Today's Hot Stories - April 17, 2014
10 Headlines for Today(1) Brisk voting under way in biggest round of LS polls
(2) Alliance in trouble: 'TDP miffed at BJP's weak candidates' for Andhra assembly polls
(3) Israel, Palestinians to hold peace talks with US envoy
(4) Cadbury India set to get new identity
(5) Ajay Piramal to pick up 20% stake in Shriram Cap
(6) US calls for more investment-friendly Indian govt
(7) Real Madrid beat Barcelona 2-1 to lift King's Cup
(8) Hockey: India defeat Ireland 3-1 in their first Test
(9) Badminton: Arvind and Sourabh reach pre-quarterfinals
(10) Asian air pollution affecting Northern Hemisphere's weather patterns
5 Stories for Today
(1) Politicians sweep roads, iron clothes, play cricket — all for votes
(2) Crimea on bumpy road to becoming a Russian province
(3) Happy to have rolled out increments at Infosys, says Murthy
(4) Litigation expenses push Bank of America into loss
(5) Post face-off, Ben Bernanke says Raghuram Rajan will surely maintain an independent policy
(1) Politicians sweep roads, iron clothes, play cricket — all for votes
If there was an Oscar for politicians, bet all the nominees would be politicians from Andhra Pradesh. Candidates of all parties are resorting to 'polytricks', which at best can be termed 'gimmicks' to attract voters. They are all stooping to conquer. The wise voter knows this charade and can read the politico in and out but they are also playing it along — after all, elections are time for some fun also at the expense of the 'netas' or wannabe 'netas'.
The contestants are engaging themselves in doing a variety of things - from playing games, eating, and pretending to do some work - much to the amusement of voters. Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee leader Ponnala Laxmaiah, who recently went to Karimnagar to inspect the Ambedkar stadium for a public meeting that Congress president Sonia Gandhi would address, saw some youth playing cricket there. Laxmaiah saw an opportunity in that and joined the team. He became one with the youth, wielded the cricket bat for some time and had some fun, with of course, the motive of drawing the youth towards his party. Ponnala Laxmiah is contesting the elections from Jangaon constituency in Warangal district.
TDP candidate from Khammam assembly constituency Thummala Nageshwara Rao is no less at playing games. He played shuttle with some youth and also took part in some ground exercises.
In the city too, candidates are doing some weird things. Congress candidate from Amberpet assembly constituency V Hanumantha Rao, known for his theatrics, took a municipal workers broom and started sweeping in front of a house. If politicians can be actors, can actors be any less? Actress Jayasudha who is seeking a re-electing from the Secunderabad assembly seat on a Congress ticket is trying to charm voters in her own way. At a roadside shanty, the actress stopped by to a help a woman iron some clothes. Of course, she did not do it for free. She asked for a payment in the form of her vote.
Chintala Ramachandra Reddy, the BJP candidate from Khairatabad constituency, knows it is not going to be easy for him to fight the sitting Congress MLA Danam Nagendar and also the YSRCP candidate Vijaya Reddy. If he has to stop by to eat some mangoes, Ramachandra Reddy is doing just that to seek votes from those who gather around him. In fact, Ramachandra Reddy and also his YSR CP rival Vijaya Reddy are going around in the constituency on their two-wheelers to seek votes. Sometimes BJP Secunderabad LS candidate Bandaru Dattatreya is pillion-riding on Chintala two-wheeler to connect with the masses. MIM candidate from Chandrayangutta Akbaruddin too is making it a point to travel on a motorcycle to reach more voters.
Congress candidate Sama Krishna Reddy is pitted against the MIM's Asaddudin Owaisi in the latters stronghold, Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat but Sama is not giving up the game. He's milching cows. And he expects votes.
Source: The Times of India
(2) Crimea on bumpy road to becoming a Russian province
Russia annexes Crimea
Natalia Rudenko's ears were still ringing from being shouted at by a father demanding that the Ukrainian-language school she has run for 17 years in Crimea's capital now teach in Russian when local officials turned up at her office to dismiss her. Their message: Rudenko and her school dedicated to sending students to Ukrainian universities no longer have a place in a society that voted to secede from Ukraine and join Russia last month after Moscow deployed troops across the Black Sea peninsula.
