The Financial Secretary, John Tsang, will announce the Government Budget for 2011-12 on Wednesday (23 February, 2011).

Before the announcement, the Financial Secretary has spent some time blogging. One point he raised in his blog was to make good use of the government surplus. As I have said in my Hong Kong Property Market Forecast, proceeds from government land sales have reached a record high last year, so naturally the budget will be in big surplus this year. Due to uncontrollable factors such as monetary policy (or the non-existence of independent monetary policy due to currency peg) which fuelled home prices, and the general decrease of upward mobility and inequality, politicians are hoping that the government to use the expected huge surplus to help poorer families. However, his blog post seemed to suggest that the government will be conservative in using the surplus in order to build up enough buffer to prepare for unforeseeable situations. That might be the strategy to lower expectations as far as giving away the money is concerned. In another blog post, he mentioned the concept of “Big Society”, which weirdly mirrored what the Prime Minister of United Kingdom David Cameron MP has been talking of late.

Of course, my own focus will be on what the government can do next with the Hong Kong Property Market. My Hong Kong Real Estate Market Forecast made it clear that home prices will reach the peak level in 1997 should situation remains favourable. After the Financial Secretary announced the special stamp duty back in November, home prices continued to surge despite initial shock to the market. The special stamp duty is arguably the harshest intervention in the Hong Kong property market in recent memories, and even that appeared to be ineffective. As a free market economy, any measures tougher than that might be inconceivable, and the kind of restrictions we see in Beijing will certainly be out of the question. From what has been leaked so far, the government will likely to increase supply of land to provide 30,000 units in the coming year, as opposed to 20,000 units pledged in the Policy Address last year. This is done in hope to change the expectation that prices can only go up. This is, as I have always stressed, not hitting the key of the problem. I have said numerous times that Hong Kong Property Prices are now driven by money flow, not supply shortages. The series of government interventions and the failure of those have seriously undermined the credibility of Hong Kong government in managing public expectation on home prices.

Increasing annual supply will also do remarkably little to the total supply of housing market. Not to mention the fact that it takes 3 to 4 years to complete constructions for any real estate project, increasing land supply now will do almost nothing to the current supply. On the whole, governments’ interventions in real estate market have often done more harm than good, and Hong Kong government has historical shown no credibility at all in managing the property market.

That is not to say, however, that property market will only go up no matter what. Government has little power in influencing the property market. But you should be reminded that as home prices have been driven up by money inflow, the big risk factor is when money is flowing out of Hong Kong. Again, government can do absolutely nothing in controlling where the money is flowing to.

Hong Kong Shares Edge Lower ahead of Budget Speech:

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Hong Kong shares declined early Wednesday ahead of finance secretary John Tsang’s budget speech, with a spot of weakness in some local property developers on worries the government may announce measures to increase housing supply. The benchmark Hang Seng Index (HK:HANGSENG 22,891, -99.53, -0.43%) dropped 0.2% to 22,951.95 and the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index rose 0.1% to 12,354.85. Shares of Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd. (HK:16 123.10, +1.30, +1.07%) (SUHJY 15.50, -0.42, -2.64%) slipped 0.3% and Cheung Kong Holdings Ltd. (HK:1 118.80, -0.10, -0.08%) (CHEUY 15.04, -0.49, -3.16%) slid 0.7%, while Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. (CPCAY 11.61, -0.98, -7.78%) (HK:293 17.68, -0.40, -2.21%) dropped a further 2.3% on worries about rising oil prices amid turmoil in Libya. Mainland Chinese shares offered few cues, with the Shanghai Composite (CN:SHCOMP 2,845, -10.84, -0.38%) slipping 0.1% after moving in both directions within a narrow range.

Gold Rates in other Major Currencies
Currency Symbol 10 Gm 1 Tola 1 Ounce
Australian Dollar AUD 426 497 1,326
Canadian Dollar CAD 430 501 1,338
Euro EUR 319 371 991
Japanese Yen JPY 35,432 41,284 110,208
U.A.E Dirham AED 1,595 1,858 4,961
UK Pound Sterling GBP 269 313 836
US Dollar USD 434 506 1,351

But you’re not going unnoticed. In fact, your bank is keeping an ever-closer eye on you these days. Tighter credit standards, new ways to combat fraud and an ever-growing pile of monitoring services offered by credit bureaus and other analytics companies means that banks know, or guess, more about you than ever before.

Credit scores explained
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Here are just some of the ways they’re tracking you.

