Reliance to shut down petrol pumps

Reliance Industries has decided to shut down about 900 of its 1400 fuel outlets in the country in the next few weeks. However the 500 dealer owned fuel stations may continue operations. The record surge in the crude oil price and the absence of government subsidies are the reasons attributed for the company’s sudden decision to close all the fuel pumps. It is known that Reliance sells fuel at prices 15% higher than the state run outlets .Currently the rate of petrol is around Rs 56/liter. The company has decided not to re-fuel any of its retail outlets so it eventually leads to the closure of all the pumps till the stocks last. The public sector oil companies including the likes of Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation sell fuel below the cost price and have incurred a large amount of losses. However the losses incurred are compensated by the Government with adequate subsidies. Similar benefits are not applicable to private sector companies. The other two major players in the Indian fuel market, Shell and Essar have petitioned the government seeking parity with their state-run competitors, according to the news source. The 55,000 employees of the Reliance outlets will face the risk of losing their jobs. It remains to be seen if Reliance could provide them some alternate job to help them support their livelihood.

No more ADC says TRAI

It has been found that India is the fastest growing mobile market in the world. It has also been predicted that India is all set to become the second largest mobile market by 2010.Is it possible to reach this milestone much earlier? From April 1^st next month its happy days for all the mobile consumers in India. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has decided to completely phase out Access Deficit charge (ADC), thus paving the way for lower tariffs and cheaper calls. ADC is a levy paid by private players like Airtel, Vodafone etc to Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) for offering services in rural areas. It exists in two parts: domestic service providers pay 0.75 percent of their adjusted gross revenue (AGR), while international long distance (ILD) service providers pay Re 1 per minute on international incoming calls. With the latest announcement, no ADC will be charged on domestic calls, while international incoming calls will be charged at 50 paise per call, which is 50 percent less. This is also expected to completely phased out after September 30.Private players which have been demanding the removal of ADC since last year have welcomed this TRAI directive. Meanwhile the private players Airtel, Vodafone, Tata etc are expected to announce new reduced tariffs within a few weeks time.

Dell India to introduce low cost notebooks

Dell India is planning to introduce a new range of affordable notebooks by next month. It is estimated that the company has achieved 50% growth in revenue despite holding the fifth position in the Indian PC market. This new range of notebooks would be launched in mid April and the company is planning a tie up with some big retailers in India to sell its range of products.”We are developing new models of notebooks catering to specific needs of Indian customers” Dell India Vice-President and General Manager Rajan Anandan said today. Unlike other players like HCL, HP and Acer Dell still continues to sell its products directly to customers at affordable cost. The customers can place an order for a new laptop through the Internet or over the phone. The company is also planning to raise the capacity of its manufacturing plant in Chennai. The company is also said to have registered an impressive 80% growth in unit sales while the laptops segment grew by over 115%.We can very soon expect Dell to be a major player in the Indian PC market. As of now the top players in the Indian PC market are

1. Hewlett-Packard

2. HCL

3. Lenovo

4. Acer

5. Dell

No more ATM transaction fees in India

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has introduced a set of guidelines that will make access to all the ATMs almost free of cost. This move has been welcomed well by all the credit card customers across the country. You might have an account with a reputed bank which offers great service but has only a handful of ATMs in your city. It has been estimated that there are around 31,078 ATMs in the country as of December 2007.You can easily locate an ATM on almost every street if you have an account with ICICI or SBI but you if you have an account with some other bank you will have to pay for using the ATM of the banks. So you are forced to use the ATMs of other banks which charge a fee of Rs 56(minimum) for cash withdrawals and Rs 20 for balance enquiry.Thankfully, this scenario is set to change by next year as the RBI has asked all the banks to bring down the transaction cost to Rs 20 by March 31^st this year. It has also planned to completely eliminate this fee by April next year. Instant cheque clearance may also be introduced by then. With these innovative measures being introduced the numbers of credit card customers are certainly bound to increase.

Make your search simpler

JustDial, this interactive search engine has made searching for any local information on the internet quite easy. You don’t have to refer to yellow pages anymore for finding any information. This service caters to nearly 5 million users a month and covers around 46 cities in India. It has also been estimated that more than 24 million customers are using Just dial services and have found it to be very useful. Guess wat? This company was started with an investment of just $ 1000.Since its inception this company has experienced unprecedented growth and has now become the No. 1 local search engine. Around 80,000 SME advertisers use this superb service to promote their business. Its strong emphasis on customer satisfaction has lead to tremendous growth both in quality and reputation in a short span of time. You can download the Just Dial Toolbar and search for any local information in over 40 cities. Use this innovative service and make your search simpler.