As shocked staff and parents gathered in her office, bringing flowers, the matronly 62-year-old was overcome with emotion: "I built this school from the ground up," she said. Rudenko's dismissal is part of a colossal reshuffling managed from the Kremlin in the wake of Crimea's annexation to hurriedly remake the Ukrainian region of some 2 million people into a Russian territory populated by Russians.
It's a baffling, monumental task pro-Russian leaders are rushing to complete during a "transition period" that lasts until Jan. 1, 2015 - in many cases cutting corners and dispensing with niceties.
In one early step, they appropriated nearly all local Ukrainian state assets from energy firms to ports, museums and factories and made them nationalised Russian assets. Since President Vladimir Putin formally annexed Crimea on March 21, confusion has reigned. Courts are paralysed, the banking network is in disarray as Ukrainian and Western banks pull out, and business ties with the mainland are sundered.
Russian police cars from far-off regions have begun patrolling the region's picturesque roads lined with flowering trees, but it is not clear under what jurisdiction. "Ukrainian law no longer applies but Russian law has not yet come into force," said Sergei Fominykh, a partner at a local law firm whose court cases have all been suspended pending clarity about the new judicial system.
One enterprising Russian firm is advertising its services to help firms adapt to doing business in Russia on a TV screen in Crimea's capital Simferopol.
Rudenko's school is the largest of only six teaching in Ukrainian in Crimea. Natasha Melnichuk is one of many parents who want it to switch to a Russian curriculum as they look to Moscow rather than Kiev for their children's future.
"We didn't have a choice but now things are as they are," said the 39-year-old mother of two boys who had been against the region's secession. "There is no point in them continuing studies in Ukrainian if they will go to university in Russia."
Crimea was part of a sovereign Ukraine for 23 years since the break up of the Soviet Union until a referendum last month that was dismissed as illegitimate by Ukraine and the West. That vote, and the Kremlin's declaration days later that Crimea was now part of Russia, has cast a new political reality that its bureaucrats are now working double-time to render permanent.
On Friday, Crimean legislators adopted a new constitution -the first of what parliamentary speaker Vladimir Konstantinov said was "hundreds of laws" to be passed this year.
"Only 43 days have passed but ... we have stepped into a new phase of Crimea's history," Konstantinov told deputies - some of whom had been given Russian passports just two days earlier. Russia is also getting out its chequebook to bankroll Crimea, earmarking $7 billion in 2014 alone and vowing billions of dollars more investment on everything from higher pensions to a bridge linking the region to Russia.
"With the high level of investment we expect, our economy will become self-sufficient. We don't want to be permanently economically dependent," Rustam Temirgaliyev, Crimea's First Deputy Prime Minister, told Reuters.
In Simferopol, all of some 15 hotels are full up with men in shiny suits: Russian civil servants, prospecting Russian investors and anxious businessmen from across the peninsula come to lobby the new authorities.
On the whole people believe they will be better off under Russian rule, but some businesses have been hit hard by the political unrest.
"What business? Business is dying. The rules are changing every day. It's impossible," said the director of one of the vineyards lining the craggy hills along Crimea's coastline, asking not to be named because the firm has been nationalised.
Production has ground to a halt at ship builder Zaliv, one of the largest private sector employers and taxpayers. Customers in Norway and the Netherlands cut off new contract negotiations last autumn over the protests in Kiev.
"We are a 100 percent export-oriented company. We don't know what's next for us," company spokeswoman Marina Romanika said. Companies are scrambling to minimise the impact of being suddenly cut off from markets and supply on the mainland.
For now commercial traffic across the Isthmus of Perekop linking Crimea to Ukraine is still flowing - as are water, gas and electricity supplies from the mainland on which Crimea is dependent. But business leaders don't expect it to last.
"We have to change all our logistics. Ukraine's reaction is unpredictable. We are redirecting everything through Russia," said Alexander Batalin, chairman of Phiolent, which supplies 90 percent of all power tools in Ukraine. The Simferopol-based firm is a significant player in the local economy with 1,800 employees and a turnover of about 1 billion roubles ($28 million).
Its future is now uncertain. Batalin says he does not yet know who will take control of the more than 50 percent once owned by Ukrainian state.
But like many other pro-Russian businessmen, he expects greater access to markets in Russia and Russian investment will compensate for the potential loss of sales to Ukraine, which made up 35 percent of the company's exports.