1. Transaction scores
Every time you swipe your credit or debit card, the transaction is scored to gauge the risk of fraud, said John Ulzheimer, the president of consumer education at SmartCredit.com and the author of “You’re Nothing But a Number.” Where you’re shopping, how much you’re spending and how that compares with your usual patterns are noted and analyzed. Atypical or high-risk spending patterns can result in a call from the bank’s fraud department, a hold on the transaction or even the temporary shutdown of your card.

Liz Weston
.What seems like innocent behavior to you can be highly suspicious to the bank’s software. If, for example, you top off your car’s gas tank and then head over to Target to stock up, you might trigger a red flag. That’s because credit card thieves often try using a card at a gas pump to see if it’s active. If it is, they may barrel over to a retailer to use the purloined account to buy electronics and other easily fenced items.

Of course, thieves change their tactics all the time, and bankers constantly tweak their software, so it’s hard to predict what could set off a fraud alert. To keep disruptions to a minimum, give your bank plenty of ways to contact you. Make sure it has your current cell number and consider signing up for e-mail or text alerts that can let you know when a problem occurs. Call your bank when you plan to be out of the country and consider giving it a heads-up when you’re off to buy electronics of high value, such as a new television or computer system.

2. Behavior scores
Credit scores gauge how a person handles a variety of credit accounts. Behavior scores, by contrast, look at how a person handles an individual financial account. Behavior scores got a bad name a couple of years ago when American Express told an Atlanta businessman his credit line was being cut in part because of where he shopped.

“Other customers who have used their card at establishments where you recently shopped have a poor repayment history with American Express,” AmEx’s letter to Kevin Johnson said, which led to headlines like “AmEx hates Wal-Mart shoppers.” American Express quickly dropped behavior scores from the tools it uses to determine credit lines.

But behavior scores still are widely used as risk-evaluation and marketing tools. On credit accounts, behavior scores look at where and how you spend your money, as well as how you pay your account. (Do you pay in full? Minimum payment only? Sometimes carry a balance, sometimes not? Often late, but never by more than a few days?)

Card issuers can use the scores to, for example, guess whether a missed payment is an anomaly that can be ignored or the start of a default that might trigger them to start calling you daily about when you’re going to pay. A sudden switch in spending — such as starting to take cash advances or spending a lot of time in casinos — may also send up red flags. Additionally, lenders use behavioral scoring to help target marketing efforts such as who gets low-rate balance transfer offers.

Bankers can use similar scores to monitor how you handle your bank accounts. What the scores tell them may help determine how long you have to wait before you can access deposits (known as “deposit holds”), whether a customer-service representative can waive a fee you don’t like and what other products the bank may try to sell you.

Fair Isaac, the creator of the leading FICO credit score, works with banks to create custom behavior scores that monitor bank balances, withdrawal activity and the source of deposits, said Debb Gordon, a senior principal consultant for the company.

Eric Schmidt: Open mouth, insert foot

As Eric Schmidt steps down as Google’s chief executive, his performance as a spokesman will be difficult to repeat. His attempts to answer concerns about Google becoming Big Brother-like have yielded several foot-in-mouth moments.

l In October, attendees at a forum organized by Atlantic Monthly heard him testify: “We don’t need you to type at all. We know where you are. We know where you’ve been. We can more or less know what you’re thinking about.”

l In a CNN interview later that month, Schmidt joked that users offended by photos of their homes showing up in Google’s Street View mapping feature could “just move.” He quickly clarified that he “misspoke.”

l At a conference in August, Schmidt told attendees that “if I look at enough of your messaging and your location, and use artificial intelligence, we can predict where you are going to go.”

l That month, he also opined to the Wall Street Journal that “most people don’t want Google to answer their questions. . . . They want Google to tell them what they should be doing next.”

l In March, as reported by Fortune, he said: “One day we had a conversation where we figured we could just try to predict the stock market. And then we decided it was illegal. So we stopped doing that.”

l In December 2009, he told CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo: “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”

I’ve heard Schmidt speak at length more than once and didn’t find him to be anything like the James Bond villain you could concoct from those quotes. But, as Schmidt has noted many times, the Internet never forgets.

The Chinese President Hu Jintao is enjoying the red-carpet treatment in Washington DC against a backdrop of increasing tension between his country and the US.

As the two leaders meet, a number of US lawmakers are demanding again that China allow its currency to float against the dollar – arguing that a weak yuan is hurting American business.

But is China really listening? Its global expansion takes in every corner of the globe. And its influence is growing. Will this be China’s century? Will the US have to live in China’s shadow?

Inside Story, with presenter David Foster, discusses.

