its first human trial. Separately, Abbott's Xience, a permanent drug-coated stent marketed in Europe, was found superior to Boston Scientific's Taxus, the top U.S. seller, at keeping treated vessels open.The findings, presented at a science meeting in New Orleans, position Xience at the front edge of new technology in the $5.4 billion-a-year drug-coated stent market, where devices seen as easier and safer to use are needed to help revive faltering sales. Patients getting Xience had fewer cardiac deaths, heart attacks and repeat procedures months later.Xience patients ``were less likely to have blockages recur at eight months,'' said lead researcher Gre...
More About: Show , Product , Pharma , Regulations , Promise

Stock market/Finance - Global Market turmoil
2007-03-02 16:39:00
USA the world?s biggest and most liquid stockmarkets, and it has long been a cliché that when it sneezes the rest of the world catches a cold. But as other markets mature and capital moves more fluidly across the globe, the risk of infection spreading the other way grows.when shares dipped around the world after China?s stockmarket suffered its biggest drop in a decade (before rebounding somewhat on Wednesday). America saw its steepest points fall since the markets reopened after the terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001?and the end of its longest run without a 2% daily drop since the 1950s.All eyes were on America on Wednesday. Shortly before the markets opened, the Bureau of Economic Analysis revised its estimates of fourth quarter GDP growth sharply downward, to 2.2% compared with a previous estimate of 3.5%. American traders shrugged off this bad news, however, and markets recovered slightly. By noon, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up by over 50 points, while the NASDA...
More About: Economy , Finance , Stock Market , Market , Global

Indian Patent Law and the new turn
2007-03-01 06:08:00
The legal challenge to India?s patent laws from Swiss drug giant Novartis has taken a knock with a crucial report that it is banking on being withdrawn by its authors. In an unprecedented move, R.A. Mashelkar, former director-general of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), asked the government on 19 February to withdraw the report of the Technical Expert Group (TEG) that he had headed on account of ?certain technical inaccuracies ? that have inadvertently crept in?.India?s chief boffin, who submitted the report before demitting office last December, offered his ?unconditional apologies? to the government while taking full responsibility for ?this unfortunate development?. Mashelkar has been accused by lawyers and health activists of pandering to the multinational drug lobby after Novartis submitted the TEG report to the Madras High Court on 15 February. Novartis is challenging a specific prohibition in the law, Section 3 (d), which restricts the grant of patents...
More About: Indian , Pharma , Regulations , Dian , Patent

Highlights of India Budget 2007-08
2007-02-28 11:39:00
While Chidambaram kept income tax limit unchanged, he increased the threshold limit by Rs 10,000 giving every assessee a relief of Rs 1,000. Deduction in respect of medical insurance under Section 80 (D) increased to Rs 15,000 and Rs 20,000 for senior citizens. Exemption limit for women was increased to Rs 145,000 and for senior citizens to Rs 195,000. Dividend distribution tax raised from 12.5 to 15 per cent. ESOPs to be brought under FBT. Expenditure on samples and free distribution items to be exempted from fringe benefit tax. Additional revenue from direct taxes to yield Rs 3000 crore and indirect taxes revenue neutral. Tax exemption on aviation turbine fuel sold to turbo prop aircraft extended to all small aircraft less than 40,000 kg. Withdrawals by central and state governments exempted from Banking Cash Transaction Tax. The limit for individuals and HUF raised from Rs 25,000 to Rs 50,000. Two lakh people to benefit out of service tax exemption. Govt to lose Rs 800 c...
More About: India , Highlights , Light , Budget , High