Buy books online

Looking for the best online bookstores in India? I have compiled a list of some of the best online shopping sites for books in India. I advise you to search for the desired book in all these given sites and purchase from the store which offers the lowest price. My personal favorites are rediff, indiaplaza and landmark as they offer the best deals and are quite reliable i.e. the books are shipped within the mentioned time. A few sites also offer free shipping and discounts on bulk purchases. So you better check all the sites for the best offers. Hope this information will be useful to all those who buy books online.

http://www.indiaplaza.com/books

htttp://www.books.rediff.com (free shipping)

http://www.landmarkonthenet.com(free shipping)

http://www.Books.indiatimes.com

www.gobookshopping.com

www.flipkart.com(free shipping)

www.penguinbooksindia.com

www.amazon.com ( International shipping charges apply)

If you know of any additions please let me know so that I can add them to the list. Your inputs will be appreciated. Thanks for your time.

Best Banks in India

One of the most prominent business magazine in India,Business today published the annual Business Today-KPMG Survey of the best banks in the country.The following list reveals the top 10 banks in the country.

1.HDFC Bank

2.HSBC

3.Indian Overseas Bank

4.ABN AMRO

5.Axis Bank

6.Standard Chartered

7.State Bank of Hyderabad

8.Union Bank of India

9.ICICI Bank

10.Indian Bank

Tata to set up WiMAX network in India

Tata,the brand which has captured the faith of millions in India and the name which symbolizes trust has planned to introduce WiMax services in 35 cities by 2010.The reputed US. based Telsima Corporation has been selected to implement wireless broadband network in India.BSNL plans to introduce full fledged WIMax services by 2009 and the Anil Ambani owned RComm will roll out WiMax services later this year in all the major cities.So we can expect heavy competition from all the top players in providing the best services to the end users.Tata Communications has planned to invest $500 million by 2010 for setting up WiMax network in the country to offer high speed wireless Internet.If reliable sources are to be believed the company has already started offering WiMax services in Bangalore and it is expected to launch the same in Calcutta later this year.The pricing details have not yet been disclosed but it is believed that prices would be reasonable and consumer friendly.

The best broadband plan in Airtel

Airtel is one of the leading Internet service providers in India which revolutionized the broadband technology in India. I reside in Chennai and I have been an airtel broadband customer for more than a year and I am really satisfied with their plans and reasonable pricing.Airtel offers has a wide range of tariff plans with high speed internet access.Airtel’s much hyped 8Mbps, the first of its kind in India was launched recently and as of now the service is being restricted to only a few selected cities. Recently Airtel launched 256kbps unlimited download plan @ Rs 750/month. Can you believe this? I don’t think any other service provider can offer the same plan for just Rs 750 per month. This plan has not been publicly advertised.Infact I got to know about this plan through customer care and I was told that this plan was offered only for a limited period. This plan is currently being offered in Chennai and I have no clue about its availability in other cities. So you better call up customer support for details on this plan. Hope this information was useful for all the privileged customers of Airtel.This service really rockz

Advertising Slogans of some of the best banks in the world

Citibank - “The CITI never sleeps”

HSBC Bank-“HSBC.The world’s local bank”

Deutsche Bank-“Deutsche Bank. A passion to perform”

Bank of America-“Think what we can do for you”

Union Bank of Switzerland-“You & Us”

Barclays Bank-“Now there’s a thought”

ABN Amro-“Making more possible”

Lehman Brothers-“Where vision gets built”

JP Morgan Chase-“Chase what matters”

Goldman Sachs-“Our client’s interest always comes first”

Standard Chartered Bank-“Leading the way in Asia, Africa and the middle east”

Morgon Stanley-”World Wise”

ICICI Bank-“Hum Hai Na” (We are there for you)

