Human error to blame for Grady data breach

By CRAIG SCHNEIDER

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Private medical records of Grady Memorial Hospital patients were made public on the Internet, in a way that has become an increasing concern to information security experts.

Human error — not hackers — apparently caused the medical records of 45 patients to make their way onto an unsecured Web site in July, where they remained for a few weeks, Grady officials said.

Recent headlines:

• Air quality a bit better in Atlanta 
• CNN anchor gets restraining order 
• Fast lines at Hartsfield this week -- for a fee 

   • Atlanta and Fulton County news

The records were thought to be on a secured Web site, but the site turned out to be unsecured and open to the public, officials said.

Grady has since made sure the information has been removed from public access, said Grady lawyer Timothy Jefferson.

At a time when more and more information is stored and moved electronically, often on Internet sites protected with passwords and firewalls, experts say they see an increasing amount of information inadvertently slip onto unsecured sites and become available to the World Wide Web.

"Very few keystrokes can make a system that is secure become unsecure," said Tom Dager, director of information technology at SecureWorks, an Atlanta information security firm. He said he is seeing more data breaches due to human error than from hackers.

The Grady data breach follows an incident earlier this year. WellCare of Georgia, a partnership between the state Department of Community Health and private health care management organizations, reported that the private records of 71,000 Georgia families who are members of the state health insurance programs were accidentally made available on the Internet for several days.

Any time private health information is made public, it is a potential violation of federal HIPAA regulations, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

The Grady problem also speaks to the dangers of outsourcing work on such information, said Dager, the security expert.

The information on the 45 patients included doctor's notes on patients, and possibly names and ages of patients, medical conditions, diagnosis and medical procedures. It did not include Social Security numbers, patient addresses or any credit card information, said Grady spokeswoman Denise Simpson.

Grady outsourced the job of transcribing the notes to a Marietta firm, Metro Transcribing Inc., which outsourced the work to a Nevada contractor, Renee Lella. Lella, in turn, turned the work over to a firm in India, Primetech Infosystems.

Attempts to reach the firms in India and Nevada were unsuccessful Monday. Caroline Johnson, president of the Marietta firm, issued a statement Monday saying the breach was "totally unintentional. It was thought that the Internet site was entirely secure and it was not."

The problem was discovered when a Grady doctor performed a search of his name on Google, and found information on his patients, said Jefferson, the Grady attorney.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution learned the details of the data breach from documents obtained through the state open records law. Hospital officials said they had initially been told that the patients information had been stolen. But further review revealed there was no theft — that the India firm had let the information slip onto the Internet, according to correspondence from Grady's legal firm, Alston and Bird, to the Marietta contractor.

Grady has notified the patients of the security breach and officials say there is no indication that patients suffered due to it.

Jefferson said Grady is close to hiring a separate contractor to transcribe these medical records, and that the contract will stipulate that the company does the work itself.

Staff researcher Richard Hallman contributed to this article.

ndia bans dairy products from China Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: India has imposed a three-month ban on import of dairy products (including milk and milk products) from China following reports of deaths of Chinese kids after consuming toxic milk products.

"The import from China of dairy products including milk and milk products is prohibited for three months with immediate effect and until further orders," said an official notification issued by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade, under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

Many countries across the world, including the U.S. and European nations, have banned import of milk products from China after the widespread contamination scare in China.

Melamine, used for making plastics and fertilizers, was found in infant milk and other dairy products of several Chinese firms.

The dangerous chemical can cause kidney stones as well as failure of the organ.

However, experts here say that the import ban will have no major impact in India, which is the world's largest milk producer with an output of 102 million tons (2007-08). It is more of a preventive measure as officially there are no figures for India importing milk or milk products from China, they added.

ndian Stocks Drop Most in Two Months, Led by Banks, Infosys

By Pooja Thakur

Sept. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Indian stocks fell, with the benchmark index declining the most in two months, after efforts to shore up paralyzed credit markets failed to assuage concerns that the global economy will slip into recession.

Lenders led declines, with ICICI Bank Ltd. dropping 12 percent to its lowest in more than two years, after Fortis received a $16 billion bailout, Bradford & Bingley Plc was nationalized and concern grew that a U.S. rescue plan will fail to prevent more bank collapses. State Bank of India fell 2.1 percent, the lowest in a month.

``The U.S. bailout package, even if it comes through, is not going to act as a magic wand and solve all problems,'' said Ajay Bodke, who helps manage the equivalent of $872 million of stocks at IDFC Mutual Fund in Mumbai. ``The details of how they will utilize the money in the package will be important to see.''

The Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensitive Index, or Sensex, fell 506.43, or 3.9 percent, to 12,595.75, the most since July 29. All but one of the 30 stocks in the benchmark declined.

The S&P CNX Nifty Index on the National Stock Exchange slid 135.20, or 3.4 percent, to 3,850.05. The BSE 200 Index declined 4 percent to 1,527.24. Nifty futures for October delivery fell 2.8 percent to 3,888.

