Indian Hotels provides Rs.500 crore for investment impairment

Indian Hotels Company Ltd. (IHCL), which owns and operates Taj Group of hotels, has made an additional non-cash provision of around Rs.400 crore and Rs.100 crore in its consolidated statement of profit and loss for the year ended March 31, 2014, for its overseas and domestic investments that may have been adversely affected due to a sustained depression in the macro-economic and market environment, the company said.

“The impairment is primarily due to a sustained depression in the micro-economic and market environments internationally, as also in the domestic market and the adverse effect thereof on some of the investments,” the company said in its review of investments impairment for 2013-14.

“With the economic uncertainty expected to continue over the near and medium term, it has had an impact on the downward revision of projected cash flow expectations from some of the underlying affected investments,” the company added.

IHCL said the final figures would be included in the full year results which would be published on May 30, 2014.

It said the financial covenants related to its borrowings were unaffected by the referred impairment of investment.

TAKE PERMISSION organising “chai pe charcha”: EC to BJP

The Election Commission on Tuesday asked the BJP to take prior permission for organising its “chai pe charcha” programme and ensure that the model code of conduct is not violated at any cost.

“The Commission has issued an advisory that the chai pe charcha programme shall be organised only after the prior permission of the district election authorities,” UP Chief Electoral Officer Umesh Sinha said.

On media reports suggesting distribution of tea has been banned, Mr. Sinha said permission will be granted by the concerned authorities on condition that those taking part in the programme should bear the cost of the tea.

“The party has also responded to it with the state unit president Laxmikant Bajpai assuring us that all individuals taking part in the charcha will pay for the tea,” he said.

The CEO said there is no ban on the “chai pe charcha programme.”

On Sunday, an FIR had been lodged against over 24 BJP leaders and activists at Mohammadi Kotwali Police Station in Lakhimpur Kheri district for alleged violation of model code of conduct.

The complaint alleged the BJP workers had put up tea stalls on busy Mohammadi road and offered tea to the people amid blaring of loudspeakers without seeking prior permission from district election authorities.

Over 24 BJP leaders and activists have been named in the FIR, police said.

HP rolls out ‘cheap’ Android tablet

Hewlett Packard (HP) has reportedly unveiled a low-cost Android tablet.

The HP 8 has a 7.85-inch screen with a 1,024 x 768 resolution, quad-core chip, 1GB of RAM, and a rather small 3,800mAh battery.

According to Tech Crunch, the company’s lackluster HP Slate 7 was not efficient, but was cheap, which helped HP enter into the tablet game. The HP 8 has been priced at 170 dollars, in competition with the original Amazon Kindle Fire and budget Samsung devices.

The report said that the new tablet is nothing exceptionally great at a throwaway price, but is a smart move by HP to test the waters while remaining active in the flourishing tablet market.

Apple updates iOS 7 for iPhone and iPad

Apple, on Monday, released its first major update for iOS 7, its latest operating system for iPhones and iPads. The upgrade improves reliability of the fingerprint sensor in the iPhone 5S and makes adjustments to Siri, among many other changes.

A few months after Apple released the iPhone 5S, some users complained that the phone’s signature feature, TouchID, occasionally failed to read a persons fingerprint when unlocking the phone. Apple said that iOS 7.1 would improve the accuracy of TouchID.

Many users had also reported that with iOS 7, apps frequently crashed, causing the phone to restart sporadically. The latest software update will address this issue as well, according to the company.

Apple also made a major change in the way that Siri, voice assistant, works. Previously, a user would hold down the iPhones home button for a few seconds, let go, talk, and then wait for it to react. Now, a user can simply hold down the home button and start dictating the command, and Siri will react. Apple also added new languages for Siri, including Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, British English and Australian English.

The company modified its camera software for the iPhone 5S.

The camera will detect when a feature called High-Dynamic Range (HDR) will improve the look of a photo and automatically enable that feature so that the user does not have to bother switching it on before snapping the picture. (HDR mode is typically useful in situations with high contrast between a subject and the background for instance, when shooting a photo of a person who is standing in front of bright light.)

Furthermore, the software update adds CarPlay, the new capability for iPhones to stream their content to some car systems, which Apple announced this month.

Apple released iOS 7 in September.

The operating system was a stark departure from past versions it featured a flat design that removed some textures and gradients and added more vibrant colours, as well as changes to some tools.

It was the first operating system designed under Jony Ive, Apple’s industrial design chief, who took over direction of Apples mobile software after the company fired Scott Forstall, the previous executive in charge of iOS.

The most surprising thing about iOS 7.1 is not the new features, but how long it took Apple to fix the nagging problem of devices randomly restarting.

Infosys steps up hiring, but visits fewer campuses

IT services major Infosys has made over 16,300 campus offers in 2013-14, up from less than 5,000 last year. Though the overall campus hires figure has gone up, the number of campuses visited has reduced drastically by over half.

