Wednesday, 9 January 2013

Knowledge Searchers Group A2 - Source- Financial Express


Mahindra plans to launch 'Mojo' next fiscal

MUMBAI, JAN 06 2013


Domestic auto maker Mahindra & Mahindra plans to launch its 300 cc bike 'Mojo' next fiscal and said it will also roll out variants of its scooter series.
"We are going through testing protocols right now for the engine. We are hopeful of its launch in the next fiscal," president of two-wheeler sector and member of the group executive board, Mahindra & Mahindra, Anoop Mathur, said here after the preview of 110CC bikes.
The company is taking all possible steps to make sure that the engine, vehicle and composite are duly tested and validated before it hits the road, he said.
Mahindra 2 Wheelers also plans to roll out a new model of its scooters portfolio by third quarter of next fiscal, Mathur said adding within the next fortnight, a variant of 'Rodeo' scooter is set to be launched.
"We want our presence across segments and ranges. Our plan is to come out with new models of scooters and motor cycle at frequent intervals over the next three to five years," Mathur said.
The company, which has forayed into 110 cc motorcycle segment with the unveiling of two models, 'Pantero' and 'Centuro' last Friday, is working on the bikes exports, which could commence before March, 2013.
"It is our strategic plan to have a significant presence in the motor cycle exports market. We hope to start shipping out our bikes within this fiscal," Mathur said.
Pune and powered by the Mci-5 engine manufactured at the company's Pithampur facility in Madhya Pradesh.
The company has invested Rs 100 crore in the research and development of the products.

Yahoo Mail rebooted

JAN 07 2013

The redesigned Yahoo Mail gives users faster and smoother email services on PC and mobile devices. Can the internet company claw back the market share it is losing out to Google?
Five months after Marissa Mayer became the CEO of Yahoo, the internet company has gone for a product makeover of its webmail, the first big move under the new regime. While this revamp has made the mail faster and intuitive, the key challenge is to claw back the market share it is losing out to internet giant Google’s Gmail.
The situation has been accentuated as mails have become more on the go after the smartphone revolution. Google’s operating software, Android is the most popular OS with 75% of the current smartphones sold using it. Google products like Gmail and the integrated Gtalk have an inherent advantage as they come pre-installed in these devices.
According to internet ranking company comScore, Yahoo is the leading email in the US and third worldwide, behind Google’s Gmail and Microsoft Hotmail.
The look and feel of Yahoo Mail has improved and in many ways better than other webmails, including Gmail. Earlier “What’s New” used to welcome the user to the mail inbox and also lot of advertisements positioned all over. Now display advertisements will appear on the right side of the inbox. The advertisement will retreat with a single click.
“You’ve told us loud and clear that you want fewer distractions when it comes to email. You want to quickly login, communicate, and get on with your day,”
Mayer said in a post on Yahoo’s official blog. “We’ve redesigned the new version of Yahoo! Mail with speed in mind—getting through your emails is faster than ever before.”
According to Vivek Sharma, general manager of Yahoo Mail and Messenger, the new mail offers 40% faster access from the logon screen to inbox, while composing messages is 10-15% faster. “This will increase the productivity of millions of Yahoo Mail users,” he says.
According to Sharma, the new mail was developed in two months keeping in mind three principles of fast, easy and anywhere. “The company found that users were not using many of the features and tried keeping it simple,” he adds.
The new interface provides users with more compose and read space. In mobile, the interface and usage is still better with an infinite scroll. The user interface across all the platforms is consistent, be it PC, mobile or tablet. This ensures that users will have the same experience regardless of the device they access Yahoo Mail from.
A simple swipe allows users to do all the major actions like starring important mails, moving to folders, delete and mark as spam from the inbox. With a single click, “the left map” with all the left side icons like folders, inbox, sent—like in a computer interface—will be shown. All the attachments will come on top and the photos will open in a horizontal slideshow. While the storage on popular Gmail is 10 GB, Yahoo has retained the offering unlimited storage as was the case
The only product Yahoo seems to have cross sold is the Yahoo Search in the same mail search box on top. And when you Web search from inside the mail, it opens in a new tab. Sharma says that while this measure will reduce some revenue for the company, more time by visitors and more login will make up for that loss.
The company has simultaneously launched apps for Android and Apple phones, while the BlackBerry and Windows phone apps were missing. Windows app is available for PCs and tablets. Sharma says that the company will launch the Windows mobile app if the user base gets bigger enough to warrant an app. The mail is available in eight Indian languages, while the Android app also supports 19 languages. While the iOS and Windows currently support only English.

5-member body set up to suggest steps for Air India turnaround

JAN 03 2013

A committee was set up today to suggest measures to lower the high costs of Air India's operations and improve utilisation of resources in line with best global practices to help the state-run carrier achieve the goals of its turnaround and financial restructuring plans.
A five-member committee, headed by IIM-Ahmedabad's Prof Ravindra H Dholakia, was set up by Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh after a review meeting of the ailing national carrier's functioning.
Though the panel has been given two months to submit its report, it has been asked to give interim recommendations without waiting for its final report so that these could be implemented by Air India immediately, an official spokesperson said.
With improvements in Air India's performance in recent months, the airline is likely to end this financial year with a positive cash flow or EBITDA positive.
EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is an approximate measure of a company's operating cash flow.
Expressing concern over the projected net shortfall of Rs 404 crore a month, the Minister had recently asked Air India to cut redundant costs and optimally utilise its resources to meet the annual financial projections envisaged in the Financial Restructuring Plan (FRP).
Other members of the committee are Prabhat Kumar, Joint Secretary in Ministry, Rajesh Agrawal, Director Finance of ICRISAT, S Mukherjee, former Director Commercial and Inflight Services of Air India and Nasir Ali, Joint MD of the airline.

