Remember the ‘Is it love? No it’s Dove’ ads? In the 1990s, when everything had to be low priced, consumer goods major Hindustan Unilever launched a brand of soap that was considered expensive, frightfully expensive , for the times we lived in. For about Rs 30 for a bar, it was nearly twice as expensive as any toilet soap brand that was then sold in ...Read More

Net direct tax collections during the first half this fiscal grew 3.69 per cent from the corresponding period last year, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said Tuesday. In a statement, CBDT said tax collection from April to September was at Rs.152,625 crore, up from Rs 147,197 crore in the like period last fiscal, registering a growth of 3.69 per cent. Corporate tax receipts were up ...Read More

As the hearing scheduled in the Supreme Court over the feud between Ambani brothers over supply and pricing of natural gas from KG basin approaches, the two sides are ramping up their fortifications. On Tuesday, Anil Ambani's RNRL filed an affidavit accusing RIL of dishing out undue favours to Director General of Hydrocarbons, who is responsible for enforcing the ...Read More

The proposed 12 million-tonne-per-annum (MTPA) greenfield steel plant of ArcelorMittal in the state has made little headway even as the Orissa government today denied receiving any communication from the world’s largest steel maker about its reported pullout plan. According to sources in the state industry department, the UK-based company has so far invested a meagre Rs 25 crore for land acquisition-related activities against the total project ...Read More

Economic recovery and job creation in India are more important than trying to tame inflation, as prices should ease because a drought is not as severe as first thought, a top policy adviser said on Monday. Annual June-September monsoon rains were 23 percent below average, the weakest since 1972, data showed last week, and the expected negative impact on crops helped push food prices up an ...Read More

India’s rupee will strengthen 11 percent to 43 per dollar by mid-2010 as accelerating inflation prompts the central bank to raise interest rates, according to Calyon, the investment banking unit of Credit Agricole SA. “Higher interest rates is one of the main reasons why we are more bullish than the consensus on the rupee,” Sebastien Barbe, a Hong Kong-based strategist at Calyon, wrote in a research ...Read More

In a year when large outsourcing customers such as British Telecom (BT) and British Petroleum (BP) sought to bring down their IT costs by giving more work to fewer vendors at lower rates, experts forecast narrowing of valuation gap between Infosys and TCS, Wipro, and also raise concerns about whether India’s most profitable software company can sustain its high operating margins....Read More

Is there more to Grasim's move to spin-off its cement business and merge it with its 51% subsidiary UltraTech Cement? While the mainstream analysis is focussed on the contours of the deal, we at ET Intelligence Group think that the deal's relevance goes much beyond and could open up lot of profitable opportunities for the patient investors. Readers should recall ...Read More

Cotton exports may rebound to 14 lakh tonnes in the 2009-10 season as a recovery in the global market is expected to boost demand for the fibre, the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) has said. "Exports from India could rebound to 14 lakh tonnes (LT)," ICAC said in a statement issued on October 1. India's cotton season runs from October to September. The current signs of recovery in ...Read More

NEW DELHI: Air India is lucky that none of its pilots flew away during the recent five-day standoff between the management and senior pilots. As it turns out, some private airlines had approached the nearly 200 agitating executive pilots of the national carrier with job offers. “Private carriers tried to lure as ...Read More