DTH in India

As of now, the Indian DTH arena is being dominated by two main players, Tatasky and DishTv. Promoted by the Subhash Chandra owned ZEE network, DishTV was the first DTH service in India after the advent of DD Direct+.Tatasky was launched in August 2006 and it is joint venture between the Tata which owns 80% and Star group which owns 20%.Let me compare both the service providers.DishTV offers a bouquet of 180 channels whereas TataSky brings you 132 channels. Both the players provide user interactive features like Movie on demand, gaming, epg, active services etc.DishTv offers DVR type set top box wherein you can record live video and watch it later whereas the Thomson setup box provided by TataSky are DVR ready but this feature has not yet been enabled. When enquired they told me that they will be doing it soon via a software upgrade. Regarding the cost Tatasky has considerably reduced the prices of the set top box (Rs 1.5k-) whereas the set top box provided by DIshTV is priced around 3k.You can check the respective websites for exclusive deals and latest offers. Based on the user reviews in mouthshut from my own personal experience I feel the TataSky service has an edge over DIshTv with its unmatched picture clarity, user friendly features, reasonable pricing and excellent customer service support. If you are looking for the best then TataSky is the right choice.

Amazing things about Amazon.com

This American e-commerce company was incorporated by Jeff Bezos in 1994.Its initial services were restricted to an online bookstore, Cadabra.com but soon afterwards it diversified its products and started selling VHSs, CDs, VCD’s, DVDs, computer software, apparel, electronic items, toys, grocery etc and the list goes on. It started with selling products over the Internet. Being traded as AMZN in NASDAQ; it was one of the hot stocks of dot.com bubble in the late 1990’s.Initially a lot of critics were skeptic about this business model and it took a while for amazon.com to set the cash registers ringing. This company registered its first annual profit only in 2003 and since then there was no looking back. The company continued to make profits and generated revenue of about US$ 15 billion approx in 2007. According to Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney, "Amazon has one of the best fundamental outlooks among all U.S. Internet stocks going into 2008."It is indeed quite blatant that Amazon's stock has climbed 143.9% since the start of last year. The headquarters of this retail giant is located in Seattle, Washington.It has also established its presence in many other countries which include United kingdom, France, Canada, Germany, Austria, China and Japan. Currently Amazon provides global shipping only on selected products. I am sure you must have heard of IMDB, which provides an online database to almost all the movies worldwide. Well, this company was bought by Amazon in 1998.For a list of all its acquisitions you refer to the internet. It would be beneficial to the consumers if this online retail giant can extend its global shipping on many more products. I would also like to see Amazon to start its operation in India soon. Will that happen? Let’s wait and watch

Quite surprising...

According to a recent survey, it was revealed that the employees of the Indian companies are spending an average five hours a week on the web surfing, thereby causing the companies to incur a loss of about Rs 1.6lakh per employee. This survey was carried out in 450 organizations across the 5 major cities-Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai & Hyderabad. Delhi tops the list with employees spending 12.35 hours every week on internet surfing in the workplace.The survey was conducted by Internet security firm Websense & research firm Nielsen Company. For those who are in the dark,Websense us a Nasdaq listed prominent company and Nielsen is a popular survey company in India.It has been found that banking & finance sites are the most accessed, followed by e-mail or chat and news sites. The respondents for this survey included IT managers from many small and large organizations. What a waste?.Dont' you think so. It’s high time the companies do something about this...

PayPerPost

Want to make some quick money?For all those who are in the dark about the existence of PayPerPost(PPP),the concept is quite simple.It is a fantastic opportunity for the bloggers to earn cash by expressing their opinions on various issues. I got to know about this amazing money making scheme through my friends who are already making huge amounts of money. The whole sign up process is very easy and getting the approval is quick and prompt.get paid to blog about the things you love. You can find different topics in the open opportunities page. All you have to do is submit your review on the desired topic of interest and start earning cash. This can also help to enable one’s writing and advertising skills. I would like to thank payperpost profusely for having approved my blog. I am greatly honored to be associated with payperpost. If you are not a payperpost member yet and have been earning less money through your blog it’s time you join this and increment your earnings enormously…..So guys…What are you waiting for?

Is the petrol price hike justified?

The Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas,Murli Deora has informed that petrol prices have been hiked by Rs 2 and diesel prices have been raised by Rs 1 with effect from midnight today. Commenting on the fuel price hike, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said it is a marginal increase. "We need to look at the country's interest. The fiscal system will collapse if not made sensitive to rising international oil prices. India also needs to consider the additional burden on the import front."The hike in petrol prices will help oil marketing companies (OMC’s) cut losses.

Have you ever wondered why fuel costs more in India when compared to countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, Sri Lanka etc? It’s because the Indian govt imposes more than 50% tax on petroleum products. Petrol in India should cost about Rs 25 a liter without the duties levied by the centre and state governments.