Now, gold-plated MacBook Pros with diamond Apple logos for $30K!

JAN 05 2013

Now you could be a proud owner 24-carat gold covered MacBook Pro with an Apple logo that features multi-color diamonds by spending 30,000 dollars.
Computer Choppers, the firm that has launched the new of MacBook, also offers the chance to cover your favorite Apple product in white, rose and yellow gold, as well as copper, black and silver chrome.
The company''s founder, Alex Wiley, explained to CNNMoney that they ‘take an iMac, an iPad, a tablet of some sort and strip it down to bare metal’
Then they engrave or personalize it for a customer and then go ahead and plate that with 24-karat gold.
According to the Daily Mail, Computer Choppers provides custom engravings, custom logos and ''diamond accents on the unibody chassis,'' they it reassembles the product and sends it off to the customer.
And if price is right, the company will coat just about anything, from Nintendo game controllers to iPhones and Blackberries, the report said.
Although Computer Choppers is based in the U.S., Wiley said that 90 percent cent of the company''s orders are shipped internationally

Yamaha Motor unveils women's training program

JAN 05 2013

Yamaha Motor has launched India’s first Yamaha Female Riding Training Program (YFRT) in Chennai.
The company had entered the scooter segment in India in September 2012 with Ray, which targets a niche customer base of young, urban women,
It has been designed and engineered to answer the needs of this growing class of young female customers who want a scooter that is stylishly designed, compact, easy to use and have a fresh new appeal.
Speaking on the occasion, Masaki Asano, Deputy MD, India Yamaha Motor Pvt Ltd said, “The year 2012 has been an exceptional year for us as we were able to launch our first scooter ‘Ray’. Our core target audience for Ray, the young urban Indian women, have responded to the Ray positively.”
The company has developed and launched the Yamaha Female Riding Training Program for women customers who have a concern to ride a scooter or want to obtain a riding license. The company plans to conduct the YFRT programme in various cities across India.

Maruti shares soar as CLSA upgrades to 'buy'

JAN 07 2013
Mumbai: Shares in India's Maruti Suzuki gained 2.8 per cent after earlier touching its highest level since Jan 4, 2011, after CLSA upgraded the stock to 'buy' from 'sell' with a targetprice of 1,915 rupees.
CLSA says Maruti's earnings is improving, with passenger vehicle demand seen gradually recovering over fiscal 2014-15 on the back of improving economic growth and falling interest rates, according to a note dated on Saturday.
The brokerage also says Maruti's renewed focus on exports and the launch of a new compact sports utility vehicle will add to volumes.
Earnings sensitivity to the Japanese yen will also wane as the company builds more cars in India and boosts exports, CLSA says.
CLSA's upgrade comes as the majority of analysts already have 'buy' or equivalent ratings, with 14 'buy' and 19 'outperform' ratings, as per I/B/E/S estimates.


Pia Singh sells DLF shares worth Rs 100 cr to other promoters
JAN 09 2013
Pia Singh, daughter of DLF Chairman K P Singh, today sold 42.5 lakh shares of the realty major worth nearly Rs 100 crore to six other promoter entities.
As per bulk data available with the stock exchanges, Singh, one of the promoters of DLF, offloaded 42,49,600 shares of the realty major.
These shares were sold on an average price of Rs 235 aggregating the deal size to Rs 99.86 crore, the data showed.
In an inter-promoter transfer, shares were acquired by Kavita Singh, wife of Pia's brother, and five other promoter entities --DLF Investments, Kohinoor Real Estates Company, Madhur Housing & Development Company, Sidhant Housing & Development Company and Vishal Foods & Investments.
Last month, DLF had informed the stock exchanges that Pia Singh would sell up to 50 lakh shares or amounting to 0.29 per cent stake in the company, at Rs 217.17 per share by January 31, 2012.
Shares of DLF today grew by 0.74 per cent to settle at Rs 236.65 apiece on the BSE.

GM recalls more than 69,000 vehicles that could roll away

JAN 04 2013

General Motors Co is recalling more than 69,000 full-size trucks and vans globally that could roll away after being parked due to a potential steering column defect, the automaker said on Friday.
The vehicles may have been built with a fractured park lock cable or a malformed steering column lock actuator gear, and could roll away after the driver has exited the vehicle, according to documents filed with the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
GM said most of the affected vehicles are believed to be still on dealer lots or in transit to dealers. It said it was not aware of any crashes or injuries related to the defect.
Only about one in 1,000 of the recalled vehicles are expected to have the defect, it said.
About 55,000 of the vehicles in the recall are in the United States, 6,310 are in Canada and 7,084 are exports, GM said.
Another 670 are in Mexico.
Affected vehicles include certain 2013-model Cadillac Escalade, Escalade EXT and Escalade ESV SUVs; Chevrolet Express vans, Silverado and Avalanche pickup trucks, and Tahoe and Suburban SUVs; and GMC Savanna vans, Sierra pickup trucks, and Yukon and Yukon XL SUVs, GM said.
If the steering column defect is present, a driver could shift from "park" while the key is removed from the ignition or the key is in the "off" position, GM said. The transmission also could be shifted out of "park" with application of the brake pedal while the key is in the "off" position, or the key may be rotated to the "off" position and removed while the shifter is not in "park."
GM said the steering column will be replaced if necessary at no cost to the vehicle owner. Letters are expected to be mailed to vehicle owners alerting them to the recall beginning Jan. 22.

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