Contrary to the popular and traditional perception that villages
facilitate mainly agricultural activities, rural India also has a
major contribution in the services sector, housing 60 per cent of the
total enterprises in the country, a study has said.
"An estimated 1.65 crore service sector enterprises were in operation
in India during 2006-07. Of these enterprises, 60 per cent (0.99
crore) were in rural India and 40 per cent (0.66 crore) in urban
area," the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) report released
on Friday said.
More than half of the estimated 3.35 crore people working in service
sector enterprises belong to rural India. The services sector is one
of the prime engagers of workforce in the economy.
The report, first in a series of two studies planned to be brought out
based on the survey, reveals that 85 per cent of all enterprises fall
under own account enterprises (OAEs) category that are run without any
hired worker on a fairly regular basis.
The remaining 15 per cent were found to be under Establishments --
those running with at least one hired worker on a fairly regular
basis.
Transport, storage and communications engage 25 per cent of the
workers, followed by financial intermediation engaging 17 per cent
workers and hotels and restaurants 15 per cent, the findings revealed.
The service sector enterprises in the survey include all service
sector enterprises (excluding trade), other than government and public
sector undertakings and those covered under annual survey of
industries.
The services covered were hotels and restaurants, storage and
warehousing, transport and communication, financial intermediation,
real estate, renting and other business activities, education, health
and social work, among others.
About 90 per cent of enterprises were propriety enterprises and 7 per
cent were cooperative societies and self help groups. About 59 per
cent enterprises were not registered with any agency.
Further, 74 per cent enterprises had fixed premises of operation and
32 per cent were located within household premises.
The NSSO revealed that 86 per cent of all enterprises did not receive
any assistance from any government or non-government agencies while
loan was the most dominant form of assistance in case of 14 per cent
of enterprises receiving assistance.
Major problems faced by 57 per cent enterprises were "competition from
larger units" and "shortage of capital". As far as work was concerned,
two per cent enterprises had undertaken at least some work on contract
basis, while another 32 per cent had undertaken some economic
activity.
"About 81 per cent of working owners or managing partners of
proprietary and partnership enterprises were literate, with some
formal education," the report said, adding even in rural areas,
literacy with some formal education was as high as 77 per cent.
The survey was conducted on 1,90,282 sample enterprises, of which 438
enterprises belonged to list frame and 1,89,844 belonged to sample
villages/urban blocks of area frame.
Financial sector enterprises and other service sector enterprises
comprising relatively large units were put under "list frame" while
the remaining units within the coverage were categorised in "area
frame".
The field work of the survey was carried out during July 2006 to June
2007.
The survey excluded Leh (Ladakh), Kargil, Poonch and Rajauri districts
of Jammu & Kashmir, interior villages of Nagaland and inaccessible
villages of Andaman and Nicobar islands.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Rural India portrays rosy picture in services sector: Survey
Reuters - India's Oct-Dec GDP up 5.3 pct from a year earlier
This article was sent to you from Pradyutghosh@gmail.com, who uses Reuters Mobile Site to get news and information on the go. To access Reuters on your mobile phone, go to:
http://in.mobile.reuters.com
India's Oct-Dec GDP up 5.3 pct from a year earlier
Friday, Feb 27, 2009 5:37AM UTC
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's economy grew a slower than expected 5.3 percent in the December quarter from a year earlier, slowing sharply from the previous quarter's 7.6 percent as the global economic crisis cut demand and exports.
The annual growth for India's fiscal third quarter was lower than a median forecast of 6.2 percent in a Reuters poll of economists and also lower than a upwardly revised 8.9 percent annual expansion in the same quarter a year ago.
The manufacturing sector fell 0.2 percent in the October-December quarter from a year earlier, while the farm sector contracted an annual 2.2 percent, government data showed on Friday.
India has estimated the economy to grow 7.1 percent in 2008/09, slowing from the 9.0 percent in the previous year.
Tata Nano - World's Cheapest Car! Coming Soon...
Markets decline after the figures of India's GDP slips to 5.3% in Q3
The Indian economy grew by 5.3 per cent in the third quarter, the slowest quarterly growth this fiscal, pulled down by contraction in manufacturing and farm production even as some services showed robust expansion.
