| Sheela Bhatt in Beijing October 24, 2008 22:19 IST Last Updated: October 24, 2008 22:59 IST Cometh the hour, cometh the man. It was the word-class economist Manmohan Singh who hogged the limelight at the Asia-Europe Summit in Beijing on Friday. Such was the effect of the speech -- the prime minister spoke last at the 45-country session-- that a normally reticent Chinese premier Wen Jiabao complimented Dr Singh in his concluding remarks. The prime minister essentially listed out three failures behind the economic turbulence: 1. Regulatory and supervisory failure in developed countries Dr Singh then went on to say, 'These are not my views, but those of the distinguished managing director of IMF (Dominique Strauss-Kahn) with which I agree. We must analyse objectively how and why these failures have occurred with such ferocity." He said, "The sad truth is that in this age of globalisation we have a global economy of sorts, but it is not supported by a global polity to provide effective governance." The prime minister then elaborated that the global financial structure needs a supervisor and regulator. While top leaders listened, he said, "The resulting crisis of liquidity, accumulation of bad assets, shortage of capital and collapse of confidence threaten to spill over into the real economy by way of reduced demand for exports, reduced access to trade and suppliers' credits superimposed on other crises. "The crisis of food shortages and fuel price hike have strained budgets and balance of payment leading to rising inflation and living costs in many developing countries." In his speech, he said, 'The President of the World Bank has identified at least 30 countries whose balance of payments will experience a severe deterioration in the wake of financial crisis." While speaking on a solution to the crisis, he said, "The immediate task is to de-clog the credit markets the world over. Coordinated global action is essential to restore a measure of confidence in the credit market." He added, "From the stand point of developing countries, international financial institutions, particularly the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development need to put in place exogenous facilities to provide additional assistance more quickly and in large amounts, with less service conditionality and greater flexibility." Dr Singh must have struck a chord with many Asian leaders when he said that globalisation without global financial governance structure can lead to severe problems as has been seen in the recent turmoil. While advising solid steps for stability of the global economy, the prime minister told the august gathering that as a counter cyclical device, increased infrastructure investments in developing countries, if backed by increased resource flows from multinational financial institutions such as the IBRD and the Regional Development Banks, can act as a powerful stabilizer. The IMF should revisit the potentially powerful instrument of creating liquidity through fresh allocation of Special Drawing Rights in favour of multilateral development financial institutions. While giving a clear direction for the action, Singh said the reform of reconstruction of financial system has to be a collective international effort since borders no longer confine financial institutions or can keep out financial turmoil. Given the growth in cross-border investment, trade and banking in the last three decades, the world must ponder over the need for a global monitoring authority to promote global supervision and cooperation in the increasingly integrated world we live in. While putting his fingers on the problem that created this economic mess, he said, "Massive failure of regulatory and supervisory mechanism has really been the reason for the present turmoil and if there had been a good regulatory mechanism, this would not have happened." Dr Singh said the IMF should revisit the potentially powerful instrument of creating liquidity through fresh allocation of Special Drawing Rights in favour of multilateral development finance institutions. Read the rest here on Rediff News. |
This is the time to pep yourself up and find out what is in store for private equity in the coming months. Down... The stock markets are at a two-year low. The US and European markets have been in a turmoil, and the global economy is feared to moving into a recession. There is a liquidity crunch so much so that even banks are borrowing at exorbitant rates. Companies are looking at cutting costs. Some have begun downsizing. The policymakers world over are on an action drive. There is a concerted move from central banks of all major countries to cut interest rates. The governments have come up with bailouts of billions of dollars to save their financial institutions. The markets are in a flux. In short, the economy has got everyone down in the dumps. ...But Not Out Is it the time to withdraw into the cocoon of despair and do nothing about it? It's not. It's just that you need to respond to the changing market realities appropriately. Fund raising in the current environment has gotten only tough, but not impossible. The deals may have come down, but they are indeed happening. There are funds still sitting with cash and looking for deals in this downmarket. So it's not the time for inaction, but action. It's not the end of the road, but just a sharp turn which you need to navigate carefully. VCCircle is organising its first conference in Date: Read the rest on VC Circle |
My first news story on VC Circle with my name as author.
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PE Firm Och-Ziff Invests Rs 270 Crore In Marvel Realtors
Rs.150 Crore in Marvel Edge-projects of Pune-based Marvel Realtors.
Yet another real estate investment in Pune. Och-Ziff has invested Rs.120 Crore in Marvel Zephyr and Rs.150 Crore in Marvel Edge- residential and commercial projects of Pune-based Marvel Realtors.
Marvel Zephyr, a Rs 600 crore super-luxury…
| He has just said that he would like to buy London's Gatwick Airport when it comes on the market next year, and by the end of October he aims to break the transatlantic monohull sailing record. There is no escaping Sir Richard Branson, the chairman of Virgin Group, who goes to extraordinary lengths to put himself on the front pages. Not even a near-disastrous abseil down a building in Las Vegas last year could deter him. His brand is not just Virgin—it is also Branson. His ambition is boundless: lately he has been holding meetings on his private Caribbean island with a group of experts, to work out how to save the world from global warming and its people from disease. The name Branson means two things to British people. To most he is the country's best-known businessman, hoist to stardom by his derring-do ballooning stunts and photo-ops with busty blondes, an anti-establishment "cheeky chappy" whose plucky airline has battled the mighty "monopoly" of British Airways (BA) and whose Virgin brand has spawned a business empire. The other, lesser-known Branson is a ruthless, wily entrepreneur who is always trying to get one over his rivals. The former thinks he walks on water; the latter skates on thin ice. Two books published last month sum up these conflicting portraits. "Business Stripped Bare", billed as the "adventures of a global entrepreneur", is Sir Richard's take on how to succeed in business, peppered with self-justifying anecdotes from across his empire, from Virgin Atlantic to Virgin Trains to Virgin Mobile. It is an interesting read, marred by boasting and embellishment. The management lessons range from the homespun to the banal: "find good people and set them free"; "it's attention to details that really defines great business delivery". In fact, Mr Branson's real talents are his winning way with people and his ability to inspire loyalty—both hard to distil into business-book maxims. The new edition of "Branson", by Tom Bower, treads the same ground but takes a very different view. Mr Bower is a former documentary-maker who has carved out a career as a biographer of business figures (he is being sued by disgraced tycoon Conrad Black). Sir Rich ard described Mr Bower's original work, published eight years ago, as "a foul, foul piece of work". Mr Bower retells the story of the "dirty tricks" war with BA in the early 1990s, which ended with Sir Richard winning a libel action against BA's chairman Lord King. This was a side issue (BA's house journal falsely accused Sir Richard of lying). As Mr Bower describes, Virgin was fighting a propaganda war with BA. It revelled in the sympathy it attracted as the alleged victim of dirty tricks, in the process benefiting from plenty of free publicity. Mr Bower delights in detailing Sir Richard's antics—avoiding sales tax in his first record-retail business, for example—and in outlining his group's brushes with insolvency. In March 1992 he managed to extricate himself from losses and debt by selling his music division to EMI for £560m ($983m). In 1998 he raised cash by selling half of Virgin Rail to Stagecoach, a bus group. And in March 2000, weighed down again with losses, notably in music retailing, he freed himself by selling 49% of Virgin Atlantic to Singapore Airlines. He was soon at loggerheads with his..... Read the rest on: http://www.financialexpress.com/news/virgin-rebirth/368317/0 |
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