Piramal Healthcare to acquire 5.5% stake in Vodafone Essar

Piramal Healthcarehas entered into an agreement with Vodafone Group to pick up a 5.5% stake in Vodafone-Essar. It will buy this stake from Essar Group company ETHL Communications Holdings, for around Rs 2,856 crore.

The transaction follows the settlement between Vodafone and Essar over the sale of Essar's approximately 33% stake in Vodafone-Essar, which was announced on July 1, 2011.

Markets - sensex to go north of 22000

A leading research house has recently stated that India is the place to be for long term investors. It has even given huge forecasts for the sensex to go north of 22000 levels by the end of the current year. It has based these assumptions on the fact that India has now identified its core problems and is publicly discussing the same. The core problem here refers to the infrastructure bottlenecks in the country. The research house opines that the first step to solving a problem is identifying and discussing the same. As Indian leaders have taken this first step, the problems will therefore be resolved and this makes India the ideal investment destination for long term investors. 

Another school of thought begs to differ from this view. They feel that the problems in India go further than the infrastructure bottlenecks. The recent spate of scandals and scams has put a serious question mark on the governance in the country. Add to these ambiguous tax laws, rigid rules and regulations, policies that change overnight to suit populist view and the business environment becomes almost hostile. The recent cases of the Cairn-Vedanta deal as well as the POSCO deal go on to highlight these problems. 

True that India has several problems. Some of these can be quantified as short term problems. But unfortunately they have been around for a very long time. At times like these, Indian politicians need to stop bickering among themselves. They need to wake up and take a solid stance on policy reforms that reinforces the belief and confidence in the business community. Once this happens, India would definitely yield the superlative returns that long-term investor seek. 

Investing in Indian Stock Markets - Is India headed into a recession? - The 5 Minute Wrapup - Equitymaster.com

Investing in Indian Stock Markets - Is India headed into a recession? - The 5 Minute Wrapup - Equitymaster.com

Markets

A bull market in equities has never been smooth. It is always marked by many corrections, all of which provide investors opportunities to buy into stocks. Especially those that they missed out on the previous rally. And this same logic applies to gold as well. The status of the US dollar and the paper currencies in general has increasingly been questioned in the wake of dubious monetary policies by governments of the developed world. Against this backdrop, gold will continue to evince considerable interest. Hence, the fundamentals supporting the rally in gold look strong. And a correction in this yellow metal should be looked upon by investors as an opportunity to lap up more of this precious metal. Do you think that the gold rally is showing signs of slowing down?

"A business or stock is not an intelligent purchase simply because it is unpopular; a contrarian approach is just as foolish as a follow-the-crowd strategy. What's required is thinking rather than polling. Unfortunately, Bertrand Russell's observation about life in general applies with unusual force in the financial world: 'Most men would rather die than think. Many do." - Warren Buffett.
Sent on my BlackBerry® from Vodafone

Value Investing

India, China both boast of huge populations, running into billions. Despite the favorable demographics, the question is whether the working population is actually talented? Well, as today's chart of the day shows, the BRIC nations feature very dismally in the Economist Intelligence Unit's Global Talent Index. China and India are ranked no. 33 and no. 35 respectively. No other nation in the world is growing as quickly as these two countries. Multinational companies looking to set up shop are frantically looking for talent. But, an adequate pipeline of employees equipped to step into the breach is just not available. The US on the other hand takes the no. 1 spot on account of its top universities. One in three colleges, in the US is ranked in the top 500 globally. These colleges churn out graduates who are well prepared to take on the world.
Sent on my BlackBerry® from Vodafone

Compensation Concept

CONCEPT OF FAIR WAGES:

Fair wages is the wage which is above the minimum wage but below the living wage. Obviously the lower limit of the fair wage is the minimum wage and the upper limit is set by the ability of the industry to pay. Between these two limits, fair wages should depend on the factors like –

1.    Prevailing rates of wages in the same occupation

2.    Prevailing rates of wages in the same region or neighbouring areas

3.    Employers ability to pay

4.    Level of national income and its distribution

5.    Productivity of labour

6.    Status enjoyed by the industry in the economy

               Hence it can be said that fair wages are determined on industry cum region basis.  When fair wages are paid employees enjoy higher standard of living. It is accepted fact that wages must be fair and reasonable. Wages is fair when the employee is able to meet its essential needs and enjoy reasonable standard of living.  ”Equal pay for equal work” serves as base of fair wage.

                According to Encyclopaedia of social science,”Fair wages are equal to those received by the workers performing work of equal skill, difficulty or unpleasantness.”

How to manage Risk

While one cannot completely avoid market risks, one can take a number of steps to manage and minimize them.

• Diversify:

As in the case of business risks, market risks can be mitigated to a certain extent by diversification - not just at the product or sector level, but also in terms of region (domestic and foreign) and length of holdings (short- and long-term). One can spread his international risk by diversifying his investment over several different countries or regions.

• Research:

Learn about the forces that can impact your investment. Stay abreast of global economic trends and developments. If you are considering investing in a particular sector, for example, aerospace, read about the future of the aerospace industry. If you are thinking about investing in foreign securities, learn as much as you can about the market history and volatility, socio-political stability, trading practices, market and regulatory structure, arbitration and mediation forums, restrictions on international investing and repatriation of investment.

Learn more about the various types of investments options available to you and their risk levels. Inflation risk can be managed by holding products that provide purchasing power protection, such as inflation-linked bonds.