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Archive for September, 2009

ADVANCED LAW FIRM

Posted by simontoffel on 24th September 2009

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Sensex on a roll, hits nearly 16-month high last week

Posted by simontoffel on 21st September 2009

Sharp rally in most of the sectors paved the way for both the key indices, Sensex and Nifty, to hit a nearly 16-month highs and improved further by about three percent during last week, stimulated by a host of positive factors.

Sensex was in the vicinity of 17000 mark, while Nifty pierced through the 5000 mark during the intra-week trade.

After moving in a range of 16,820.02 and 16119.95 points, the Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share index ended the week at 16,741.30, the level not seen since May 22, 2008, a rise of 477.00 points or 2.93 percent over its previous weekend close.

The broader 50-issue Nifty of the National Stock Exchange touched a high of 5,003.05 before concluding the week at 4,976.05, a net gain of 146.50 points or 3.03 percent.

Reports of higher advance payments by some big corporates for the second quarter, indicating revival in the economy amid heavy portfolio inflows, mainly boosted the market sentiment.

Firm global cues also helped local bourses to keep the tempo upbeat. Most of the world markets closed the week up on encouraging rise in U.S. retail sales in August and hopes of global economic recovery after the U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben S Bernanke, said the worst U.S. recession since the 1930s has probably ended.

Signals by Reserve Bank of India not to hike interest rates till the economic recovery is on a strong footing, too supported the market.

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Interest rates may harden by fiscal end

Posted by simontoffel on 21st September 2009

Interest rate is likely to be hardened by current fiscal, according to C Rangarajan, Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council.

Rangarajan said that though capital flow had improved, but were not of the same order as two years ago. Nevertheless, inflows through foreign direct investment (FDI) and foreign institutional investment (FII) would be larger this year compared with last year. The fiscal actions involving a cut in excise duty and enlarging government expenditure is likely to stimulate aggregate demand. The government has already extended its stimulus package up to March 2010, which could be reviewed thereafter.

In the case of central fiscal deficit, Rangarajan said, “We should revert to fiscal responsibility and budgetary management (FRBM) targets as the economy began to recover. He does not envisage any increase in the 2009-10 fiscal deficit, which is pegged at 6.8 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).”

RBI had taken right steps by reducing CRR (cash reserve ratio) and repo and reverse repo rates for expanding liquidity. However, it was being pointed out that the actions of the central bank have not percolated to the ground level and credit growth was slow. He envisaged that India would see ‘definite signs’ of recovery in the second half of 2009-10 and the economy would grow between 6 and 6.5 per cent. Fiscal 2010-11 would see a distinct improvement and the economy would grow between seven and eight percent. But to go back to nine percent growth, the country has to wait for the world economy to improve and the world trade to pick up.

According to Rangarajan, the shock waves produced by the current financial crisis would have their own effect on the structure of capitalism. Acceptable capitalism would require more regulations. Future discussions must centre around the nature and scope of such regulations.

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36 lakh applications for 11,000 SBI jobs

Posted by simontoffel on 21st September 2009

Bangalore: The current demand in the job market can be assessed by looking at the number of people vying for jobs at State Bank of India (SBI). Following an advertisement last month by SBI for 11,000 clerical posts, more than 36.11 lakh people have applied for the job, many of them being post-graduates or MBAs.

According to an official close to the development, the factors which are responsible for the response, is the recession and a freeze on recruitments in both the public and private sectors. “This was the first ad after a long time for recruitment to a nationalized bank, and therefore the deluge,” the official said to The Economic Times.

By looking at such a high demand for its jobs, SBI now faces the dilemma of how to conduct exams for such a large number of candidates. “It has been proposed to hold the exams in three phases, on November 8, 15 and 22, in two shifts. This way we can test 12 lakh people every day. The final decision will be taken within a week,” the official said.

The huge number of vacancies came into being on account of new branches being opened, the longtime freeze on new recruitments and retirement of existing employees. Incidentally, of the 36.11 lakh applications, more than half a million are from Maharashtra and of the 11,000 posts, 1,100 are reserved for the Maharashtra circle.

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Basics about Google and SEO Assistants

Posted by simontoffel on 16th September 2009

hire virtual assistant at arnavgupta.comEverybody wants a place sat proudly at the top of Google so much so that they try all kinds of methods to get there, however the only one that really works is google seo. Google search engine optimization is basically implementing the webmaster guidelines and trying to make you site content as spider friendly as possible. Over the past 5 years Google has become more and more focused on off page seo factors, as far as their ranking system is concerned and this means they give less weight to your actual site content and more weight to how popular you are within the sites on their index. SEO Experts can help you to get the good rank on google search engine.