Climate Change- Heating up
2007-02-10 09:49:00
A man on the street in a put it succinctly: ?Over 500 scientists from many countries spent a few years studying data, and then told us that human beings are to blame for global warming. I or any one could have told you that.? It is common sense, yet the report from the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change ), which says the same thing, is considered a statement in the strongest terms by some influential people (though the authors now say that man is ?very likely? to be responsible, rather than just ?likely?). So much so that the American Enterprise Institute, a US right-leaning think tank, offered $10,000 to any scientist who can write articles that contradict this report.This is the first time that the IPCC has said almost categorically ? with 90 per cent certainty, to be exact ? that the warming that we have observed is because of human activity. IPCC has predicted a temperature rise of 1.8-4 degree centigrade by the end of this century. Sea levels are expected to rise...
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Finance- Economy vs Real exchange rate
2007-01-21 14:01:00
The Chinese experience shows the costs of under-valuation are a lot less than the benefits in terms of jobs. In recent years, as China?s exports have grown rapidly, and the country is registering increasingly larger surpluses on the current account (an estimated $140 billion this year), it has faced a lot of pressure for a ?more flexible? exchange rate regime. Instead of openly calling for an upvaluation of the currency, the politically correct euphemism is to use the term ?more flexible exchange rate?.After holding on to a steady yuan-dollar exchange rate for more than a decade, China has engineered a modest appreciation (5.4 per cent) over the last year and a half. China?s exchange rate policy is clearly rooted in the need to create manufacturing employment. China needs to create at least 25 million non-agricultural jobs a year, considering the number of new entrants in the job market, as also the vast immigration from rural to urban areas. Most of these would have to be in the ma...
More About: Economy , Finance , Exchange , Real , Econ

The research Gap
2007-01-20 18:05:00
India?s R&D appears to be going somewhere finally. R&D expenditure, in absolute terms, is up three-fold over the last decade. While 70 per cent of R&D in India is still government-funded, and 60 per cent of this goes towards defence?with very few commercial spin-offs?this picture is changing as private investment in R&D is now rising faster than government spending. Apart from the pharmaceuticals sector?s R&D outlay, which has risen rapidly for understandable reasons, India is now host to 150 R&D centres set up by international companies?or so, says a report from Demos, one of the UK?s influential think tanks. More than 100 of these were opened in the last four years. Another figure, to buttress the same claim, is that foreign firms invested over a billion dollars in Indian R&D centres between 1998 and 2003.The question then is, why does India continue to lag behind other countries in the World Bank?s Knowledge Index? Worse, why has it even slipped vis-à-vis itself? On the W...
More About: Technology , Research

Out-licensing, Is it growth or survival strategy
2007-01-14 17:13:00
Indian majors are exploring out-licensing deals for lower risks and bigger profits. The strategy of the fittest is finally coming into play in the Indian pharma market. Some of the strongest pharma companies are flexing their muscles across Europe and announcing their arrival on the global platform in the process. As in-licensing deals become a norm, out-licensing deals are the latest to catch the fancy of Indian pharma majors. Out-licensing deals are deals wherein an Indian pharma company licences a foreign pharma company for the development of a particular molecule into a drug. Dr Reddy?s Laboratories, for instance, entered into an agreement with ClinTec International in 2006 for the development of an anti-cancer compound. Having completed the first phase of clinical trials for the compound, Dr Reddy?s has allowed ClinTec to carry out phase II and III of the trials. Once the product is commercialised, Dr Reddy?s will receive royalty on sales by ClinTec International in its des...
More About: Strategy , Growth , Licensing , Pharma , Sing

Tamiflu Vs Bird Flu, who cld be the major threat
2007-01-14 17:02:00
The cure may, at times, be worse than the disease. That would now seem to be the case with tamiflu, the drug used more than any other for treating and preventing the dreaded bird flu ? caused by the pathogenic H5N1 virus. Going by the findings of a study by researchers of the Oxford-based Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, the consequences of large-scale consumption of tamiflu can be scarier than even those of a bird flu outbreak. The main fear is that the many tonnes of this drug that are in stock in various countries for combating a possible pandemic would, on consumption, play havoc with wildlife besides increasing human health hazards. Specifically, the scientists have warned that the bulk of this drug would get excreted through urine and flushed down sewers into natural water bodies and rivers, devastating aquatic bio-life. The worst hit would most likely be micro-organisms, including all manner of useful bacteria, present in these waters. This is because oseltamivir carboxylat...
More About: Bird Flu , Pharma , Bird , Major , Threat

Agricultural reform
2006-12-31 17:35:00
When the National Commission on Farmers (NCF) mooted the idea of putting agriculture on the Concurrent list of the Constitution so as to bring it under the direct control of the Centre, nobody expected the states to readily agree to this radical suggestion and that?s what happended during the meeting of state agriculture ministers who met in New Delhi last week to discuss the recommendations of the NCF. No party in power would want to give up control over policies and programmes that could influence the vast rural vote bank. But that does not mean that there is no merit in NCF?s proposal, which was aimed primarily at addressing the issue of multiplicity and dissimilarities in taxes and levies, marketing laws and curbs on goods movement in different states. The present scenario is far from conducive for creating a single all-India market for agricultural produce, which is what has been suggested by the NCF in one of its preliminary reports. While getting agriculture onto the Con...
More About: Reform , Regulations , Form , Agricultural , Cultural