These figures will not only bring cheer to fresh engineering graduates and final year students but also indicate that better times are here for the bellwether, which had deferred campus offers made in 2013 and significantly reduced its campus intakes by at least two-thirds last year.

In an interaction with this correspondent, Srikantan Moorthy, Senior Vice-President and Group Head of Human Resource Development at Infosys, said that the company had achieved its recruitment target from around 250 campuses, compared to over 600 institutions every year.

The focus had been on top-tier institutions and those that had a “deeper engagement” with the company, he said.

Meanwhile, he said, the standards of the evaluation process had only increased, and more company leaders were part of the process now. This time the company “looks forward to on-boarding them as soon as they complete their education.” Entry-level salaries of campus hires remained unchanged, he added.

Attrition

When quizzed on attrition, an area where the company has, in recent quarters, been ahead of its peers, Mr. Moorthy remained non-committal on any impending exits or downsizing at the company. Last quarter, attrition at Infosys rose to about 18 per cent — well ahead of the industry average — with the company seeing not just high-profile exits among the top management but also attrition among mid- and senior level management.

Mr. Moorthy said that he did not think these exits had had an impact on employee morale as it wasn’t a “performance crackdown”, but a continuous performance-linked evaluation process.

NRN effect on HR

Since the return of company founder N.R. Narayana Murthy to an executive role in July last, the company has stepped up its employee engagement activities across channels. Mr. Moorthy pointed out that the newly-introduced JAM sessions (where employees meet top execs over lunch) and more frequent communication over multiple channels — blogs, Infy TV and radio and through ‘townhall’ talks — had been effective in keeping employees informed of the happening at the company. “As an employee, you want leaders to talk to you and you want to know what is happening. Mr. Narayana Murthy recognised this, ” he said.

Other HR initiatives undertaken by the company to quell attrition included introducing a “fast track” for employees who were experts in technical areas, so that irrespective of their overall experience, employees would still have the opportunity to grow into senior roles within the organisation, he said.

AVIATION :IndiGo, SpiceJet come out with low fare offers again

IndiGo airline has come out with low fares in 30, 60 and 90 days advance purchase fares (apex fares) schemes on Tuesday to beat rivals and to ensure 100 per cent passenger load during the peak summer months.

These fares are valid for travel from April to September and discounts vary from 10 per cent to 35 per cent from the normal fares, according to members of the travel trade.

A spokesperson for IndiGo confirmed the low fare offering but could not spell out the reason behind this sudden offer.

As per the offer, a Chennai-Mumbai one-way ticket for travel on April 12 would cost Rs.5,319 while a ticket in the same route for May 12 would cost Rs.3,499. Someone booked for travel on June 12 would pay only Rs.2,899.

This is compared to IndiGo’s lowest fare of Rs.9,570 for March 12 in the same route, according to travel agencies.

Similarly, a Mumbai-Delhi one-way ticket booked for travel on April 12 would cost Rs.6,072 while the same ticket for travel on May 12 would cost Rs.4,299. The price of this ticket for travel on June 12 would cost Rs.3,523. This is compared to IndiGo’s lowest fare of Rs.10,322 for March 12 in the same sector.

“These fares are attractive for the holiday traffic and corporate travellers who can plan their trip in advance and provide them an incentive to book early and benefit from the savings,’’ said Neelu Singh, COO, Ezeego1.com, while commenting on the development.

Following IndiGo, SpiceJet has come out with its Super Holi Sale, a five day offer applicable on bookings made between 12 and 16 March 2014, for travel between 14 April and 30 June 2014. Fares start from Rs. 1,999 all inclusive on select routes and flights.

Lowest fares are for bookings made 90 days prior to travel, and all bookings under this offer require minimum 30 days advance purchase, the airline said. Examples of fares under this offer include Delhi-Chandigarh for Rs. 1,999, Hyderabad – Cochin for Rs. 2,999, and Amritsar – Mumbai for Rs. 3,999 (all inclusive).

SINGAM DMDK Vijayakanth to campaign in TN from this week

DMDK, which forged an alliance with BJP to contest the Lok Sabha Polls on Monday, announced the party Chief Vijaykanth’s campaign slated to begin this week.

The actor-politician will undertake a 14-day campaign under the first phase across various districts in Tamil Nadu, a party release said.

Mr. Vijaykant will begin his campaign on March 14 at Gummidipoondi and conclude on March 27 at South Chennai constituency, it said.

BJP managed to bring on board the principal opposition party DMDK, Vanniyar-backed outfit PMK and Vaiko-led MDMK, besides a few other outfits to establish a formidable alliance to contest the ruling AIADMK and DMK in the Lok Sabha polls.