In this article I want to take the time to give you some basic google seo factors so that you can start to optimize your pages for the google.bot. Off page factors relates to getting links and the quality and quantity of those links is going to be a massive determining factor in how close you get to the top of the serps.

So what makes a quality in bound link as far as google seo is concerned? The first aspect of your link simply relates to relevance, how relevant is the page linking back to your site? Is the page url, title, heading and body content relative to your web page? If not google will hardly notice it and you will not get an increase in Page Rank. Make sure your links are as relevant as possible, this is one of the main aspects of google seo. The second aspect is ensuring your link is coming from a site with as high a Page Rank as possible.

I have mixed feelings about this as I have seen pages rank for competitive keywords and have links coming from page rank 0 sites only. All I will say is the more high PR links you have the less low PR links you\’ll need. Try and build up a mixture of both types. The third aspect of google seo is making sure your links are anchored with your keyword text.

Do not make the common webmaster mistake of linking back using your name or the classic \”click here\”. Doing this is an absolute waste of a link. If you are selling cars link back using text like \”used cars sale\” or \”car finance\”, this will give your site relevance and keyword authority and is the most important aspect of google seo. One word of warning when using this method though, do not use the same anchor text every time. You need to use variations otherwise it will look like keyword manipulation and your site could be penalized.

Author is an experienced Search Engine Marketing and E-business consultant and providing dedicated seo assistants to the business. Business can hire seo assistant ,like full time seo assistant, hourly basis seo assistant or project basis seo assistant or you can visit Author website at www.arnavgupta.com.

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Yahoo! Search - Index Update Rolling

Posted by simontoffel on 9th September 2009

We’re rolling out a web index update over the next few days. During this process, you may see some ranking changes and page shuffling in the index.

To share your thoughts or check in with other Yahoo! Search users, please visit the Site Explorer Suggestion Board.

Dan Rampton
Yahoo! Search

Posted in Yahoo News | No Comments »

The Future Of Search - Connect It Straight To Your Brain, Google

Posted by simontoffel on 9th September 2009

This is Part 2 of my series of posts summarizing a fascinating recent hour-long one on one interview with Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

Early in the interview I asked Schmidt about the future of search. I brought up the “search is 90% done” misunderstanding from last summer. Said Google Vice President Marissa Mayer at the time:

Search is a science that will develop and advance over hundreds of years. Think of it like biology and physics in the 1500s or 1600s: it’s a new science where we make big and exciting breakthroughs all the time. However, it could be a hundred years or more before we have microscopes and an understanding of the proverbial molecules and atoms of search. Just like biology and physics several hundred years ago, the biggest advances are yet to come. That’s what makes the field of Internet search so exciting.

Specifically I asked Schmidt “What are the hard things to be solved in search in the next ten years?”

His lengthy answer meandered around a central theme, that Google needs to move “from words to meaning.” In other words, Google needs to understand queries better, and return results that best match the real meaning of a query. “We have to get from the sort of casual use of asking, querying…to “what did you mean?””

He then took a detour and shared a (non-serious) approach that cofounder Sergey Brin has talked about internally – direct brain implants:

Now, Sergey argues that the correct thing to do is to just connect it straight to your brain. In other words, you know, wire it into your head. And so we joke about this and said, we have not quite figured out what that problem looks like…But that would solve the problem. In other words, if we just – if you had the thought and we knew what you meant, we could run it and we could run it in parallel.

When I (again, jokingly) asked if Google was working on that product, he answered “Well, I wish we were. But we don’t exactly have all the medical clinics necessary to test brain insertion.”

But he also had a serious point. One big problem with search is a proper understanding of what exactly the user wants. And then how to pair that with exponential growth in datasets:

Okay. So to me, the question is sort of, what’s next, is really basically how far does the artificial intelligence technology go here? How many signals can we get from who you are, where you are, what you’ve been, what you’ve done and so forth to refine that querying? And at the same time, you also have this enormous expansion of data sets. I think what people are missing is that the amount of information on the Internet is growing very, very rapidly…Because it gets more open, people put more data on it and so forth and so on and that’s wonderful. Also, you have all these dynamic databases that are now – they basically publish that at web pages and again index them as well.