Money - 7 good reasons to invest in SIP's
2006-12-27 05:43:00
Fact No. 1: Over a long term horizon, equity investments have given returns which far exceed those from the debt based instruments. They are probably the only investment option, which can build large wealth.Fact No. 2: In short term, equities exhibit very sharp volatilities, which many of us find difficult to stomach. Fact No. 3: Equities carry lot of risk even to the extent of loosing ones entire corpus. Fact No. 4: Invest ment in equities require one to be in constant touch with the market. Fact No. 5: Equity investment requires a lot of research. Fact No. 6: Buying good scrips require one to invest fairly large amounts. Systematic Investing in a Mutual Fund is the answer to preventing the pitfalls of equity investment and still enjoying the high returns. And it makes all the more sense today when the stock markets are booming. 1)It's an expert's field ? Let's leave it to themManagement of the fund by the professionals or experts is one of the key advantages of investing through...
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Technology- Digital printing market in India
2006-12-15 16:44:00
It?s a war out there to grab a share of the growing digital printing market in India . The printing and graphics industry is expected to turn a shade brighter in 2007-08. The Indian digital printing industry is projected to grow to $17 billion by 2010, from an estimated $11 billion in 2005 (as per print and packaging research organisation, Pira International). Gone are the vendors? obsessions with niches where digital printers might be lucky enough to find a hundred thousand impressions per month. For that matter, a number of the digital print providers who pursued those niches are gone, too.A buoyant industry estimates that between 2006 to 2015 digital printing products (world-over) will account for almost 30-35 per cent of the overall printing market. In 2005-06, the emphasis shifted from the niches for digital printing to sheer volumes as vendors ramped up shipments of new high-capacity digital colour presses with lower operating costs. The resulting explosion in volume was no...
More About: Technology , Market , Digital , Digi

Money- Why to worry on Hedge funds
2006-12-14 13:10:00
Indian financial regulators get skittish when the word ?hedge fund? is used. Recent announcements suggest some movement by Sebi and the ministry of finance in their favour, while the RBI continues to argue against. One source of fear of hedge funds is the notion that all hedge funds act in concert. However, the global hedge fund industry is highly competitive. Over $1 trillion is managed by more than 8,000 hedge funds, each of which fights to gain an edge over the others. Coordination between such a large number of adversarial entities is impossible. Though a herd mentality can set in, on any given day some hedge funds will buy and some hedge funds sell. The customers of hedge funds are institutions and sophisticated individuals. They have the wherewithal to monitor hedge funds, and shift assets to the best return-to-risk ratio. They keep the hedge fund manager on his toes. Marketing gimmicks targeting retail investors can put money into the hands of an incompetent manager. Such gim...
More About: Money , Worry , Fund , Edge , Hedge

Dollar- Uncle Sam's worry
2006-12-10 09:39:00
Those who react to last week?s fall in the dollar?s exchange rate and predict that the US currency is set for a further dip, would be well advised to read some of the forecasts made a couple of years ago, when the dollar had suffered a similar decline. Currency experts, bankers and economists were predicting then that the dollar would drop to as low as $1.50 against the euro, even $1.80 and $2.20. None of that happened, the dollar recovered, and life went on as usual. Now there is another round of nervousness, with the dollar dipping noticeably last week and having fallen by about 15 per cent this calendar year (though by barely 2-3 per cent against the rupee). Is the long-predicted decline of the dollar about to happen at last, or is this another false alarm? That there is reason for worry, if not alarm, is easy to see. US housing has dipped for seven months in a row, US manufacturing has dipped for the first time in two or three years, and if the Federal Reserve drops interest r...
More About: Economy , Dollar , Worry , Doll , Uncle

