Refusing any temporary solution to the BlackBerry controversy, Indian security agencies have said the Government that it must make sure that traffic originating and terminating on the device should not travel outside the country without proper supervising. This comes even as the Department of Telecom was considering deploying certain software that will permit the security agencies to snoop into BlackBerry’’s network without having to break into the service codes. BlackBerry handsets are designed by Canadian firm Research In Motion and uses high encryption codes, making it impossible for Indian agencies to monitor data being transmitted by users.

While RIM has refused to either give the decryption codes or set up a local server, DoT was looking at e-mail supervising solutions as alternative. One such solution involves pushing software into the user’’s BlackBerry via SMS, which then replicates all data originating or received on the device. They have also raised quality issues whereby the intercepted BlackBerry user will get disrupted services in case of heavy usage, which could alert the user of snooping by security agencies. DoT has been told by the agencies that operators should be urged to give monitoring systems in line with the requirements specified in the telecom licence.

Mavens Biotech Ltd has informed that an Extra Ordinary General Meeting (EGM) of the members of the Company will be held on July 17, 2008, inter alia, to transact the following business:
1. To re-appoint of Sri. Bharat Kumar Sah as a Whole-time Director of the Company for further period of 3 years, commencing from the August 01, 2008, on remuneration, terms & conditions.
2. To fill the casual vacancy caused by the resignation of M/s. Manoj Raj & Associates, Chartered Accountants, Delhi until the conclusion of forthcoming Annual General Meeting of the Company, on remuneration, terms & conditions.
3. To sub-divided the authorized, issued and fully paid up equity share capital of the Company of Rs 10/- each that one existing equity share of face value of Rs 10/- each into ten equity shares of face value of Re 1/- each and for equity shares of Rs 10/- each being fully paid up, One of such fully paid up shares be sub-divided into ten equity share of face value of Re 1/- each fully paid up and consequently, the authorised share capital of the Company be and is hereby altered from the existing Rs 130,000,000/- divided 130,00,000 equity shares of Rs 10/- each to Rs 130,000,000/- divided 130,000,000 equity shares of Rs 1/- each with effect from the record date to be determined by the Board of Directors of the company for the purpose and consequential alternation in the Memorandum & Articles of Association of the Company.

Federal Bank Ltd has informed that the Register of Members & Share Transfer Books of the Bank will remain closed from July 12, 2008 to July 21, 2008 (both days inclusive) for the purpose of payment of dividend & Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Bank to be held on July 21, 2008.

[Via: ragadirect ]

Mascon Global Ltd has informed that the Register of Members & Share Transfer Books of the Company will remain closed from August 26, 2008 to August 28, 2008 (both days inclusive) for the purpose of Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Company to be held on August 28, 2008.

Mozilla is claiming a download record for the release of Firefox 3.0. In the first 24 hours the web browser was available the software was downloaded more than eight million times, says its creator Mozilla. Statistics from the download servers are being scrutinised to produce an official figure that will be passed to the Guinness World Record organisation. But the launch was marred by news from computer security firms who have found the first flaws in the software.

The attempt to set the download record was scheduled to begin at 1300 PST (2000 GMT) on 17 June. However, the record attempt was almost wrecked from the start as the servers handling the downloads collapsed under the weight of visitors checking to see if new version was available. Once the servers were up and functioning normally the record attempt began.

Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd has informed that the Company has designated the following E-mail ID exclusively for redressal of Investors Grievances:
abnlsecretarial@adityabirla.com

Geometric Ltd has informed that the Register of Members & Share Transfer Books of the Company will remain closed from July 29, 2008 to August 04, 2008 (both days inclusive) for the purpose of payment of dividend & 14th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Company to be held on August 04, 2008.

Bannari Amman Sugars Ltd has informed that a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on June 23, 2008, inter alia, to consider and approve the Audited financial results for the year ended March 31, 2008 and for recommendation of dividend for the financial year 2007-2008.

Bhel has received the boiler-turbine-generator (BTG) contracts from NTPC and its JV subsidiary, Nabinagar power plant. The estimated value of the contract is Rs 3,500 crore. The total cost of setting up these units will be around Rs 8,700 crore. These are for two different projects. The first one includes three units of 250 mw at an investment of Rs 3,300 crore at Bongaigaon in the North-East. It is being set up by NTPC. The contract awarded to Bhel is for three units of 250 mw BTG, along with a coal desulphurisation plant, since coal available at Bongaigaon is high in sulphur content. One needs to get rid of this sulphur before the coal is fed into the boiler. The value of the contract for BHEL is about Rs 1,500 crore. The other BTG contract, pegged at Rs 2,000 crore for BHEL will be for four units of 250 mw at Navinagar in Bihar’’s Aurangabad district. Total cost of the project for NTPC is estimated to be around Rs 5,352 crore. The Bongaigaon plant, which will be NTPC’’s first power plant in the Northeastern region is expected to start generating electricity from the first 250 mw unit by the end of 2009.

Friday, the US stock market closed lower after General Electric Co. reported its first-quarter earnings below expectations and also cutting its 2008 earnings outlook. GE’s first quarter earnings slipped 8% to $0.44 per share as against the consensus estimate of $0.51. The company’s revenue also missed expectations by $1.5 billion. The company said that the sharp fall in its earnings was mainly due to trouble in its financial services business.
Further, the company also issues a disappointing outlook for 2008, as it expects the second quarter earnings per share will fall short of the consensus estimate by three to five cents per share. For full year 2008, GE expects to earn between $2.20 and $2.30 per share, versus the $2.43 consensus. As a result, the company’s shares fell 12.8% to close at $32.05. This marks the largest one-day percent decline in nearly 20 years.

On the economic front, the disappoint Consumer Confidence also led the market to shed some of its points. According to an University of Michigan Survey the consumer confidence for the month of April fell to 63.2 from 69.5. This fell short of the expected reading of 69.0, and marks the lowest consumer confidence since March 1982.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) dropped by 256.56 points to close at 12,325.42. The S&P 500 (SPX) index decreased by 27.72 points to close at 1,332.83 and the NASDAQ Composite (RIXF) fell 61.46 points to close at 2,290.24.

Among the Dow’s 30 components, 29 components ended lower. Advancing sectors were led by information technology, up 1.4%, and consumer discretionary, up 1%. The utility sector was off 0.6%, while telecommunication services dropped 0.4%.

A total of more than 1.8bn shares were traded on the NASDAQ, with declining stocks overtook the advancing stocks by 4 to 1. On NYSE around 3.6bn shares traded for the day, with declining stocks outpaced the advancing stocks by 3 to 1.

Crude oil futures for the month of May delivery closed marginally higher by $0.03 at $110.14 per barrel on New York Mercantile Exchange. The crude prices closed flat after an International Energy Agency, has cut its world oil demand estimate. In its monthly report it said that the world will consume 87.2 million barrels of oil a day this year, down 310,000 barrels from last month’’s forecast.

The gold prices for the month of June delivery fell by $4.80 to settle at $927 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The gold prices registered a weekly gain of $13.80 from last Friday’’s closing level of $913.20 an ounce. The gold prices continue to fell even though the dollar trade lower as against its rival currencies.