The farm sector, believed to be de-coupled from the global financial meltdown, also succumbed to the pressure of the slowing economy and fell by 2.2 per cent in October-December, 2008-09 against the growth of 6.9 per cent a year ago.
In the third quarter, industrial production, led by manufacturing, contracted in the two months of October and December.
For the whole quarter, manufacturing declined by 0.2 per cent against a substantial expansion of 8.6 per cent a year back.
Bucking the trend, community, social and personal services grew by a strong 17.3 per cent against 5.5 per cent in the year-ago period, part of which may be contributed by revised the salary structure of government employees.
For the first nine months of this fiscal, the economy grew by 6.9 per cent against nine per cent in the same period of 2007-08.
Diversified funds hold on to cash
Diversified equity schemes seem to prefer cash over equity. According
to ICRA online data, some schemes have close to 60% of their total
assets under management (AUM) in cash.
Industry experts say that most funds are sitting on cash anywhere
between 10-15% of AUM, as the market continues to move in a narrow
range. ``Our analysis shows that the cash portion of the portfolio has
been growing steadily in the last few months,'' says a mutual fund
analyst.
Why are funds sitting on cash, when they can buy shares cheaply and
maximise returns for their investors? ``A fund could be sitting on
high cash levels for a variety of reasons, including waiting for the
correct entry point to negative or range-bound market view. In case of
NFOs, the fund may also be in the deployment mode,'' explains Sameer
Kamdar, ceo, Asset Management, ASK Investment Holdings. ``People don't
think the market will move up sharply soon. In such a situation, they
prefer to stay on cash,'' says Waquar Naquvi, ceo, Taurus Mutual Fund.
``Most fund houses are sitting on cash up to 15-30%.''
Another reason why some of the schemes may prefer to sit on cash is
because of the nature of their investment. ``When you are running a
small or a mid-cap scheme or a scheme looking for new opportunities,
you will have to keep some cash aside. Especially in a market like
this, the cash could come in very handy,'' says an MF manager, who
doesn't want to be named. ``Also, some funds try to show better
performance by sitting on cash, as most funds are in the negative
territory.''
However, Naqvi points out that extremely high cash element in the
portfolio won't work over a long period of time. ``It should be a
short term strategy. If you keep extremely high percentage of cash,
then you won't qualify as an equity MF for the tax purpose. And the
investors would suffer,'' he says. An equity fund should have to
invest at least 65% of its portfolio in stocks to qualify for the long
term tax-free capital gains status.
So, what exactly is the ideal percentage of cash in a portfolio? Some
fund managers believe 5% cash is ideal, but they point out that ideal
percentage works in an ideal market. ``There is no ideal percentage of
cash one should have in the portfolio. It all depends on the style and
the view of the fund manager,'' says Kamdar. ``MNCs may have such
figures, but Indian companies don't stick such rules,'' points out
Naqvi.
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Business/India-Business/Diversified-funds-hold-on-to-cash/articleshow/4198045.cms
US Budget Fine Print -- Reasons For Taxing The Rich
Fine Print From US budget
"While middle-class families have been playing by the rules, living up to their responsibilities as neighbors and citizens, those at the commanding heights of our economy have not. They have taken risks and piled on debts that while seemingly profitable in the short-term, have now proven to be dangerous not only for their individual firms but for the economy as a whole. With loosened oversight and weak enforcement from Washington, too many cut corners as they racked up record profits and paid themselves millions of dollars in compensation and bonuses. There's nothing wrong with making money, but there is something wrong when we allow the playing field to be tilted so far in the favor of so few."
In 2009 and 2010, it doesn't see any income from this provision, although we can't tell on first quick read if that's because the taxes wouldn't kick in until later or if it's an acknowledgment that there won't be much in the way of profits in the private equity and hedge fund industries for the next couple of years.
In 2011, the budget says this change would decrease the deficit by $2.74 billion. That would accelerate to $4.35 billion in 2012. For the period from 2010 to 2019 in total, the budget foresees a total decrease to the deficit of $23.89 billion from this change.On Rupees & Won:
The Rally That Wasn't Having counted five waves down in many markets, I made some general comments about the different types of rallies that markets makes off of lows. That most markets did in fact pause their declines for the past two days following that five-wave move bolsters our belief that we are likely fairly close to being on-the-mark with our analysis of the current positions of these markets within the wave counts. And yet, all that these markets could muster following the five waves down was to pause and look around and mount feeble rallies with shallow retracements. By all accounts, based on this price action and wave structure, most markets must still be in their fifth waves to the downside.