Biocides- Making a killing
2006-12-09 18:10:00
According to a new report by Kline & Company, Specialty Biocides 2004-2005, the West European market for speciality biocides is currently the second largest on a global basis behind that of the US. Valued at around ?485 million for a volume of around 125,000 tonnes on a 100% active basis, the West European market will continue to exhibit only modest growth (averaging 2-3% overall) over the five years from 2004 to 2009. The US market, by contrast, is worth about ?1,175 million, Japan's is worth ?185 million and China's ?92 million, though growing rapidly.As Figure 1 shows, Western Europe's speciality biocides market is less driven by water treatment applications than the US market, and more by industrial preservation. Figure 1 - Main global markets for speciality biocides However, the latter is far more important in terms of relative market share in Japan and China than it is in either Western Europe or the US, where 'other' applications, notably wood preservation, leather ...
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OIL PRICES - How vulnerable is India to high oil prices?
2006-12-02 18:09:00
Higher global crude oil prices will adversely impact GDP growth rates, inflation, the fiscal deficit and the current account deficit, but the country's macroeconomic stability is unlikely to be threatened.Rising oil prices since 1999, initially as a result of OPEC supply-management policies, and later due to geopolitical uncertainties, had driven the international crude oil prices to an unprecedented level. Though oil prices have fallen recently from their peak levels, a sudden spike, which could be caused as much by a disruption in oil supplies as by demand increases, cannot be ruled out. The geopolitical situation in west Asia may well change abruptly. Also, the International Energy Agency in its recent World Energy Outlook (2006) has stated that over 70 per cent of global primary energy demand in the future will come from developing countries, led by China and India . This means prices of oil and gas will have a crucial bearing on the prospects of these economies.How much of a th...
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Finance- Real economy & exchange rate
2006-11-28 15:57:00
The Chinese experience shows the costs of under-valuation are a lot less than the benefits in terms of jobs.In recent years, as China?s exports have grown rapidly, and the country is registering increasingly larger surpluses on the current account (an estimated $140 billion this year), it has faced a lot of pressure for a ?more flexible? exchange rate regime. Instead of openly calling for an upvaluation of the currency, the politically correct euphemism is to use the term ?more flexible exchange rate?.After holding on to a steady yuan-dollar exchange rate for more than a decade, China has engineered a modest appreciation (5.4 per cent) over the last year and a half. China?s exchange rate policy is clearly rooted in the need to create manufacturing employment. China needs to create at least 25 million non-agricultural jobs a year, considering the number of new entrants in the job market, as also the vast immigration from rural to urban areas. Most of these would have to be in the man...
More About: Economy , Finance , Exchange , Real , Econ

Indian gaming Industry. Outlook
2006-11-19 09:58:00
Indian gaming industry is estimated to be $30 million in 2005, according to Nasscom. By 2009, the Indian gaming development industry is expected to grow to $300 million, at a CAGR of 78 per cent. The numbers, while impressive, hide an important fact. For close to a decade, gaming development in India has held immense promise. Unfortunately, it still continues to do so. In the same period, the IT services industry has grown at 32 per cent from $13 billion to $17.2 billion. In the past two years, the number of gaming development companies in India has gone from 14 to just 20. It is, in fact, one of the rare software-related areas where India has not yet been able to make a significant mark globally. Not for lack of trying, though.Gaming companies like Indiagames, Mobile2Win and Dhruva Interactive have striven long and hard for success against huge odds: lack of a gaming culture and skilled professionals, low funds and some heart-rending near misses.For instance, a chance meeting with ...
More About: Technology , Industry , Indian , Outlook

Pharma- The biogenerics opportunity
2006-11-18 19:20:00
The 30-year-old biologicals industry is over $50 billion in size. At 15 per cent growth rate, it is also the fastest growing category of drugs in the global pharma market. Of course, conventional pharma, at $500 billion, is 10 times as big, but it is growing at about 8 per cent.Today, biologicals present another opportunity for Indian pharma ? in the form of biogenerics (also called biosimilars) or generic copies of biologicals.Here?s how. In the last few years, new filings of conventional drugs have shrunk. So, there are fewer drugs to make copies of. Stricter regulations, higher failure in clinical trials, and longer time taken for approval of generics are other dampeners. Meanwhile, development of new biologicals has been on the rise. Besides, biologicals worth $14 billion are expected to go off patent by 2010. While insulin and erythropoietin are already off patent, products like interferon (Schering-Plough, Biogen) and granulocyte colony stimulating factor or G-CSF (Amgen) are ...
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