ICICI, the second-biggest lender, declined to 493.30 rupees, the lowest since July 21, 2006. State Bank, the nation's largest lender, slid to 1,405.45 rupees, the lowest since Aug. 29. HDFC Bank Ltd., the No. 3, fell 3.6 percent to 1,200.35 rupees, the lowest since Sept. 17.

Software Companies

Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. led software exporters lower on concern the collapse of their financial services clients will hurt revenue and profits.

India's largest software exporter, Tata Consultancy, dropped 8.3 percent to 620 rupees, the lowest since July 14, 2005. Satyam Computer Services Ltd., the fourth-largest software services provider, fell 9.1 percent to 293.05 rupees, the lowest since June 14, 2006.

European governments agreed to invest in Belgium's Fortis and the U.K. seized Bradford & Bingley. Futures on the U.S. Standard & Poor's 500 Index declined 1.2 percent today. President George W. Bush and congressional leaders said yesterday they reached an agreement on a $700 billion bank-rescue package.

``Investors have been pulling out money as they turn increasingly risk-averse,'' said Bodke at IDFC.

The rupee slumped to a five-year low as stock declines spurred fund outflows. Overseas investors sold a net 7.04 billion rupees ($151 million) of Indian stocks Sept. 25, increasing their net outflow this year from equities to $9 billion, the nation's market regulator said.

The rupee fell to as much as 47.115 per dollar, the lowest since June 2003, before closing trading at 46.985 in Mumbai.

The following were among the most active stocks traded on the Bombay and National Stock Exchanges. Stock symbols are in parentheses after company names:

Aztecsoft Ltd. (AZTEC IN) added 8.05 rupees, or 18 percent, to 53.20, the most since Dec. 7, 2007. MindTree Consulting Ltd. (MTCL IN) the Indian computer-services provider that is buying a controlling stake in Aztecsoft offered 2 shares of MindTree for every 11 shares held by Aztecsoft shareholders, MindTree said in a statement to the Bombay stock exchange. MindTree added 4.05 rupees, or 1.3 percent, to 314.40.

HCL Technologies Ltd. (HCLT IN) dropped 17.50 rupees, or 8.2 percent, to 195.40, the most since March 17. The Indian software- services provider controlled by billionaire Shiv Nadar Sept. 26 offered to buy U.K. software consultant Axon Group Plc for about 441 million pounds ($814 million) in cash, trumping a bid by Infosys (INFO IN). HCL is offering 650 pence a share, more than the 600 pence offered by Infosys, HCL said on Sept. 26. Infosys slid 53.60 rupees, or 3.7 percent, to 1,393.30, its lowest since March 24.

Hindalco Industries Ltd. (HNDL IN) slid 2.65 rupees, or 2.7 percent, to 96.70, the lowest since June 16, 2005. The Aditya Birla group may acquire half the stock on sale in group company Hindalco's rights offer by buying the unsold shares, it has told the Securities and Exchange Board of India, the Mint newspaper reported, without saying where it got the information. The founders own 31.43 percent of Hindalco, according to the paper.

The 50.50 billion rupee rights offer, which closes Oct. 10, is priced at 96 rupees apiece, Hindalco said in August.

Suzlon Energy Ltd. (SUEL IN) dropped 21.75 rupees, or 12 percent, to 153.50, the lowest since Nov. 25, 2005. India's biggest wind-turbine maker approved a rights offer of shares to raise as much as 18 billion rupees to help complete the acquisition of an additional stake in Repower Systems AG.

Tata Motors Ltd. (TTMT IN) declined 19.95 rupees, or 5.3 percent, to 354.60, the lowest since Nov. 14, 2003. India's largest truck maker, which is making the world's cheapest car, may face farmer protests in the northern Indian state of Uttarkhand if the government gives additional land for the planned Nano car project, the Press Trust of India reported on Sept. 26, citing Hanif Gandhi, a member of Kisan Kisani Abhiyaan group that is planning to protest against the provincial government's plan.

To contact the reporters on this story: Pooja Thakur in Mumbai at pthakur@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: September 29, 2008 08:07 EDT

Luckily for most white collar workers in the 21st Century, the "Office Space" atmosphere of  your workplace is becoming extinct. From four-day work weeks to telecommuting and working from anywhere via wireless networks, most companies are as liberal as ever with their employees - long as some work is still getting done. Nissan has taken the concept of working from outside the cubicle and turned it into working from the road - check out Nissan's NV200 Mobile Office concept.

The auto maker calls its NV200 Mobile Office "A Smart Business Tool of New Generation, for Active Professionals." NV200 combines storage with an office space that has the ability to extract its interior out like a drawer. This allows all your workstation items to be at arms reach while traveling. When parked, you can extend a large storage space to reach any valuables or tools. You can contact clients or get your paperwork done while parked at a lake or beach - then take your scuba gear out for a run during a lunch break.

Nissan states their interiors of the NV200 Mobile Office concept creates an efficient work space with a human touch. Its cargo area is customizable, so you can switch and swap out storage areas for whatever your hobby or business requires.

Get ready to see your co-workers rolling past the office in their Nissan NV200 sometime in the next few years.

India's Tata Motors Removes Equipment From 'Cheapest Car' Plant
By VOA News 24 September 2008

India's Tata Motors has begun removing equipment from its "cheapest car" factory in eastern India, after no resolution in a land dispute.