The long term goal of Google search, he says, is to give the user one exactly right answer to a query:

So I don’t know how to characterize the next 10 years except to say that we’ll get to the point – the long-term goal is to be able to give you one answer, which is exactly the right answer over time. Okay, you know, the question I’ll ask today, how many Americans have – what percentage of Americans have passports?…The Google’s answer was a site, which was somebody who had attempted to answer that question and had multiple answers. It’s quite interesting actually to read…So you go to a very good definitive site. And what I’d like to do is to get to the point where we could read his site and then summarize what it says, and answer the question…Along with the citation and so forth and so on.

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Google’s Ex-China Head to Fund Start-Ups

Posted by simontoffel on 7th September 2009

SHANGHAI — Three days after announcing that he was resigning as the head of Google’s China operations, Lee Kai-Fu said he had raised $115 million to create a company that would fund high-tech start-ups in China.

That company, Innovation Works, will search for talented Chinese engineers and entrepreneurs and help them develop the next generation of Internet and mobile computing technologies, Mr. Lee said in a telephone interview Monday.

“We’re going to collect the best ideas, and we’re going to hire the best engineers and entrepreneurs,” he said. “After one year, we’ll send the companies into the open. If they get venture capital funding — great; if they don’t, they won’t live.”

Innovation Works is being backed by the YouTube co-founder Steve Chen, Foxconn Technology, the Legend Group, New Oriental Educational and Technology Group and WI Harper Group, the American venture capital firm. Foxconn is one of the world’s biggest manufacturers, producing everything from Apple’s iPhone to HP computers. Legend is the parent company of Lenovo, the Chinese computer maker.

Mr. Lee, 47, a former Microsoft executive, said that he was leaving Google after four years because he had simply found a new challenge.

He dismissed as “outrageously wrong” the notion that his departure had anything to do with Google’s difficulties in complying with China’s strict censorship rules or due to fierce competition from China’s leading search engine, Baidu.

“In my career I’ve never run away from anything — I run toward things,” he said. “There’s clear evidence Google has doubled its market share in China under my leadership. It’s on the upturn.”

In a telephone conference call with Peter Liu, the chairman of WI Harper, one of the lead investors, Mr. Lee said part of the logic behind forming the company was the lack of early stage funding of high-tech start-ups in China, or angel investors — who could provide financing and coaching of young companies.

Talented managers now working for technology companies in China were primed to leave those companies to become great entrepreneurs, he said.

“Our experience is in company building,” he said. “I can coach them with my many years of experience.”

China is already a hotbed of high-tech growth, with fast-growing Internet companies like Baidu, Tencent, Shanda and Alibaba already worth billions of dollars. Venture capital funds are aggressively scouting out new companies that can capture share in what is already the world’s largest Internet market, with over 300 million users.

Innovation Works recently signed a lease to rent part of a building in Beijing’s high-tech district, next to Google’s offices, and the company will house its start-ups there.

Despite the economic downturn, Mr. Liu of WI Harper, said he had no trouble raising the money for Innovation Works.

“We raised the money in less than 30 days,” he said, and called the hiring of Mr. Lee “a miracle.”

“He can identify the next Google in China or the next Baidu,” he said.

Source: NYTimes

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Venus Williams Joins Women’s Seeds Exodus at U.S. Open Tennis

Posted by simontoffel on 7th September 2009

Sept. 7 (Bloomberg) — Venus Williams became the latest women’s seed to be eliminated from the U.S. Open, losing in three sets to former champion Kim Clijsters after sister Serena advanced to the quarterfinals.

Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal avoided any mishaps in the men’s draw yesterday, winning in straight sets to reach the fourth round of the year’s final Grand Slam tennis tournament at the National Tennis Center in New York.

Wildcard entrant Clijsters, in her first major since ending a two-year retirement last month, won 6-0, 0-6, 6-4 to send Williams to her earliest exit in five years at the tournament she won in 2000 and 2001. Only six of 32 women’s seeds remain.

“I feel I’m at a point where, if I play good and if I stay consistent, I can make it tough for the other girls,” Clijsters told reporters.

It was the first meeting between Williams and Clijsters since the Belgian beat the American in the quarterfinals four years ago en route to the title. Clijsters, who has won 34 singles titles and spent 19 weeks ranked No. 1 in the world, returned after a 28-month break during which she got married and had a daughter.