Tags:
InsideStory, Inside, Story, David, Foster, Simon, Chen, Mohan, Guruswamy, Steven, Ekovich, China, US, Obama, Hu, Jintao, dollar, yuan, currency

Tvs Motor Q3 PAT Zooms Over Two Folds Price In India

NEW DELHI: Riding on strong sales growth, Chennai-based TVS Motor Co on Thursday reported an over two-fold jump in its profit after tax for the quarter ended third December 31, 2010 at Rs 55.75 crore.

Profit after tax in the previous comparable quarter was at Rs 23.54 crore, the company said in a statement.

During the third quarter this fiscal, sales revenue grew 51.23 per cent to Rs 1,647 crore from Rs 1,089 crore in the same period last fiscal.

The company said its board has approved a 50 per cent interim dividend for the financial year ending March 31, 2011 at Re 0.50 per share on 47.5 crore equity shares of Re 1 each, absorbing a sum of Rs 27.70 crore, including dividend distribution tax, it said.

Total two-wheeler sales grew by 39 per cent in the third quarter to 5.18 lakh units from 3.72 lakh units, it added.

Motorcycle sales grew by 40 per cent to 2.11 lakh units, while that of scooters increased by 64 per cent to 1.24 lakh units during the quarter, it said.

Two-wheeler exports grew 17 per cent to 51,394 units from 43,696 units in the year ago-period.

Three-wheeler sales during the quarter grew 212 per cent to 10,079 units in the quarter ended December 2010 from 3,225 units in the corresponding period last fiscal, it said.

The company’s scrips were trading at Rs 62.10 per share on the Bombay Stock Exchange in the afternoon trade, up 1.14 per cent from the previous close.

But you asked the Authority to establish an appropriate copyright regulations, which need to be updated considering the radical growth of the Internet and its services. Great news because it could also affect the future of the dissemination of news online.

Meanwhile, the issue with the Antitrust Authority has closed at a time when Google has ensured that will allow publishers to select or remove content on Google News Italy, which will make known to the editors of revenue-sharing quotas that determine the remuneration inventory, and remove the ban on recognition of clicks by the companies that carry its advertising platform.

The search engine also ensures the maintenance of a separate Google News software that gives publishers the opportunity to decide what content can be used to make news in Google News, without affecting indexing on the search engine Google Web Search. The editors, that is, they can act on the news published, or choose to remove the content and, finally, you also removed the ban on collection of readings of articles by users.

In addition, the Italian subsidiary of the group is committed to transparent management of the AdSense program, the platform of advertising run by Google that promotes the interaction of advertisers with publishers. We recall that a few months ago, the Antitrust Authority opened an investigation into Google for dominance on the relationship between Google News and the news of the press and online networks and the Mountain View giant was now willing to cooperate.

Author:

Marcello Tansini
=======================================================================================
a cura della Redazione

Si chiude la diatriba fra Google e l’Antitrust, che ha accettato gli impegni del motore di ricerca in merito alla questione del rapporto tra contenitore e contenuto di Google News.

Ma l’Autorità ha chiedesto alle istituzioni un adeguamento delle normative sul diritto d’autore, che necessitano di un aggiornamento considerando la radicale crescita di Internet e dei suoi servizi. Una notizia importante perché potrebbe condizionare anche il futuro della diffusione delle news online.

Nel frattempo, la questione con l’Antitrust si è chiusa nel momento in cui Google ha assicurato che consentirà agli editori di rimuovere o selezionare i contenuti presenti su Google News Italia, che renderà note agli editori le quote di ripartizione dei ricavi che determinano la remunerazione degli spazi pubblicitari, e che rimuoverà il divieto di rilevazione dei click da parte delle imprese che veicolano pubblicità con la sua piattaforma.

Il motore di ricerca garantisce, inoltre, il mantenimento di un software separato per Google News che dà agli editori la possibilità di decidere quali contenuti giornalistici rendere utilizzabili su Google News, senza pregiudicarne l’indicizzazione sul motore di ricerca Google Web Search. Gli editori, cioè, potranno agire sulle news pubblicate, per rimuovere o selezionare i contenuti e, infine, sarà anche rimosso il divieto di rilevazione delle letture degli articoli da parte degli utenti.

Inoltre, la filiale italiana del gruppo si è impegnata a rendere trasparente la gestione del programma AdSense, la piattaforma di raccolta pubblicitaria gestita da Google che favorisce l’interazione degli inserzionisti con gli editori. Ricordiamo che qualche mese fa l’Antitrust aveva aperto un’indagine su Google per posizione dominante in merito al rapporto tra Google News e le notizie degli organi di stampa e network online e il colosso di Mountain View si era subito detto disposto a collaborare.

