By Rob Cox The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own. It’s easy to sympathize with the collective glee that greeted JPMorgan’s shock revelation of some $2 billion of trading losses. The bank and its chief executive Jamie Dimon have received their long-awaited comeuppance. But this emotion – Dimonfreude, if you will – is dangerous. If one of the few big banks that managed to sidestep most of the credit crisis is proven fallible, confidence in the system itself will be shaken. Dimon and JPMorgan deserve a good knocking, to be sure. After all, this is the firm widely credited, if somewhat unfairly, with hammering the final nail into the coffins of not just Bear Stearns – which it bought ... Continue reading →

By Ross Colvin and Satarupa Bhattacharjya NEW DELHI | Wed May 9, 2012 12:46pm IST NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's main drug regulator has not been properly scrutinising some drugs before approving them, and some of its officials are colluding with drug firms and medical experts to circumvent procedure, according to a new parliamentary report. The report by parliament's health committee, the result of a more than year-long investigation, painted a chaotic picture of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), which oversees the licensing, marketing and trials of drugs in India."There is sufficient evidence on record to conclude that there is collusive nexus between drug manufacturers, some functionaries of CDSCO and some medical experts," it said.It recommended that the government re-examine certain drugs that ... Continue reading →

By Henry Foy and Ketan Bondre MUMBAI | Wed May 9, 2012 12:03pm IST MUMBAI (Reuters) - At the opening ceremony for Daimler AG's (DAIGn.DE) $850 million India factory, Chairman Dieter Zetsche stepped down from the cab of a gleaming yellow 25-tonne truck with scaled-down horsepower, a stripped-back gearbox and no sign of the iconic Mercedes-Benz three-pointed star on its grille. Daimler has been assembling high-end trucks in India for years, but its recently launched cut-price BharatBenz line has joined a trend by global heavy equipment manufacturers to compete in India's high-volume, high-growth - but cost-conscious - mass market.The potential is huge. Truck sales alone grew 18 percent in the year to March 2012 to over 800,000 vehicles, and are expected to double to 1.6 ... Continue reading →

By Harichandan Arakali and Sumeet Chatterjee BANGALORE/MUMBAI | Mon May 7, 2012 12:20pm IST BANGALORE/MUMBAI (Reuters) - The conservatism that served Infosys Ltd (INFY.NS) so well for three decades is now stunting its growth, prompting calls from investors for new blood at the top of India's showpiece outsourcer. Critics say Infosys also must shed its aversion to acquisitions, change its premium pricing strategy and make better headway in higher-end businesses like consulting to compete with global rivals IBM (IBM.N) and Accenture (ACN.N)."It's one thing to get to the top and it's another to stay there. Infosys is clearly struggling to stay there," said Eric Mookherjee, a Paris-based fund manager for Shanti India, which holds Infosys shares."In this scenario, what would you lose by bringing in ... Continue reading →

By Tony Munroe MUMBAI | Sun May 6, 2012 12:05pm IST MUMBAI (Reuters) - Whatever its intentions in cracking down on abuse of tax havens, India has alienated overseas investors with the timing and communication of its measures when it can ill afford to do so. India's move to target tax evaders through a general anti-avoidance rule (GAAR), along with a plan to retroactively tax the indirect transfer of assets, has spooked investors and added to an exodus of funds, battering the rupee.Starting on Monday, parliament will begin considering the finance bill that includes the tax proposals but final details may be a month or more away, government sources have said, which could prolong the uncertainty and aggravate a balance of payments shortfall."We are hoping ... Continue reading →

By Shamik Paul and Suvashree Dey Choudhury MUMBAI | Fri May 4, 2012 10:08pm IST MUMBAI (Reuters) - The Reserve Bank of India announced measures on Friday to bolster foreign currency inflows following a sharp fall in the rupee, although traders said the moves may not be enough to stem further near-term weakness. The rupee is down about 9 percent since the start of March and suffered steep falls in the last three sessions before recovering its daily losses on Friday. The RBI is believed to have stepped into the market to defend the currency on Wednesday and Thursday, and possibly Friday, traders said.However, with limited reserves and India's negative balance of payments, the RBI has little firepower to defend the rupee. Encouraging dollar inflows ... Continue reading →

By Subhadip Sircar MUMBAI | Thu May 3, 2012 7:18pm IST MUMBAI (Reuters) - The rupee slid to an over four-month low as India's policy uncertainty and worsening economic fundamentals are sparking concerns a rout is in the making, one that the RBI will be unable to prevent. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was seen stepping in to defend the currency via dollar sales for a second consecutive session on Thursday, which helped slow the pace of falls, but not expectations the rupee could head to the record low levels hit in December.The central bank's hands are seen tied because of India's relatively low foreign exchange reserves and a widening current account deficit aggravated by foreign capital leaving the country.Any further intervention would also ... Continue reading →

By Abhishek Vishnoi MUMBAI | Thu May 3, 2012 8:12pm IST MUMBAI (Reuters) - The chairman of road building and real estate firm IRB Infrastructure Developers (IRBI.NS) is being investigated by police in connection with the murder in 2010 of a man described as an anti-corruption activist. The news sent the company's shares down as much as 18 percent.Chairman and Managing Director Virendra Dattatray Mhaiskar and two other company officials are being investigated in connection with the murder of Satish Shetty, an official of the Central Bureau of Investigation told Reuters.They have been asked to take a polygraph lie-detector test and the results will be known in June, said the official, who did not want to be named said.Mhaiskar, who ranked 78th on Forbes' 2011 ... Continue reading →

By Manoj Kumar NEW DELHI | Thu May 3, 2012 9:40pm IST NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India will not retroactively tax portfolio investments and will shift the burden of proving evasion on tax to authorities, two government sources said on Thursday, providing a measure of comfort to foreign investors worried about proposed new rules. Overseas investors have been critical about a set of proposals India unveiled as part of its budget for the fiscal year that began in April, including a rule that would crack down on the use of tax havens, saying vague wording left it too open for subjective interpretation.However, foreign investors may have to wait a month or two for full clarity. While the finance bill that includes the new tax provisions ... Continue reading →

By Carrick Mollenkamp, Brett Wolf and Brian Grow NEW YORK | Thu May 3, 2012 7:30am EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - In April 2003, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and New York state bank regulators cracked the whip on HSBC Bank USA, ordering it to do a better job of policing itself for suspicious money flows. Staff in the bank's anti-money laundering division, according to a person who worked there at the time, flew into a "panic." The U.S. unit of London-based HSBC Holdings Plc quickly rallied. It hired a tough federal prosecutor to oversee anti-money laundering efforts. It installed monitoring systems for operations that had grown unwieldy during the bank's U.S. expansion. The aim, as HSBC said in an agreement with regulators ... Continue reading →