Clijsters will play China’s Li Na, the No. 18 seed, for a place in the final four, where she could face Serena Williams. The defending champion cruised past Daniela Hantuchova 6-2, 6-0 to set up a quarterfinal with 10th-seed Flavia Pennetta of Italy, who defeated No. 7 Vera Zvonareva of Russia 3-6, 7-6 (8-6), 6-0.

“I just want to keep this level and just stay focused,” said the second-seeded Williams, who’s seeking a 12th Grand Slam singles title.

Oudin Upsets

The next highest-seeded woman remaining is No. 6 Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia, who seeks a spot in the quarterfinals today against No. 9 Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark. American Melanie Oudin, who upset former champion Maria Sharapova and 2004 runner-up Elena Dementieva her past two matches, is also in action against another Russian in No. 13 Nadia Petrova.

The top four men are all into the round of 16 after second- seeded Murray raced to a 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 win over American Taylor Dent and No. 3 Nadal beat fellow Spaniard Nicolas Almagro 7-5, 6-4, 6-4.

Britain’s Murray next faces 16th-seeded Marin Cilic of Croatia, while Nadal meets No. 13 Gael Monfils of France.

Also moving into the fourth round yesterday were No. 6 Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina, No. 7 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France, No. 11 Fernando Gonzalez of Chile and No. 24 Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain.

Federer Streak

Five-time defending champion Roger Federer is back in action today against Spanish No. 14 seed Tommy Robredo.

The top-seeded Swiss hasn’t lost a match at the U.S. Open since 2003 and is trying to become the first man to win six consecutive titles since tennis turned professional in 1968.

Serbia’s Novak Djokovic, seeded fourth, plays in today’s final scheduled match against No. 15 Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic. Elsewhere in the men’s draw, No. 8 Nikolay Davydenko of Russia takes on No. 12 Robin Soderling of Sweden and No. 10 Fernando Verdasco of Spain faces unseeded American John Isner.

The 6-foot-9 Isner was a five-set winner in his third-round match against Andy Roddick, who was the last American man to win a major at the 2003 U.S. Open. This is the just the second time in seven Grand Slam appearances that Isner got past the first round. Roddick, at No. 5, is the highest men’s seed to be eliminated so far, as only two of the top 10 have lost.

By Erik Matuszewski and Danielle Rossingh
Source:Bloomberg

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China Bank Regulator Says Loan Growth ‘More Stable’

Posted by simontoffel on 7th September 2009

Sept. 6 (Bloomberg) — China’s bank regulator said the lending growth will be “more stable” in the second half of this year after a reduction in the ratio of non-performing debt in the first six months.

“In the second half of this year, the loan growth will be more stable, and we’re monitoring this very closely,” Liu Mingkang, the head of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, told reporters today at a meeting of global central bankers in Basel, Switzerland.

Loans surged in the first six months of this year after the central bank scrapped quotas limiting lending in November to support the government’s 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) stimulus package. The central bank has left interest rates and banks’ reserve requirements unchanged this year, stepping up bill sales last month to soak up some of the extra cash in the financial system.

China’s loan growth is “quite OK; very reasonable. It’s coming down, but still quite good,” Liu said. “We saw the non- performing stock reduced and the ratio reduced even though we had an expansion of loans in the first half.”

Bank lending in China fell to 355.9 billion yuan in July, less than a quarter of June’s level. New loans in August may be 200 billion yuan, Caijing Magazine reported Aug. 31.

‘Regulatory Tools’

China will study the use of “regulatory tools” to adjust bank lending after the nation had a record 7.37 trillion yuan of new loans in the first half, Deputy Central Bank Governor Su Ning said at a forum in Shanghai on Sept. 5.

China’s record credit expansion, which helped economic growth rebound to 7.9 percent in the second quarter, also raised concerns that bank loans have been diverted and used to buy shares and real estate, fueling gains in stock and property markets.

The bank regulator said Sept. 3 it will implement stricter capital requirements for lenders, forcing them to deduct holdings of subordinated bonds issued by other lenders from their supplementary capital. That change will be implemented “over the course of several years,” it said.

Regulators are still making changes to the draft rules on subordinated bond holdings, China Banking Regulatory Commission Vice Chairman Jiang Dingzhi said at the Sept. 5 forum in Shanghai. The rules are being implemented to ensure capital quality and improve risk management, after the capital adequacy ratio of Chinese banks fell in the first half, Jiang said.

By Rob Delaney
Source: Bloomberg

Posted in economy | No Comments »