Autore:

Marcello Tansini

Dr Parvez said that the country has a strategic capability, which is strong enough to deter and frustrate the evil designs of anyone.

He said that more than 10 nuclear power plants would be established in the country for generating around 1000 MW power including one for which ground-breaking would be done in not-too-distant future in the very neighbourhood of KINPOE.

He said that this is going to be a long battle but we will win this because all it requires is the will, determination, and commitment.

Dr Ansar Parvez said that PAEC has also been contributing to the socioeconomic sector and it has 14 medical centers, which have been set up in various cities throughout the country, and four more are under construction. He added our agricultural center and biotechnology institutes are also making a contribution to the agriculture sector of Pakistan.

He said all graduates of KIPE should show commitment in their work and know that there is no substitute to hard work. He said the PAEC would provide many opportunities to KIPE’s graduates. He also congratulated all the graduate students and hoped that they would be played their due role for country’s development in future.

Dr Mohammad Aslam, Rector of Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences (PIEAS) said that the PIEAS has a very good reputation for conducting quality degree programmes at postgraduate level. He said that the PIEAS has been very successful and around 10 scholars are completing their PhD every year and every PhD graduate, on the average, is making 5 to 6 publications in ISI-indexed journals.

He said that the students are motivated to work with dedication for development of their country. He said that PIEAS and KINPOE would share their best practices in order to improve the students’ learning experience, enhance the quality of their research and scholarship, serve the community to the best of their ability, adding PIEAS and KINPOE would commit themselves to excellence in science and engineering education and provision of education and training, which fulfill the needs of PAEC and other strategic organisations.

On this occasion, Director KINPOE, Najmus Saqib said that the KINPOE has now been affiliated with the PIEAS, which is a leading institute of higher learning. He said that in this convocation, degrees to 36 graduates of the 15th and 13 graduates of the 16th batch have been awarded. He said these graduates are now working in different establishments of PAEC and also in PNRA. ppi

13 truckloads of onion imported from Pakistan

‘We are in touch with the government of Pakistan. We have initiated talks,’ External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna told reporters here.
Retail prices of onion jumped up by Rs5-10 per kg to up to Rs65 in metros due to lower supplies and on reports of Pakistan’s ban on export of the commodity to India via the Wagah border.

Retail prices of the premium quality onion rose maximum in Mumbai by Rs10 to Rs65 per kg, while in Delhi and Chennai by Rs5 each to Rs65 per kg. In Kolkata too, prices rose by Rs5 to Rs55 per kg, according to the reports from these centres.

“Retailers have jacked up the prices of onions on reports of the ban on export by Pakistan,” said Rajendra Sharma, general secretary of the Tomato and Onion Merchants’ Association in Azadpur mandi in the national capital.

The wholesale prices in Delhi’s Azadpur market have remained unchanged at Rs45 per kg for last two days, but retail prices are soaring, he said.

Pakistan banned the export of onion to India to control inflation in its own country. About 300 tonnes of onions contracted by state-run STC are stuck at the Wagah border.

According to the data maintained by the National Horticultural Research and Development Foundation (NHRDF), wholesale prices of onions in Mumbai were unchanged at Rs45 per kg. In Kolkata, prices rather declined by Rs5 to Rs50 per kg.

But in Chennai, the wholesale price of the commodity increased by Rs 9 to Rs 64 per kg today, the data showed.Retail prices of onion had touched the peak ofRs 70-85 per kg on December 22 due to crop damage in key growing states Maharasthra and Karnataka.

As a result, the country’s onion production is likely to dip by 12.5% to 10.5 million tonnes this year, against 12 million tonnes last year, according to NHRDF.
‘Before not too long, we are hopeful that we will find a solution to this problem, thereby easing the pressure within our country for onions,’ he added.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Vishnu Prakash said: ‘The matter has been taken up with the government of Pakistan and we hope that it can be resolved.’

The government urged Islamabad Thursday to review its decision. ‘We have urged them (the authorities in Pakistan) that the contracted quantities, which were to come via the land route, should be released,’ Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said.

Earlier this week, Pakistan stopped 300 trucks carrying the bulb to India via the Wagah border crossing after complaints that exports to India had caused a sharp spike in onion prices in Pakistan.

The prime minister said the decision was made keeping in mind the opinions of all political parties.
They also took into account the protests over the hike in petroleum prices and decided to reverse the prices back to the rates that were effective on October 31, 2010.

The Prime Minister also urged a parliamentary committee be formed for developing strategies to overcome the issue of fluctuating prices of oil and petroleum.

Leader of the opposition, Chaudhary Nisar appreciated and lauded Gilani’s decision in the National Assembly.

Source: Express Tribune.