On Rupees & Won:
We haven't looked at the Indian rupee in a few weeks, so it's appropriate to get caught up with this market. I'm showing the Korean won versus the dollar as well, as these charts and wave counts are very similar. The move up in both the rupee and the won look like fifth waves in progress. Our prior wave count in the rupee considered that the fourth wave was ongoing, but recent action demands placing (4) at the December low, which was a perfect retracement to the previous 4 low in November. Both the rupee and the won are now right at the levels of their November highs. The charts show the dollar's appreciation versus these currencies. Noting that these charts are on log scale, the slide in both the rupee and the won is accelerating in a climactic fifth wave. We'll keep an eye on these two markets going forward, but the near-term prognosis for the health of these currencies is not good, since this fifth wave does not appear to be nearly complete by any possible wave count.
More blood to spill -- JPMorgan to cut 12,000 jobs as it folds in Washington Mutual operations, sees savings of $2B
JPMorgan to cut 12,000 jobs as it folds in Washington Mutual operations, sees savings of $2B
NEW YORK (AP) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co. said Thursday it will eliminate about 12,000 jobs as it folds in the operations of Washington Mutual Inc.
According to slides on the company's Web site from an investor day presentation, the New York-based bank expects about $2 billion in net savings to be achieved through the acquisition, the majority of which will be realized by the end of this year. This includes about $1.35 billion related to the job cuts, the bank said.
Shares soared $2.12, or 9.8 percent, to $23.85 in morning trading.
JPMorgan acquired the assets of Seattle-based WaMu, the largest bank ever to fail in U.S. history, at the end of September. The purchase added massively to JPMorgan's consumer banking business and helped the company book a $1.1 billion gain in the fourth quarter.
However, analysts and investors have been worried that corroding loans, particularly soured mortgages, inherited from WaMu could mar JPMorgan's results going forward.
Assuming a 36 percent peak-to-trough decline in home prices, the bank expects remaining lifetime losses on WaMu's home lending portfolio to be $32 billion to $38 billion. The bank said it has not yet experienced losses beyond initial expectations. However, if delinquencies and losses did increase more than expected, the bank would need to add to loan loss reserves.
The bank sees $1 billion to $1.4 billion in quarterly losses from noncredit impaired home equity loans this year. Home equity losses are expected to level off in 2010, but will likely remain high, JPMorgan said.
Meanwhile, quarterly losses among subprime mortgage loans could be as high as $375 million to $475 million over the next several quarters, JPMorgan said.
Retail Financial Services Chief Executive Charlie Scharf said there are early signs of stabilization in the troubled California housing market. Discounts on the appraised value of properties have declined compared with year-ago figures, and sales are being completed at a faster rate. Florida, however, has yet to exhibit any positive trends. Losses in the New York market are also expected to rise.
In its credit card segment, JPMorgan expects losses from the WaMu portfolio to approach 15 percent in the first quarter. The bank expects its total credit card loss rate to edge up to 7 percent.
Among its commercial business, JPMorgan said its construction and development portfolio is the greatest area of concern, with losses expected to rise through 2010.
The bank also anticipates waning demand for commercial loans as businesses borrow less for expansion projects amid the worsening economy.
On a positive note, JPMorgan said it has been able to stabilize WaMu deposits. Since taking over operations on Sept. 25 through Feb. 13, WaMu deposits have increased by $500 million. This follows the withdrawal of $15 billion in deposits during the two weeks in September after the bankruptcy filing of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., which led to the bank's failure.
Earlier this week, JPMorgan announced plans to slash its quarterly dividend to 5 cents per share from 38 cents in an effort to preserve capital.
Chief Executive Jamie Dimon said the cut was a precautionary move to ensure that the company has financial flexibility should economic conditions worsen. The move will save the company about $5 billion per year.
Dimon said he is not predicting, but is ready for: A recession lasting two years, a U.S. unemployment rate above 10 percent, and a 40 percent peak-to-trough decline in home prices.
