human development

NEW DELHI: Xiaomi, China's largest smartphone maker which is among the world's top 4, believes India could be its second-largestmarket by volumesoon as it continues to get massive traction here when such devices are the fastest-growing consumer category. After selling more than 400,000 smartphones in India, including the entry-level Redmi 1s and highly popular Mi 3, since launching in July, demand for Xiaomi phones has surged, even though the Indian Air Force raised security concerns, which the company hassought to address. 

"There's no doubt in my mind that India as a market has the potential to be our second-largest market worldwide and a significant contributor to our global shipments," Hugo Barra, Xiaomi's VP of international markets,  " workhard towards making that happen." 

Barra was upbeat about prospects in India, where Xiaomi has targeted making 100,000 smartphones available for weekly flash sales, 10 times the number of devices it started out with, to meet unprecedented demand on e-commerce site Flipkart, its only outlet in the country. 

The company continues to struggle with supplies."We are still working to meet our goal of having 100,000 units steadily available every week," Overthepast couple of weeks, Xiaomi has faced production and logistics-related difficulties, but Barra is hopeful of hitting the required volume steadily in the coming weeks.

WhatsApp has managed to attract an active user base of over 70 million in India, a figure which boasts of a growth crossing 10 million within a few months. Neeraj Arora, the company’s business head for the country, claims that these are active users, or those who engage with the app a least once each month.

The 70 million-strong Indian fan-base of WhatsApp makes up for more than a tenth of its users on a worldwide scale. This obviously means the country is one of its biggest markets. There are plenty of opportunities for churning money out from the platform even though the company had previously promised not to roll out ads.

03:40 pm Market closing All the Nifty, Sen sex, CNX Mid cap end at record closing highs. The Sensex closed above 25,000 for the first time ever. The Sensex is up 213.68 points at 25019.51 and the Nifty is up 71.85 points at 7474.10. About 2130 shares have advanced, 883 shares declined, and 121 shares are unchanged. Except Bank Nifty, all indices end trade in the green. Infosys, Sesa Sterlite are major contributors to Nifty gain. Reliance Infra, SAIL & Havells contribute most to the midcap rally. 

03:30 pm International markets European shares held steady and the euro languished near four-month lows against the dollar on Thursday, with the common currency hostage to expectations the European Central Bank will ease monetary policy to support a fragile economic recovery. In anticipation of lower interest rates, euro zone government bond yields fell. This helped push the premium that two-year U.S. government debt offers over euro zone benchmarks to its widest since 2007. In one of its most keenly awaited decisions in years, the ECB is expected on Thursday to impose negative interest rates. Economists in a Reuters poll expected the ECB to cut its main refinancing rate to 0.10 percent from 0.25 percent and cut its overnight deposit rate to -0.10 percent from zero. It may also launch a loan programme to banks to encourage lending. 

03:20 pm Budget expectation Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will meet captains of Indian industry to elicit their views on the budget, which is likely to be presented in the first week of July. As a part of the pre-budget consultation exercise, the Finance Minister has already met with agriculturists and will meet representatives of social sector later today. The industry wants the new government to take steps to boost the manufacturing sector, which has remained stagnant in the past two years. It also wants clear and credible policies to attract investments, push mega projects and encourage growth. It has already made a case for non-adversarial, conducive and fair tax regulatory environment.

All the Nifty, Sensex, CNX Midcap end at record closing highs. The Sensex closed above 25,000 for the first time ever. The Sensex is up 213.68 points at 25019.51 and the Nifty is up 71.85 points at 7474.10. About 2130 shares have advanced, 883 shares declined, and 121 shares are unchanged. Except Bank Nifty, all indices end trade in the green. Infosys, Sesa Sterlite are major contributors to Nifty gain. Reliance Infra, SAIL & Havells contribute most to the midcap rally. 03:30 pm International markets European shares held steady and the euro languished near four-month lows against the dollar on Thursday, with the common currency hostage to expectations the European Central Bank will ease monetary policy to support a fragile economic recovery. In anticipation of lower interest rates, euro zone government bond yields fell. This helped push the premium that two-year U.S. government debt offers over euro zone benchmarks to its widest since 2007. In one of its most keenly awaited decisions in years, the ECB is expected on Thursday to impose negative interest rates. Economists in a Reuters poll expected the ECB to cut its main refinancing rate to 0.10 percent from 0.25 percent and cut its overnight deposit rate to -0.10 percent from zero. It may also launch a loan programme to banks to encourage lending. 03:20 pm Budget expectation Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will meet captains of Indian industry to elicit their views on the budget, which is likely to be presented in the first week of July. As a part of the pre-budget consultation exercise, the Finance Minister has already met with agriculturists and will meet representatives of social sector later today. The industry wants the new government to take steps to boost the manufacturing sector, which has remained stagnant in the past two years. It also wants clear and credible policies to attract investments, push mega projects and encourage growth. It has already made a case for non-adversarial, conducive and fair tax regulatory environment. 03:10 Deal Piramal Enterprises has acquired 9.99 percent stake in Shriram City Union Finance for a total of Rs 790 crore. The Mumbai-based firm has acquired 65,79,840 equity shares of Shriram City Union Finance Ltd, the retail focused non-banking financial company (NBFC) of the Shriram Group, Piramal Enterprises said in a statement today. The acquisition, by way of a preferential allotment of shares by Shriram City Union, was at a price of Rs 1,200 per equity share, taking the total capital paid at Rs 790 crore, it added. "We are happy that the shareholders of Shriram City Union Finance have approved our investment in the company. Thiscapital infusion will support its present business model and help further its growth plans over the next few years," Piramal Enterprises Ajay Piramal said. Shriram has a good team and the company is confident about creating long-term value for shareholders of both the companies, he added. 02:55pm J&K Bank up 1.4% Jammu and Kashmir Bank will raise Rs 500-600 crore by selling 5 percent stake in PNB Metlife. The stake sale process will be completed by December, reports CNBC-TV18 quoting Reuters. 02:45pm IDFC weak IDFC’s provisions will increase over the next couple of quarters, the infrastructure financier’s executive chairman Rajiv Lall said in an interview to CNBC-TV-18. On the positive side, Lall said his firm was sitting on 21 percent Tier-I capital and had enough capital to ride out the worst storm. He said the health of gas power plants would be the key to IDFC's asset quality. According to him, pure infrastructure loan growth for IDFC is likely to take place in the next fiscal because of their transition to bank . “Even if there is an opportunity, pure market based to grow the balance sheet, we may not want to because our starting position as a bank becomes that much more complex,” says Lall. 02:35pm Interview Reports suggest that the RBI has rejected United Bank of India's plea to ease curbs on lending. United Bank of India’s Executive Director Deepak Narang says that they need to show RBI that all systems and procedures are in place and credit administration has been tightening. The bank hopes to approach the Reserve Bank soon to enhance the limit for AAA and AA rate accounts. Narang believes RBI is willing to relax those accounts up to Rs 25 crore for normal lending. In an interview with CNBC-TV18, he says they are focussing on recovery and not on credit expansion. 02:26pm Suzlon bags repeat order Suzlon Group, the world's largest turbine maker has received a 100.8 MW order from ReNew Wind Power. "As per the agreement, the group will not only supply 48 units of its robust S97-120 m WTG's but will also oversee operations, maintenance and service of the wind site over the contracted period," says Suzlon Group in its filing. It further says, "ReNew Wind Power currently deploys Suzlon WTG's for 100+ MW at their wind farms in Gujarat and Maharashtra and this will be the third successful order placed with Suzlon Group. This repeat order demonstrates the confidence our customers have with Suzlon's products and service capabilities," 02:22pm Market Update The Sensex surged 202.92 points to 25008.75 and the Nifty rose 68.60 points to 7470.85. About 2086 shares have advanced, 835 shares declined, and 105 shares are unchanged. 02:18pm Oil marketing companies in focus Sources told CNBC-TV18 that oil ministry will consult prime minister's office and finance ministry on hiking LPG and kerosene prices. It will consult on one-time LPG price hike, say sources. The current under-recovery on LPG stands at Rs 432.71 per cylinder and in case of kerosene, it is at Rs 32.87 per litre. It is learnt that PMO and finance ministry want more market-aligned prices and better targetted subsidies. Oil ministry says FY15 under-recovery bill is expected to be at Rs 98,000 crore, say sources. BPCL touched a record high of Rs 605.55, up 5 percent now while IOC and HPCL gained 3-3.7 percent. 02:10pm Market Update The Sensex inched towards the 25000-mark, up 178.01 points to 24983.84 and the Nifty rose 61.10 points to 7463.35. About 2056 shares have advanced, 829 shares declined, and 102 shares are unchanged. 02:05pm FII View Sanjay Shah, Co-Country head and Co-head Indian Equity Business, Morgan Stanley, said the “realms of a strong policy framework in the making”, has made India an attractive destination for foreign investors. He said the investor interest has returned after election results. In an exclusive interview to CNBC-TV18, on the sidelines of Morgan Stanley Annual India Summit 2014 which was attended by over 70 corporates and 370 investors, Shah said the investors here are not just India-dedicated or confined to emerging markets, but they are the large global funds from North America and Europe who are looking at emerging markets as an asset class and within that finding India much more interesting. However, international investors are closely monitoring the Budget, he added. 02:00pm Equity benchmarks gained strength post consolidation. The Sensex rose 129.36 points to 24935.19 while the Nifty touched 7450 level (for the first time since May 26), up 48.10 points to 7450.35. The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices climbed 1.2 percent and 1.6 percent, respectively. About 2039 shares have advanced, 846 shares declined, and 87 shares are unchanged. Sesa Sterlite remained top gainer in the Sensex, gaining over 6 percent followed by Tata Motors, Hindustan Unilever, Tata Steel and Hindalco Industries with around 3 percent. Index heavyweights Reliance Industries, HDFC and ITC recouped losses in afternoon trade, rising 0.5 percent, 1.2 percent and 0.2 percent, respectively. Top lender State Bank of India and its rival Axis Bank advanced 0.9 percent each while ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank declined 0.6-1 percent.

