Froogleindia

The economic downturn and the geo-political tensions notwithstanding, citizens of India are looking forward to 2009 and around 42 per cent of people feel that this year will be better than 2008, says a study.

It is more of bad news that dominates the top ten tech stories for the year 2008, which includes Microsoft's failed takeover bid for Yahoo, failure of Vista operating system and rumours about death of Apple chief Steve Jobs, as per a list compiled by the Forbes magazine.

Dealer-operated petrol pumps across the country would be open for business as usual on Wednesday, even as officers of state-owned oil companies plan to strike work.

Hardening its stand against strike by truck operators, the government on Tuesday said the states have been asked to deal with the situation firmly, including impounding of trucks, if needed, while it has roped in the Railways to transport essential commodities on top priority.

The cutback in production has been announced on top of three days' production halt this month and would impact most of Toyota's models made in Japan, excluding those outsourced to subcontractors, the report revealed. Further, sales of new vehicles in Japan slumped to the lowest level in three decades in 2008 as recession hit Asia's biggest economy, piling pressure on its auto giants, an industry group had said.

The shareholders have been asked to vote on the proposals, which were approved by the board at the meeting on December 19, through postal ballot by February 11 and the results would be announced on February 13, the bank said in a notice to its shareholders. As per the proposals, Kamath would replace N Vaghul as the bank's non-executive chairman, after he retires on completion of his current term on April 30.

Global software major International Business Machines' chief executive Samuel Palmisano believes the government's $30-billion information technology investments may create over 900,000 jobs.

The company started the three-day week schedule since December in the wake of a drastic drop in demand. Tata Motors, which had in the recent past resorted to multiple temporary block closures at its units in Jamshedpur, Pune and Lucknow, is also watching the market demand.

Media reports said that three IT companies, HCL Tech, Tech Mahindra and Cognizant, are in the fray for Satyam. While a HCL spokesperson said the company does not comment on speculation, Tech Mahindra officials termed the reports as baseless.

At a meeting with the Reserve Bank in Mumbai, builders are understood to have demanded 'more measures' from the central bank to provide relief to the cash-starved realty sector through proactive actions from banks. More than 10 leading developers met a group of top RBI officials, comprising executive director of the apex bank, in Mumbai on Tuesday to discuss the prevailing issues in the industry.