Dimon expects the bank to be profitable throughout 2009, and said the bank is on track to report first-quarter earnings roughly in line with analyst expectations.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters, on average, forecast earnings of 33 cents per share for the first quarter.
JPMorgan has yet to post a quarterly loss during the financial meltdown that began in 2007, when mortgage defaults started spiking. The bank in January reported a modest fourth-quarter profit of $702 million -- thanks mostly to its purchase of Washington Mutual.
JPMorgan on Monday said it expects first-quarter markdowns of about $2 billion in its investment bank -- less than the $2.9 billion marked down in the fourth quarter. The New York-based bank also anticipates write-downs of approximately $400 million in its private equity business.
JPMorgan, like San Francisco-based rival Wells Fargo & Co., has received $25 billion in government aid. Weaker competitors Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. have each gotten $45 billion in government support.
Fwd: Bankrupt Canadian telecom equipment maker Nortel to cut 3,200 more jobs
Bankrupt Canadian telecom equipment maker Nortel to cut 3,200 more jobs
NEW YORK (AP) -- Bankrupt telecom equipment company Nortel Networks Corp. plans to cut its work force by 3,200 jobs worldwide.
The Canada-based telecom equipment maker said Wednesday the new round of job cuts will be made over the next several months. The reduction is on top of 1,800 job cuts already announced.
Nortel filed for creditor protection Jan. 14 in Canada and the United States.
President and Chief Executive Mike Zafirovski said tough decisions are being made to restructure the company and work towards a successful emergence from creditor protection.
Nortel currently employs about 30,000 people around the world, including 5,800 at Canadian operations in Ottawa and Toronto.
The company also said its board has approved management's recommendation to eliminate bonuses for 2008. Nortel Networks Corp. says it is seeking Canadian court approval to end its equity-based compensation plans.
Facing a sharp drop in orders from phone companies, Nortel used the bankruptcy filings to buy time to explore restructuring options like selling off assets.
During the 1990s telecom and Internet boom, Nortel had more than 95,000 employees. At one point in 2000 it accounted for one-third of the market value on the entire Toronto Stock Exchange.
After the dot-com bust, Nortel had problems of its own: an accounting crisis that sparked shareholder lawsuits, regulatory investigations and the firing of key executives, including CEO Frank Dunn.
In time of recession - Govt clears higher DA for central staff of 22%
Central government employees and pensioners will get an additional 6 per cent dearness allowance from next month, putting a burden of over Rs 6,000 crore (Rs 60 billion) on the exchequer.
Employees and pensioners will get the additional DA with retrospective effect from January one this year, as per a decision cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) in Delhi.
The revised DA would be 22 per cent, payable from next month's salary, against 16 per cent at present, Home Minister P Chidambaram told reporters in Delhi.
The combined burden of the increased DA to employees and the retired will be Rs 6,020 crore (Rs 60.20 billion) from January 2009 to February 2010, he said.
However, the exchequer will take a hit of Rs 5,159 crore (Rs 51.59 billion) for the full year, Chidambaram said.
The decision to increase DA was taken because of the rise in the consumer price index for industrial workers. DA is revised twice a year, from January one and July 1, payable in salaries of March one and September 1, respectively.
The additional financial implication on account of the increase in DA to central government employees (excluding pensioners) would be Rs 4,100 crore (Rs 41 billion) for 14 months from January one this year.
The rise in allowance, called dearness relief, to pensioners will cost the exchequer Rs 1,920 crore (Rs 19.20 billion) during the period.
However, for a full year, the implication would be Rs 3,514 crore (Rs 35.14 billion) because of revised DA for employees and Rs 1,645 crore (Rs 16.45 billion) for pensioners.
Central government employees and pensioners got a hike in salaries from September after the government approved the Sixth Pay Commission's report with some modifications.
http://www.rediff.com/money/2009/feb/26govt-clears-higher-da-for-central-staff.htm
26-Feb-09 Mcx Settlement Prices
Today's Settlement Prices :: Gold 15248 :: Silver 21538 :: Copper 174 :: Lead 51.85 :: Nickel 502.60 :: Zinc 56.25 :: Crude Oil 2232 :: Natural Gas 206.90 :: Crude Palm Oil 286.30 :: Heating Oil 64.75 :: Soya Oil 452.35 & INR 50.47
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone