Microsoft says Apple apps going free not a big deal

 
This was expected, but it hasn't taken a long time coming. A day after Apple announced that its new operating system , OS X Mavericks, as well as its office suite iWork -and iLife - would be free from now on , rival Microsoft has retorted by saying that the announcement was "not a big deal".

In a post filed on Microsoft's TechNet blog Frank Shaw, Corporate Vice President of Communications at Microsoft, said both Surface tablets had Office for free. "… Making Apple's decision to build the price of their less popular and less powerful iWork into their tablets is not a very big deal."

In a very cynical note, Shaw, who filed the post from Abu Dhabi, where the Nokia World has just concluded, added: "Seems like the RDF (Reality Distortion Field) typically generated by an Apple event has extended beyond Cupertino."

"Apple announced yesterday that they were dropping their fees on their "iWork" suite of apps. Now, since iWork has never gotten much traction, and was already priced like an afterthought, it's hardly that surprising or significant a move. And it doesn't change the fact that it's much harder to get work done on a device that lacks precision input and a desktop for true side-by-side multitasking," he added in a bid to show that the Surface tablets were superior to the iPad as far as productivity is concerned.

The post does not say much on what Redmond thought about the OS going free, but Shaw went on to highlight that the Surface and Surface 2 "are less expensive than the iPad 2 and iPad Air respectively, and yet offer more storage, both onboard and in the cloud". However, the fact is that Microsoft's tablets are far from popular and not even available in countries like India.

Perched in its position of software superiority Microsoft can afford to play hardball. "So, when I see Apple drop the price of their struggling, lightweight productivity apps, I don't see a shot across our bow, I see an attempt to play catch up," added Shaw in his post.
Now, to see if Microsoft can afford to maintain the hardline for long

Nissan recalls over 188,000 SUVs worldwide to fix brakes

Nissan Motor Co is recalling more than 1,88,000 Nissan and Infiniti SUVs worldwide to fix faulty brake control software that could increase the risk of a crash.

The recall covers some Nissan Pathfinders from the 2013 and 2014 model years, as well as the 2013 Infiniti JX35 and its successor model, the 2014 QX60.

Nissan says that during light braking on rough roads, the antilock brake software could cause longer-than-expected stopping distances. The company said no crashes or injuries have been reported.

Nissan will notify owners within 60 days, and dealers will reprogramme the antilock brakes free of charge.

The recall includes nearly 1,52,000 SUVs in the US and roughly 36,000 in China, Canada, Mexico and other countries, the company said.

The Pathfinders were built between April 18, 2012 and September 20 of this year. The JX35s were built from September 15, 2011 to January 16 of this year, while the QX60s were built from January 17 to September 20 of this year.

India rupee up 57 paise to 61.08 dollar in early trade

 
The rupee opened strong and was trading 57 paise up to 61.08 against the dollar in early trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market on Wednesday as the greenback fell against other currencies overseas after the weak US jobs report fuelled hopes the Federal Reserve will keep its stimulus programme in place.

Besides, increased dollar selling by exporters and a higher opening in the domestic equity market also supported the rupee, forex dealers said.

The rupee had lost 13 paise to close at 61.65 against dollar in Tuesday's trade on sustained demand from importers and banks as investors awaited US jobs data.

Meanwhile, the BSE benchmark Sensex was trading over 100 points down in late morning trade on Wednesday.

NSEL scam: NK Proteins MD Nilesh Patel held

Managing Director of NK Proteins Ltd, one of the biggest defaulters of the beleaguered National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL), was on Tuesday arrested in connection with the bourse's Rs 5,600 crore scam, taking the total number of arrests in the case to four.

"NK Proteins' MD Nilesh Patel was on Tuesday arrested in connection with NSEL case," Additional Police Commissioner (EOW) Rajvardhan Sinha said.

NK Proteins was the first company that had borrowed Rs 350 crore from the NSEL, said another police officer adding that "now the company owes the spot exchange about Rs 850 crore to Rs 900 crore that includes the principal amount of Rs 350 crore, interest as well as other payable amount."

"Patel knew that its company would not be in a position to pay back money but still he borrowed Rs 350 crore from the spot exchange, knowing the fact that NSEL cannot lend money.

Hence, Patel, in connivance with the NSEL officials misused the investors' amount," the official added.

The company has also used the amount to expand its edible oil business and also entered into a joint venture with Adani group, the officer alleged, adding "hence the books of accounts of the joint venture have also come under scanner and investigators would surely examine the books."

NK Group and the Adani Group's agro trading arm, Adani Wilmar Ltd, had formed a 50:50 joint venture called AWN Agro Pvt Ltd, which became the largest castor oil exporting entity in India.

The EOW officials earlier arrested three accused in the case. Anjani Sinha, former head of the beleaguered bourse, was held on October 17, Amit Mukherjee, an ex-assistant vice-president of NSEL was nabbed on October 9 and the next day Jay Bahukhundi, another ex-assistant vice-president and in-charge of KYC department, was apprehended.

An FIR was registered in the case on September 30 by the EOW against the directors, including Jignesh Shah and Joseph Massey, promoters and defaulters.

All of them have been charged with cheating, forgery, breach of trust and criminal conspiracy and other offences under the Indian Penal Code. On October 1, CBI too registered a preliminary inquiry into the case.

NSEL has been facing problems in settling Rs 5,600 crore dues of 148 members/brokers, representing 13,000 investor-clients after it suspended trade on July 31 on government's direction.