"Thanks to the emotional, patriotic awakening in Russia to help Crimea, we are getting access to retail chains there that were closed to us before," he told Reuters.
Most residents of Crimea, once a prestigious holiday destination for imperial Russia and then the Soviet Union, hope absorption by Moscow will revive the economy and transform its worn resorts.
"There is no comparison between Russia and Ukraine's financial wealth and size, so of course we are winners," said Yuri Malyshchev, 49, an employee at the Artek children's holiday camp, now nationalised by Crimea's Kremlin-backed leaders. "I pocket 2,000 hryvna ($160) a month. Now I hope for four times that," he said.
In its heyday, the seafront camp was so cutting edge it was used as the set for Soviet science fiction films.
Today, it is mostly in disrepair. Shrubs poke through the cracking cement of a giant empty pool, and a graffiti-covered statue of Lenin dominates the cypress-lined view.
Devoid of children since the start of the political unrest four months ago, Artek now looks particularly forlorn. The camp has racked up 17.5 million roubles ($490,000) in wages arrears in the last two month for its 1,700 employees.
Whether or not to stay here is a tough choice for many whose history and affinity is divided between Crimea and the mainland.
"The last months I have been living in such a terrible state of stress," said Anya Voznaya, 21, who is studying at a local branch of Kiev's national pedagogical university at Artek.
Originally from the central Ukrainian city of Khmelnytsky, her father, a retired Ukrainian military officer, was transferred to the peninsula four years ago.
"My parents are getting Russian passports, and I probably will too, but it is a difficult choice about what to do: Leave or stay." ($1 = 35.9237 Russian Roubles)
Source: Hindustan Times
(3) Happy to have rolled out increments at Infosys, says Murthy
Infosys founder and executive chairman N.R. Narayana Murthy has said that the company’s performance has given the IT major the “confidence to reinvest in our employees.”
In the letter to Infosys’ employees, a copy of which was accessed by The Hindu, he wrote that the company’s performance in the last fiscal has given it the “confidence to reinvest in our employees” and that he was happy to have rolled out increments and promotions this March.
He implored employees to “work together toward achieving industry leading growth and profitability as we head into FY15”.
Mr. Murthy’s letter comes even as the company is, on the one hand, in the midst of a tightening as part of its cost-utilisation programme.An Infosys employee told The Hindu that apart from the letter the former CEO also met employees in a recent quarterly ‘Townhall’ session when he spoke about the company’s future plans.
“As a result of your support, we have made visible progress in increasing our market focus and improving productivity,” he wrote.
Source: The Hindu
(4) Litigation expenses push Bank of America into loss
Bank of America Corp posted a first-quarter loss on Wednesday as it set aside an extra $6 billion to cover litigation expenses, a figure that far exceeded the legal settlements, the #2 US bank has announced recently.
The bank reported a net loss attributable to shareholders of $514 million, or 5 cents per share, for the first-quarter which ended on March 31 compared with a profit of $1.11 billion, or 10 cents per share, a year earlier.
The previous quarter's results were hit by $1.6 billion in charges related to disputes with bond insurers.
Analysts on average had expected earnings of 5 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters.
BofA's shares, which have risen 5.3 per cent so far this year, were down 0.4 per cent at $16.33 in premarket trading.
Revenue fell 3.8 per cent to $22.66 billion, excluding accounting adjustments, but beat the average analyst estimate of $22.33 billion.
The loss follows Bank of America's best year since before the financial crisis.
The bank's 2013 net income of $11.4 billion was the highest since 2007, but large legal bills and settlements left over from the financial crisis remain a drag on performance.
BofA made progress resolving many of its legal issues in the first quarter, although some proved to be costly.
BofA agreed in March to pay $9.5 billion to settle claims that it sold Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac faulty mortgage bonds, helping it to end one of the largest legal headaches it still faced from the crisis.
The bank also received a New York judge's approval for its $8.5 billion settlement with investors in mortgage securities that went sour.
"The cost of resolving more of our mortgage issues hurt our earnings this quarter," chief executive Brian Moynihan said in a statement.
Expenses rise
Litigation expenses of $6 billion compared with $2.2 billion in the first quarter of 2013. Non-interest expenses increased to $22.24 billion from $19.50 billion.