The heavy tax has resulted in people suffering because of exorbitant prices, and oil giants are beginning to incur losses as well. The government should take immediate steps to reduce the prevailing high taxes on petroleum products so as to ease the burden of a common man. If the petroleum prices are increased it would further escalate inflation, which is already unbearable for the people.

Hyderabad International Airport to become operational on March 16

The Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamshabad in Hyderabad received its first commercial test flights on February 12, 2008. The commercial operations are slated to start from March 16, 2008, following its formal inauguration by United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Chairperson, Sonia Gandhi on March 14.

The flights, one each of private full-schedule carriers Kingfisher Airlines (A320) and Jet Airways (B747) landed on the runway of the Shamshabad airport, which has the distinction of being South Asia's longest runway (4,260 m).The first commercial airline to take off on the midnight of March 15 is reported to be the German carrier Lufthansa and on March 16, over 22 airlines will be flying to and from the airport, covering over 35 destinations.

The new international airport is about 25-30 km from Hyderabad. It has been built by Hyderabad International Airport (HIAL), a public-private joint venture between GMR Group (63 per cent), Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (11 per cent) and the state government and Airports Authority of India (AAI), which hold 13 per cent each.For further information on this mega venture please visit www.newhyderabadairport.com.

How do banks make money?

Have you ever thought how banks generate revenue? This seems to be a very puzzling question. In simpler terms the banks make use of your money to make more money. The basic functions of a bank are to collect savings of individuals, firms etc and maintaining them safely and issuing loans to the public. When you deposit money in a bank the bank pays you interest for using your money. Let’s say you open a FD in a bank for a term of 5 years and let’s assume the bank pays you 6% interest. If you want to buy something and if you are running short of money you may have to secure a loan from a commercial bank. The interest rate for loans vary accordingly for the purpose they are issued and they are usually higher than the interest rate you get when you make a deposit in the bank. Let’s assume that the bank charges you 10% interest for the loan you have obtained. So a person who deposits money earns 6% interest while a person who borrows money will have to pay 10% interest. The extra 4% explains the earnings of the bank.Banks also charge customers for various facilities they provide such as electronic transaction, cash withdrawal, cash transfer etc.There is something called as fixed rate and floating rate interest that the bank charges while issuing a loan. The floating rate interest implies that the interest rate fluctuates depending upon the various economic factors and government policies. So people should be aware about the floating rate system before obtaining a loan.

Reliance Vs Vendors

The advent of the much awaited Reliance fresh is posing a serious threat to the survival of vegetable vendors.Thousands of people earn their livelihood by selling vegetables.Reliance outlets were vandalised by political activists in Madhya pradesh,Utta pradesh,Delhi,Kerala,West Bengal,Orissa and Jharkhand to protect the interests of the small traders.In August 2007, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati ordered to close 10 new stores keeping view of Law & order situation.Reliance purchases vegetables from farmers at a price higher than the prevailing price in different areas.It didn't matter to the agitators that the farmers and consumers were both beneficiaries of this retail outlet.

Best Internet service providers in India

I personally feel Airtel and Bsnl are the best ISP providers in India. Both provide unmatched service quality with their wide connectivity and best download speeds. Airtel was one of the first ISP's to introduce 256kbps Unlimited package in India after which it gained a lot commercial success, and for quite a while was called the 'Best ISP in India.Airtel is also the first ISP to provide broadband speeds of 8Mbps .The BSNL DataOne Broadband provides unlimited usage hours between 2 a.m and 8 a.m.The customer care in bsnl is not very prompt and is in a deplorable state.It needs a lot of improvement.I don’t know when they will realize the importance of customers. In contrast,Airtel provides excellent customer care support and there are hardly any downtimes. So if you prefer good customer service and support you can go for an Airtel connection without a second thought.

Extraordinary Gifts

Mukesh Ambani(left) gifted his wife Neeta a $60 million(Rs 240 crore) Airbus 319 on her 44th birthday. This corporate jet features a bar, spacious bedroom, showers, an entertainment cabin packed with games, music and movies and a cabin for business with wireless and satellite systems. It also has all the luxuries of a home in it, namely a master bedroom, a master lavatory with a range of showers, galleys and a sky bar in the forward lounge complete with mood lighting.Sharukh khan gifted friend Farah Khan a Merc for Om Shanti Om.The director of Ekalavya,Chopra presented Amitabh a Rolls Royce worth Rs 3.5 crore.Who said that Indian economy is not booming?