NSEL defaults for 10th time, pays Rs 30 lakh against Rs 174.72 cr

Crisis-hit bourse National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL) defaulted for the tenth straight time on Tuesday as it could pay only Rs 30 lakh to investors against a scheduled amount of Rs 174.72 crore.

NSEL, which is engulfed in a Rs 5,600-crore payment crisis, had previously defaulted nine times. On its seventh pay-out date, the bourse was unable to make any payment as its accounts were frozen by economic offences wing (EoW) of the Mumbai police.

With Tuesday's pay-out, NSEL settled about Rs 180 crore against Rs 5,600 crore dues to 13,000 investors.

"The total amount being disbursed today in a proportionate manner is Rs 30 lakh," an NSEL spokesperson said.

According NSEL data, MSR Food Processing made a payment of Rs 5 lakh and Metkore Alloys & Industries made payment of Rs 25 lakh to the exchange.

NSEL had availed a bridge loan of Rs 177.23 crore from its promoter Financial Technologies (FTIL) to make payments on priority basis to small investors.

NSEL, promoted by Jignesh Shah-led FTIL, is facing the problem of settling Rs 5,600 crore dues to 148 members after it suspended trade on July 31 on the government direction.

The bourse plans to settle the entire dues in 30 weeks time, by paying Rs 174.72 crore for first twenty weeks followed by Rs 86.02 crore in next ten weeks.

OVL pulls out of Brazilian oilfield auction

 
ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp , pulled out of an auction of $184 billion oilfield in Brazil after it could not stitch an alliance to bid for the giant project.

OVL was among the 11 companies shortlisted to bid for Brazil's Libra pre-salt block, one of the world's largest offshore oil discoveries.

It however did not make a bid at the auction on Monday as it could not form a consortium with any of the other shortlisted companies, sources privy to the development said.

The auction attracted just one bid from a consortium led by Anglo-Dutch oil major Shell, France's Total and China PetroChina and its sister company Cnooc. Brazilian state-run energy company Petrobras is also part of the consortia which got the giant field at auction start price or the minimum price.

The offshore area holds between 8 billion and 12 billion barrels of recoverable oil, according to Brazil's oil regulator and Dallas-based oil certification company Degolyer & MacNaughton (D&G).

If the estimates hold up Libra, which requires an estimated $184 billion investment, has enough oil to meet China's entire oil consumption need for three years.

Production is forecast to exceed 1 million barrels a day when fully ramped up.

Sources said OVL could not have gone alone due to the huge investment required to develop the field.

Unable to find suitable consortium partners, it decided not to bid, they said.

Shell, based in The Hague, and France's Total each have 20 per cent stakes in the winning consortium, while Cnooc and CNPC have 10 per cent apiece. The remaining 60 per cent will be with Petrobras. The consortia won the 35-year concession for the Libra prospect by promising the government a minimum 41.65 per cent of profit oil, or the barrels remaining after costs.

The winning consortium will also have to pay a signing fee of 15 billion reais (USD 6.9 billion).

Located more than 50 kilometers from Brazil's southeastern coast and discovered in 2007, the pre-salt gets its name from the layer of Cretaceous-era salt formed at a time when dinosaurs still lived and which traps the crude under the Atlantic seabed.

Other firms who were shortlisted but did not bid in the auction included Repsol-Sinopec, the joint venture between the Spanish and Chinese players, Ecopetrol of Colombia, Mitsui of Japan, Galp of Portugal and Malaysia's Petronas.

Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Jio gets unified licence for 4G services

 
Reliance Industries' telecom arm Reliance Jio Infocomm has won a unified telecom licence that will enable it to offer voice telephony and high speed data services across the country.

The Department of Telecommunications on Monday approved grant of unified license to Reliance Jio, the only telecom operator to own fourth generation spectrum or radio waves, sources said.

The unified licence will enable the firm to offer both voice and high-speed data services to subscribers across all the 22 telecom circles in the country.

Reliance Jio has submitted a one-time entry fee of about Rs 1,673 crore for the licence.

MTS India, the mobile telecom service brand of Sistema Shyam TeleServices Ltd (SSTL), and Idea had previously got unified telecom licence.

Leading operators Airtel and Vodafone have however not applied.

Sources said Reliance Jio applied for Unified Licences on August 21 and stated its net worth at Rs 5,033.32 crore.

Under the unified license, the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio will be allowed to provide services as full fledged mobile operator.

RIL had last week stated that Reliance Jio, which is the only private player with Broadband Wireless Access spectrum in all the 22 telecom circles of India, plans to provide reliable fast internet connectivity and rich digital services.

The new telecom licence will pave way for Mukesh Ambani's second innings in the mobile telephony space after his first stint at Reliance Infocomm which is now known as Reliance Communications.

It was given away to his younger brother Anil Ambani led company after the two split a few years ago.

In 2003, Reliance Infocomm had flooded market with a low cost CDMA handsets bundled with a scheme that allowed consumers to make mobile phone calls at low rate of 10 paise for 15 seconds and STD calls for 40 paise a minute. The prevailing rate of STD calls at that time had ranged between Rs 2.40 to Rs 5.40 a minute.

RJIL is the only company that holds pan-India spectrum for 4G services. The company earlier held Internet Service Provider Licence which will be annulled once it is issued UL.

The company has shown intention to provide phone call service using airwaves it has and is testing the technology for the same.