Costs in the bank's Legacy Assets and Servicing division, excluding litigation expenses, fell to $1.6 billion from $2.6 billion a year earlier and $1.8 billion in the third quarter.
The Charlotte-based bank has said that costs in the unit, which handles delinquent mortgage loans, would fall below $1.1 billion a quarter by the end of 2014 and will be about $500 million a quarter by the end of 2015.
Bank of America released $379 million from its allowances for bad loans, compared with $804 million in the same period a year earlier and $1.2 billion in the fourth quarter.
Bank of America is the first of the big US banks to report a loss for the quarter. Both Citigroup Inc and Wells Fargo & Co reported better-than-expected results, while JPMorgan Chase & Co missed estimates as bond trading revenue fell. Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Morgan Stanley report first-quarter results on Thursday.
BofA's net charge-off ratio fell to 0.62 per cent in the quarter from 1.14 per cent in the same period a year earlier.
Fee income fell on a number of fronts.
Core mortgage production revenue dropped to $273 million from $404 million in the fourth quarter and $815 million a year earlier, as fewer homeowners refinanced mortgages and a particularly cold winter discouraged prospective home buyers.
The bank extended $10.8 billion in home loans, down from $11.6 billion in the fourth quarter and $23.9 billion a year earlier. Revenue in BofA's Global Banking division rose to $4.27 billion from $4.03 billion.
In the banking industry as a whole, fee income fell 0.2 per cent in the quarter, the slowest start to the year since 2012, according to Thomson Reuters Deals Business Intelligence.
Revenue from fixed income trading declined 1.7 per cent to $2.95 billion as many clients took to the sidelines in the quarter, awaiting clarity from the Federal Reserve on its interest rate intentions.
Still, BofA outperformed JPMorgan Chase, whose bond trading revenue dropped 21 per cent, and Citigroup, whose revenue from the business fell 18 per cent.
BofA's net interest margin, excluding market-related adjustments, was 2.36 per cent, compared with 2.30 per cent in the first quarter of 2013.
During the quarter, the bank received the Federal Reserve's blessing to increase its quarterly dividend to 5 cents per share from 1 cent and repurchase $4 billion in common shares.
Source: The Economic Times
(5) Post face-off, Ben Bernanke says Raghuram Rajan will surely maintain an independent policy
With India in the midst of elections and the likelihood of a new government within next two months, former United States Federal Reserve chairman Ben S Bernanke’s advice to the next government was to keep the central bank truly independent.
In conversation with Uday Kotak, executive vice-chairman and managing director, Kotak Mahindra Bank, the former Fed Reserve chairman, at the bank’s annual event Kotak Presidium said, “I am sure he (Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan) will maintain — the most important thing a central banker can maintain — an independent policy.”
Describing Rajan as a long-time colleague and an outstanding economist, Bernanke, who retired January-end this year confessed he did not know much about Indian politics. He, however, said, “In a mature economy like India’s, which is becoming modern and a financially-oriented economy, an independent central bank, responsible central bank is really central to success.” The former Fed Reserve chairman was responding to Kotak, who sought his advice, pointing to the fact that India was in the midst of elections and could see a new government in June. Kotak asked Bernanke to share how he had managed two US presidents — President George Bush and President Barack Obama, during his tenure.
“In United States, we were lucky — President Clinton, who you said was here last year, was a great defender of central bank dependence as was President Bush who appointed me and President Obama who reappointed me. They were always very careful to say that the monetary policy was not their responsibility and that independence, it was real, and not just verbal, is very important,” Bernanke said.
When asked about his views on inflation targeting, and the debate whether this should be a single point mandate for a central bank, Bernanke said he has been very supportive of inflation targeting even before he became the Fed Reserve chairman. “The reason for that though is not necessarily the same as in the other context, which is that monetary policy benefits from clarity and transparency. And it really helps to let people know what you are trying to achieve, particularly in countries where inflation has been high.”
“Setting a target, even if it’s a higher target which comes down over a period of time, is useful because it tells market what to expect and probably helps the process of bringing inflation down. It’s not inflation per se, but transparency and the need for the central bank to explain what it is doing is intrinsic part of inflation targeting,” said Bernanke. This, however, did not mean that the central bank ignores everything else.
Source: The Indian Expresss
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