Read more at: http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/local-markets/sensex-inches-towards-25000-reliance-hdfc-rebound_1099528.html?utm_source=ref_article

 

No state religion   

The judiciary and secularism

In an attempt to quell privacy concerns, Facebook has announced that users can now login to third party apps without sharing their data 

 

Exoplanet Beta Pictoris b was discovered through the use of direct imaging by a team led by Ignas Snellen of Leiden University in the Netherlands. It is a 20-million-year-old planet in the Beta Pictoris star system just 65 light-years from Earth. Beta Pictoris b has some unique qualities including an orbit that is significantly distant from its star estimated to be approximately double the distance from the to Jupiter.

 “Beta Pictoris b rotates at 25 kilometers per second at its equator.” This is actually faster than any of the planets in our solar system. It’s 50 times faster than Earth despite the fact that Beta Pictoris b is 3,000 times more massive than Earth as well as 16 times wider. A day there lasts for just eight hours.

Beta Pictoris b’s rotation rate by studying how infrared light passes through carbon monoxide in the exoplanet’s atmosphere. As it rotates half of Beta Pictoris b spins towards Earth and the other away from Earth. The light from the far half shifts into longer, redder wavelengths while the light from the near half shifts into shorter, bluer wavelengths.

The shifts in light broaden the absorption line of carbon monoxide within Beta Pictoris b’s light detected here on Earth. The amount of widening allowed  the exoplanet’s rotation rate which will reportedly increase as it gets older, cools then shrinks.

 Beta Pictoris b’s rate of spin will rise to 40 kilometers per second over hundreds of millions of years. By that time a day on the exoplanet will be only 3 hours long. In our solar system—with the exception of Mercury and Venus—the larger planets spin faster.

It’s theorized that this is due to the fact that bigger planets took on more material as they formed which would make the forming planets move faster. The significance of knowing the rotation rates of comparatively young exoplanets like Beta Pictoris b, will permit researchers to create weather maps of their atmospheres.

   15 Russian officials announced Tuesday lacked the punch of the preceding US sanctions, since they did not target officials overseeing Russia's state-owned oil giant Rosneft or the assets of Kremlin-connected oligarchs.

    However, they did target General Valery Gerasimov, chief of the Russian general staff, deputy prime minister Dmitry Kozak, who has been charged with developing Crimea, and several leaders of the pro-Russian militia and protestors who have been occupying buildings in eastern Ukraine. EU countries depend heavily on Russian oil and gas exports.




    Among the pro-Russian leaders, most of whom were little-known before the wave of unrest, was Igor Strelkov, cited by some media as the head of the Donbass People's Militia. He is also reputed to be one of the “little green men” Russia has allegedly sent to promote unrest in eastern Ukraine, and EU officials identified him as a Russian military intelligence officer and an advisor to Crimean PM Sergei Aksyonov.

    Denis Pushilin, the prime minister of the self-declared “Donetsk People's Republic,” was also included on the list. Little-known before the occupation of the Donetsk regional administration building, Pushilin previously worked for MMM,  a company that ran a notorious pyramid scheme in the 1990s.

After Russia, Ukraine, the United States and the EU negotiated a plan in Geneva to defuse the crisis in Ukraine, Pushilin refused to recognise the agreement, saying the Donetsk protestors would refuse to leave the buildings they've taken until the Kiev government leaves its buildings, and they hold a referendum on the region's fate

   
    Several other pro-Russian leaders from Donetsk also fell under sanctions. Little is known about Andrei Purgin, besides the fact that he is a pan-Slavic activist who has agitated against the new pro-western government in Kiev. According to a social network page apparently belonging to him, he holds an IT degree from a Donetsk university and is now the co-chairman of the Donetsk People's Republic.

    Sergei Tsyplakov is reportedly the deputy head of the Donbass People's Militia and is also apparently a long-time pro-Russian activist. He told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti that he was “extremely proud” of his inclusion on the list, adding that the sanctions are laughable.

    Two protest leaders from the neighbouring Luhansk region, where heavily armed men have been holding the regional security service headquarters, also face visa bans. Valery Bolotov, a commander of the Army of the Southeast group that has been occupying the building, was announced as the “people's governor” of Luhansk last week. The protestors soon followed Donetsk's example and declared a “Luhansk People's Republic.”

    German Prokopyev is also reportedly a leader of the Luhansk militia, but even less is known about him than about the other pro-Russian leaders.