UK daily headline on PM dithers between 'poodle', 'puppet' and 'under-achiever'

A UK daily has been dithering online with its headline on the Indian Prime Minister. The Independent's story on Dr Manmohan Singh fluctuated this morning between asking if he is Sonia Gandhi's "poodle" or her "puppet." It's now settled on  asking if the PM is, as Time magazine suggested last week, 'the underachiever'.

This morning, The Independent's website carried this headline - "Manmohan Singh: Saviour or Sonia's Poodle?" A few hours later, the headline had been amended to "Manmohan Singh: Saviour or Sonia's Puppet?" A few minutes late, it was back to "Poodle." (Read the article) And then, by 12.10 pm, it had taken refuge in Time magazine's headline last week to settle on "Mamnohan Singh: Saviour or the 'Under-Achiever'?"

The article offers few observations that go beyond what Time magazine made last week.


The Independent says "Observers say one of Mr Singh's problems is that he has no genuine political power. Rather, he owes his position to Sonia Gandhi... this has meant he has sometimes been unable to even control his Cabinet" and "From within his ruling Congress Party there are repeated, if oblique, demands for him to step aside ahead in favour of his presumed successor, Rahul Gandhi."

The Independent says that as far as India's liberalization goes, "In something of an air-brushing of history, Mr Singh received the lion's share of the credit, while the role of the prime minister of the day, PV Narasimha Rao, was omitted." The reporter, Andrew Buncombe, goes on to say that the PM is a "man whose reputation is at risk of being permanently damaged." 

The piece acknowledges that "While he may unfairly have become the target for criticism of an entire administration, it is he who needs to do something if he wants to secure a favourable place in history."

The Prime Minister's Congress party has begun its week defending the PM against President Obama's criticism that the investment climate in India is deteriorating. Corporate Affairs Minister Veerappa Moily said that the US leader appears to be misinformed. "Certain international lobbies like Vodafone are spreading this kind of a story and Obama was not properly informed about the things that are happening, particularly when India's economic fundamentals are strong," he said.

In April, ratings agency Standard and Poor's also said that the PM appeared to have little hold over his Cabinet.

For the Congress, facing general elections in two years at the very outside, the growing wave of PM-bashing in the international media is a PR nightmare. Last week, Law Minister Salman Khurshid ran into trouble when he said that the party is waiting for Rahul Gandhi to accept more responsibility. "Until now, we have only seen cameos of his thoughts and ideas...but he has not weaved all of this into a grand announcement. This is a period of waiting," he said in a newspaper interview. But a day later, he said his remarks had been taken out of context and that from now on, he would ensure that discussions about the Congress' leadership would be confined to the party.

Infosys Q1 results, FY guidance disappoints

Shares of India's second largest software services providerInfosys  tumbled 10% on Thursday morning after the company disappointed the street with lower-than-expected first quarter net profit and a significant cut in US dollar revenue guidance.

Its consolidated net profit for the first quarter rose 33% year-on-year (down 1% sequentially) to Rs 2,289 crore, while revenue was barely in-line at Rs 9,616 crore, up 29% (up 9% quarter-on-quarter).

Analysts on average were expecting Infosys to report a net profit of Rs 2,448 crore on revenue of Rs 9,665 crore.

Tech companies have been hit hard as clients delay decision making and cut budget spends amid the global economic uncertainties led by the Eurozone debt crisis. The volatile currency movements have also hurt IT firms. On top of that Infosys has also been bogged down by internal restructuring issues over the last few quarters.

Infosys once trendsetter has fallen behind rival Tata Consultancy Services , missing already conservative guidance for several quarters and that trend has continued in April-June.

The company was expected to cut its US dollar revenue guidance following the sharp depreciation in rupee to the dollar. But it shocked the street with a forecast of just 5% growth in USD revenue growth for the full year, sharply lower than its earlier guidance of 8-10% growth.  It now expects its USD revenue will be at least USD 7.34 billion this year.

Its USD earnings per share is expected to be at least USD 3.03, up 1% YoY.

In the first quarter, its USD revenue rose 5% to USD 1.75 billion, which was also lower than its own and street forecast of USD 1.77 billion.

