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COVER STORY
Food Prices-Led Inflation : Clear and Present Danger
-- Amit Singh Sisodiya and Bindu Amrutham
If food prices go on as they are today, then the consequences on the population in a large set of countries ... will be terrible.
© 2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved
COVER STORY
Food Prices-Led Inflation: Implications for India
-- Robert Prior-Wandesforde
As more and more people move off the land, the longer term challenge is to raise agricultural output significantly through productivity improvements.
© 2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved
COVER STORY
Food Price Inflation : Imported or Indigenous?
-- G Bhalachandran and Suresh Chandra Babu
While the prices of a wide range of commodities are increasing, food price inflation is likely to have the most significant effect on the poor and middle income groups and can have severe macroeconomic consequences.
© 2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved
CORPORATE STRATEGY
Tata's Acquisition of JLR: A Right Turn?
-- N Janardhan Rao and P S Sarath Chandra
Tata Motors' acquisition of Jaguar and Land Rover (JLR) is an indication of India Inc.'s growing global prominence. While the immediate challenge is to ensure and retain the competencies of JLR, Tata Motors should not lose sight of the huge opportunity to shift substantial downstream development to India in order to exploit and compete with the likes of Daimler and BMW.
© 2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved
CORPORATE STRATEGY
AOL-Bebo : A Giant Awakes
-- Amit Singh Sisodiya and Imrana Moghul
AOL shells out $850 mn in cash to acquire Bebo, the world's third largest social media network, in an effort to solidify its presence in the promising web ad business and also regain its lost glory.
© 2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved
FINANCIAL MARKETS
Frontier Markets : New Haven to the Investors
-- Y Bala Bharathi and Sanjoy De
In the current global market mayhem, while the developed and emerging equity markets have shown lackluster performance, the frontier markets have fared much better and emerged as safe havens to the spooky investors.
© 2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved
FINANCIAL MARKETS
US Dollar : No Longer World's Reserve Currency?
-- N Janardhan Rao and V Ratna
The world's major economy is caught in a vicious circle as the dollar plunges and the financial market crashes, and the Federal Reserve is powerless to halt the collapse of dollar value since rate cuts will only lead to further decline in the value of the currency. Besides, rising oil and food prices are inflicting additional harm.
© 2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved
FINANCIAL MARKETS
Direct Market Access : Ushering in a New Era
-- Y Bala Bharathi and Sanjoy De
In a significant step that will usher in algorithmic trading and thereby transform the Indian stock markets, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has recently allowed direct market access to institutional investors. This would enable institutions to directly place their buy and sell orders without any manual intervention by their brokers.
© 2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved
FINANCIAL MARKETS
Bear Stearns' Collapse: The Crisis of Confidence
-- Y Bala Bharathi, Sanjoy De and G P Mrudhula
The dramatic fall of the world's fifth largest investment bank, Bear Stearns, underscores that the crisis of confidence among counterparties can topple even the savviest of financial institutions.
© 2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved
BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
Destination Africa : India's Trade Safari
-- Amith Singh Sisodiya and Imrana Moghul
India seeks greater ties with the Sub-Saharan African region, the new global hotspot for energy resources, to achieve energy security.
© 2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved
BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
Chinese Inflation : A Global Malaise
-- Y Bala Bharathi and Sanjoy De
Inflation in China has recorded a 12-year high. This has sounded alarm bells across the globe, as chances of China adding to global inflation have increased largely.
© 2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved
BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
India Inc.: Mission Globe Trot
-- N Janardhan Rao and P Sarath Chandra
The journey for India Inc. has just begun, and when compared to other developed nations, it has a long way to go. Yet, for the moment, India Inc.'s current success story is pleasant to ponder over.
© 2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved
BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
Public-Private Partnership Model : A Panacea for India's Infrastructure Ills?
-- Amit Singh Sisodiya and Siba Prasad Pothal
Saddled with poor or lack of infrastructure for long, India pins much hope on the Public-Private Partnership model to fix its infrastructure woes.
© 2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved
BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
Intellectual Property Rights : A Bitter Pill
-- R Venkatesan Iyengar
Effective enforcement of drug patent regime not only serves as an incentive to research and innovation, but also prevents spurious products from harming the society. While it is important to make life-saving medicines affordable to the poor, it should not be used as an excuse to undermine the Intellectual Property Rights.
© 2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved
ROUNDTABLE
Competition Amendment Act : A Flawed Law?
-- Interviewed by Y Bala Bharathi and Sanjoy De
Last September, the Parliament, quietly and that too without much debate, passed the Competition (Amendment) Act 2007 by altering the Competition Act of 2002. As per the new law, it is mandatory to pre-notify all the upcoming mergers whose combined assets or turnover surpass certain specified threshold limits. However, the India Inc. and the industry chambers are up in arms against this new act, and they fear that it could lead to increased interference by the bureaucracy in corporate affairs and unnecessary delays in M&A deals. On the other side, the Ministry of Company Affairs (MCA) contends that, given the widespread cartelization in many industries, India also needs its own version of competition law like many of its Western counterparts. To get the right perspectives and to understand the finer aspects of the law, The Analyst invited a few experts-Amrish Shah, Executive Director, Mergers & Acquisitions (Tax), PwC; Harish HV, Partner, National Management, Grant Thornton; and Hemant Batra, Senior Partner, Kaden Boriss Partners-to share their views.
© 2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved
MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS
Delta-Northwest : The High-Flying Marriage
-- Y Bala Bharathi and Sanjoy De
The recent merger proposal between Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines would create the world's biggest airline and could unleash a wave of consolidation in the ailing US airline industry.
© 2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved
MONETARY MUSINGS
Managing Inflation : The RBI Way
-- GRK Murty
Inflation has once again become the headline news. And the alarm it has raised this time round is understandable; for within a short span it has peaked to a 44-month high of 7.83% against an acceptable/comfortable level of 5%. The worst part of the current inflation is the rise in the price indices of all categories-primary articles, manufactured goods and fuel-in both year-on-year and week-on-week terms.
© 2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved
APOLITICAL
Oil Prices : Always Slippery?
-- grk
Oil prices have crossed the $125 per barrel mark. They have risen by almost 400% in the last five years. The reasons for such a phenomenal rise are many: one, the boom in the global economy that is being witnessed across the globe, that too, for a long time now; two, post-2003, almost 90% of the demand for oil essentially coming from developing economies such as China and India
© 2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved
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