China has ruled out any involvement in Internet attacks on the search engine giant and defended its online restrictions as lawful, even as the United States urged Beijing to investigate a computer attack against Google.

Read Article...

The Network 18 group is India’s most diversified media company. However, the net-worth of several group firms of the company has been completely eroded; they are sick companies, belying their glitzy images and relentless expansions

Media and entertainment company Network18 has been pumping money into its cash-strapped, loss-making businesses, to keep them alive. Unfortunately, several group companies and subsidiaries of Network18 are so heavily weighed down by losses, that their net-worth has been completely eroded. Belying their glitzy public images and continuing expansions, they are essentially sick companies.

The net-worth of both Viacom18 and IBN Lokmat has substantially eroded. IBN18 Broadcast, a group company, has investments in Viacom18 Media and IBN Lokmat. Although Viacom18, which is a 50:50 joint venture company of IBN 18 Broadcast and Viacom Inc, made a profit of Rs5.70 crore for the quarter ended 31 December 2009, IBN Lokmat is in the red, having incurred a loss of Rs4.36 crore for the same period. IBN Lokmat is a 50:50 joint venture company of IBN 18 Broadcast and the Lokmat Newspaper group.

Infomedia18, the publishing subsidiary of group company TV18, shares the same fate. It incurred a loss of Rs84.65 crore during the financial year 2008-09 and Rs43.15 crore for the nine months ended 31 December 2009. It has registered a net loss of Rs12.88 crore for the quarter ended December 2009. As a result, the company’s accumulated losses exceed the company’s share capital and reserves. It had to apply to the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR), as required under the provisions of Section 15 of the Sick Industrial Companies (Special Provisions) Act, 1985. The application was rejected on technical grounds. Group parent company Network18 had to come to the rescue of its beleaguered subsidiary for now. It extended financial support to Infomedia18 by infusing liquidity through inter-corporate deposits of Rs58.50 crore. It had also supported it when Infomedia’s rights issue failed last week.

The Network 18 group is India’s most diversified media company. Its properties and titles are spread across print, Web and television (news, business, general entertainment and music). Almost all of them are making losses. Several new businesses such as CNN IBN and IBN Lokmat, IBN7 and Infomedia were launched or acquired in a very short span of time between 2005-08, funded mostly through public money and later through bank finance. Virtually nothing has been funded through internal accruals, raising doubts about the inherent viability of the businesses.
 

The Indian government is leaving no stone unturned to see that South Korean steel major Posco's Rs54,000-crore project in Orissa is started after all the regulatory clearances, in the next four-five months

Steel minister Virbhadra Singh said on Monday that the Indian government is leaving no stone unturned to see that South Korean steel major Posco's Rs54,000-crore project in Orissa is kicked off after all the regulatory clearances in the four-five months, reports PTI.

"Efforts are to see that the entire matter is seen, signed and delivered in the next four-five months. This includes physical transfer of land and all regulatory clearances to Posco," Mr Singh told reporters after an eight-member Posco delegation headed by the company's chairman and global head Joon-Yang Chung called on him.

The meeting assumes significance in the wake of South Korean president Lee Myung-bak taking up the matter with prime minister Manmohan Singh later in the evening on Monday.

The minister added that once the matters are addressed, the company will start production in two years.

"It was a very fruitful meeting," Mr Joon-Yang Chung said after the meeting. Mr Singh said that mines have already been allotted to Posco but some claimants, including a state-run unit, have moved the Orissa High Court against this.

Mr Singh said that the Indian government would request the High Court to clear the case expeditiously, adding that the litigant state-run unit would also be persuaded to withdraw the case.

He said that the steel giant is also in talks with the Maharashtra and Karnataka governments for other steel projects.