"Global currency volatility continues to a big challenge for the industry," said V Balakrishnan, CFO.

SD Shibulal, Infosys CEO and MD also said there were challenges in the global economic situation resulting in slower IT spends by large corporations.

While Moshe Katri, MD of Cowen & CO, agrees the environment has deteriorated considerably, he told CNBC-Tv18 that Infosys is going through transformational and structural issues; the biggest disappointment was the guidance.

India's largest software services provider TCS will also report its first quarter earnings post market hours. Analysts on average expect the profit after tax to grow 11% quarter-on-quarter to Rs 3,250 crore while revenue is seen up by 12% to Rs 14,806 crore. 

At 9:30 hrs, Infosys shares were down 9.4% at Rs 2,239.80 on NSE. TCS was down 1.1% at Rs 1,244.50.

Wrestler-actor Dara Singh dies at 83

The he-man of the 60's, wrestler and veteran actor Dara Singh, 83, died today in Mumbai. He was admitted to Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital last Saturday and was undergoing dialysis.

Read: Dara Singh still 'very critical' 

The actor was shifted back home on Wednesday evening after doctors said he had "less chance of recovery" due to serious damage to his brain.

"As Dara Singh's condition was deteriorating fast, respecting wishes of his family, he has been shifted home with ventilator and medicines. A nurse and a doctor are at his home. There are no medicines that will reverse the brain damage... only if a miracle happens. He might even slip into coma," Dr Ram Narain, COO, Kokilaben hospital had said.

"He is already home. Please don't follow us. When he breathes his last, I'll let you know. There is no hope," his son Vindu Dara Singh told reporters.

Decorated with titles such as Rustum-e-Punjab and Rustum-e-Hind for his wrestling poweress, Dara Singh Randhava was born in Amritsar in 1928. He studied pehelwani as a child. A wrestling champ, he made his way from local tournaments to the international arena competing with some of the biggest names like Oriental Champion King Kong, George Gordienko. The wrestler who had over 500 fights to his credit was the Commonwealth champion in 1959 and Champion of the World in 1968. He retired from wrestling in 1983.

He made his entry into films in early 1960s and was cast opposite actress Mumtaz in several movies. Often regarded as the Action King of Bollywood in the Hollywood inspired Hindi films such as Tarzan and King Kong amongst many others.

But his most memorable performance remains as Hanuman on the popular 1980's television seriesRamayan.

The actor who also directed several punjabi films continued to act in films and was last seen in the hit movie, Jab We Met in 2007.

Globus Spirits may slip to Rs 110

Globus Spirits may slip to Rs 110, says SP Tulsian, sptulsian.com.

Tulsian told CNBC-TV18, “Globus Spirits, especially if you see the denial having issued by the management we have seen a steep correction. Generally, it is very risky to dabble into these kinds of stocks on some kind of news flow and we see small investors getting trapped because they are not looking to the fundamentals they just ride the momentum. So it’s very risky and I won’t be surprise to see stock again correcting back to about Rs 110 or so in the next one week or so.”

He further added, “The preference be for theReliance Communication , but the second stock for which I will definitely be taking a call could be Reliance Infra because the kind of positive bias, which we have been seeing building up for the infra stocks Reliance Infra looks to be the better stock in that space of ADAG camp.”

“All these packaging film results have not been very good because the only trigger in Uflex has been the stake sell by the promoters, which is not been happening, probably after we see the Samajwadi Party coming back into the power lot of hopes got built up that they may go ahead and sell their promoter’s stake because Ashok Chaturvedi who has been- there was a talk for the last 6 months. So I don’t think that results will really be the trigger considering the results having posted by the other packaging film makers for the recent past.”

Syndicate Bank quoting ex-dividend

Syndicate Bank in its meeting held on May 05, 2012 has recommended a dividend of Rs 3.80 per share (38%) for the year 2011-2012, subject to approval of shareholders at the Annual General Meeting.

It touched an intraday high of Rs 107.60 and an intraday low of Rs 105.20. At 09:39 hrs the share was quoting at Rs 107.25, down Rs 3.20, or 2.90%. 
 
It was trading with volumes of 16,036 shares. In the previous trading session, the share closed up 2.17% or Rs 2.35 at Rs 110.45.