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Maruti Suzuki has reported and astounding 222 per cent surge in Q3 net profit for the quarter ended December 2009 at Rs 687.53 crore as against Rs 213.57 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago. According to a release issued by Maruti to the BSE today, total income increased 58 per cent to Rs 7,594.10 crore from Rs 4,803.50 crore.

…after hacker makes off with Rs 11 crore

Income tax refunds may get delayed for a fortnight, following a complete revamp of security buffers in the computer software system of tax departments across the country, after the discovery last week that someone had hacked into an account and made off with Rs 11 crore.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes has suggested to income tax departments across the country to go slow on refunds for at least a fortnight, till the process is done. Meantime, it has directed a revamp of the security system in the software of the department, which include changing the passwords and sanitising the other security buffers.

Banking behemoth Citigroup has reported a loss of $7.6 billion for the three months ended December 2009, mainly on account of expenses related to repayment of bailout funds. However, Citi’s India-born Chief Vikram Pandit said it witnessed “enormous progress” in its restructuring efforts. Excluding the charges related to repayment of bailout funds, the entity recorded a loss of $1.4 billion for the December quarter, it said in a statement today.

Besides IT, power and infrastructure, even BPO and FMCG companies are hiring in a big way. With the economy picking up, hiring is back in full swing across sectors. The poster boys for the information technology (IT) sector are already hiring in thousands — both freshers from campuses, as well as experienced people (called ‘laterals’). India’s second-largest IT company, Infosys Technologies, for instance, has increased its overall hiring numbers for 2010-11 to 24,000. The company said it would hire 6,000 people on a gross basis, of which 1,500-2,000 will be laterals. The company plans to make 15,000 campus offers in the next financial year, of which 9,000 offers have already been made.

Wipro Q3 consolidated net profit rose 21.3% to Rs 1,217.40 crore for the quarter ended December 2009 against Rs 1,003.90 crore in the corresponding quarter previous year.

According to a release issued by the company to the BSE today, total income grew marginally by 4.2% to Rs 7,055.80 crore from Rs 6,773 crore in the same period.

US car maker General Motors will start manufacturing Light Commercial Vehicles (LCVs) in India at its Halol facility in Gujarat from 2011, General Motors India President Karl Slym said here today.

“We get a choice of separate products now from our joint venture in China with SAIC…We shall pick up LCVs from that portfolio and bring in three varieties of these vehicles to India at Halol,” Slym said on the sidelines of launch of small car Chevrolet Beat here.

Auto component sales in the country are likely to rise in 2010 on the back of positive outlook for cars sales but overseas demand will continue to be sluggish, global rating firm Fitch said.

Domestic auto component makers are also likely to face competition from foreign suppliers making a beeline for the country following increase in penetration by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

Credit policy uncertainty adds to AUM fall of Rs 22,000 crore last month.

After having risen for most of 2009, the average assets under management (AUM) of the mutual fund (MF) industry declined by 1.62 per cent to Rs 794,486 crore in December.

The fall was mainly due to banks withdrawing money from MFs. The industry had hit a high of Rs 8 lakh crore worth of assets in November. According to RBI data, banks’ investment in MFs was Rs 147,279 crore at the end of December 18, 2009, down by Rs 21,957 crore, or 17.5 per cent, between December 4 and then.

Road Transport and Highways Minister Kamal Nath said here that India had increased its per-day construction of roads to 9 km and the target of developing 20 km daily would be accomplished by April.“We have reached 9 km per day of road construction and will hit our target of 20 km a day by April,” Nath, who was here to hold talks with the Malaysian government to invite them to enter the highway construction sector in India, said.Thirty-five Malaysian companies are already involved with various infrastructure projects in India.To construct 20 km of raods a day or 7,000 km a year, there had to be 20,000 km of work in progress, he said.

I am really happy to read such news. Apart from this target, Govt must ensure quality roads which has a long time impact.

French auto major Renault today said it was looking at launching zero emission electric vehicles (EVs) in India by the middle of this decade. The company, which today unveiled its city two-seater ‘Twizy’ in the country, also plans to produce up to 500,000 units of EVs globally by 2014.

“We will launch the electric versions of our family saloon ‘Fluence’ and the compact utility vehicle ‘Kangoo’ in 2011 in Denmark and Israel, followed by the launch of Twizy. We hope to bring all these cars to India within four years of their global launch,” Renault Vice-President (Corporate Affairs and Communications) Ashish Sinharoy said.