A Tata spokesman would not comment Wednesday, but there are reports that the equipment is being moved from the Singur plant in West Bengal state to Tata's existing facility in the northern state of Uttarakhand.

A first look at the world's cheapest car, Tata's Nano, 10 Jan 2008

The Tata plant was set to manufacture what is being called the world's cheapest car - the "Nano."

Work has been shut down for several weeks after deadly protests by the West Bengal's opposition party, which says that local villagers were unfairly compensated for their land, that was used to build the factory.

Efforts to resolve the standoff have failed, with protesters recently rejecting a government offer to return 30 hectares of land.

Tata officials have said they are considering moving the plant out of West Bengal.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.

Why Indian Farmers Are Fighting Tata's Nano

To lure the automaker, West Bengal seized small farms to give Tata nearly 1,000 acres—and so far it has rejected compromise proposals

by Mehul Srivastava

On a highway lined with policemen, in front of protestors armed with anger, one of India's most charismatic politicians has the crowd enthralled. "We who have so little, have so little greed," yells Mamata Banerjee, a firebrand leader who is leading protests here against a new factory for Tata Motors (TTM), part of the powerful conglomerate the Tata Group (BusinessWeek.com, 8/25/08). Banerjee throws a rhetorical barb at the group's chairman, Ratan Tata, scion of a family that brought Western-style industrialization to India. "You, Mr. Tata, why are you so greedy?"

Here, in the 90-degree heat of India's never-ending summer, nearly 40,000 protesters have brought to a halt the production of the world's most eagerly awaited car—the Nano, the $2,500 "People's Car" that Tata unveiled in January and that's supposed to start selling in October (BusinessWeek.com, 1/10/08). That timetable is now in jeopardy, after more than a week of protests shuttered the $350 million plant that Tata Motors built in Singur, a small town two hours from Kolkata. About 5,000 riot police now keep an eye on local farmers, most of them poor and illiterate, who are leading the resistance amid complaints the government and Tata unfairly seized their land in a drawn-out, three-year process.

With the two sides at a standoff, Tata's Nano project—originally an example of Indian innovation in creating products to suit the needs of low-income consumers—has now turned into a symbol of one of the most intractable problems facing modern India: How, in a land crowded with more than a billion people, where property holds both profoundly sentimental and measurable economic value, does modern industry find a foothold?

Walling Off the Land

In Singur, that conflict haunts the life of Mahadev Das. The 34-year-old farmer woke up one day in 2006 to find that the state government of West Bengal had decided to take his three-and-a-half-acre plot of land and add it to the nearly 1,000 acres it was giving to Tata. In exchange, Tata would bring production of the Nano to the investment-starved state, which has been ruled for more than three decades by a democratically elected Communist government that is only now flirting with large corporations. Early in 2007, Das remembers being held back by policemen as he watched a wall being constructed around land that he had inherited from his father. "For a farmer, land is life," he says, standing outside the gates of the factory, as almost 30 policemen keep watch on him. "If you take away my land, you might as well take away my life."

On an eight-kilometer motorcycle ride through the lush, green fields of his childhood, where farmers plant paddy fields by hand and women wash their family's laundry in a communal stream, Das is never far away from that gray wall. "I hate that wall," he says. "I never thought I was capable of this kind of hatred."

The government says it paid farmers the current market price for the land—from $10,000 to $20,000 per acre, depending on fertility. "If the issue is compensation, it can be discussed," says Biman Bose, among the most senior leaders of India's Maoist Communist party. "But this is rejection of progress, these kinds of protests."

Unacceptable Compromise

Farmers nonetheless insist they had no choice but to accept the factory plan. They also say the prime location of the plant, less than 50 yards from a major highway that leads to major cities and to the port of Kolkata, indicates that the land should be worth more than what the government offered to pay.

Back on the highway, now abandoned by cars and crawling with thousands of full-time protestors, opposition leader Banerjee, visibly weakened from nearly a week outside the factory gates, holds a microphone and, with a lusty voice, leads a constantly swelling evening crowd in protest. "Tata Babu," she says, referring to Chairman Ratan Tata, "you may be rich, but no matter how many times you say Nano, we say No-No."

Later, in a rare interview, Banerjee is adamant that she doesn't want to kick Tata out of West Bengal. "Both agriculture and industry can survive together," she says. "Why should agriculture and industry war with each other?" Her compromise—roundly rejected by the state's chief minister and by the Tata Group—is that Tata be allowed to keep the 600 acres on which it has already built and return the remaining 400 acres to the farmers. "Why does a modern car plant need a thousand acres?" she asks.

Tata Motors declined comment, but on a weekend visit to Kolkata, the company had threatened to pull the project out of West Bengal if the government did not come up with a solution by early September. That may just be an empty threat—otherwise, it's a highly expensive option. With the plant 85% complete, Tata would lose its $350 million investment and have to spend another $50 million to $100 million to relocate, says independent auto consultant Ashwin Chotai. The bigger problem, he says, is that to keep prices low on the world's cheapest car, Tata had planned to have suppliers set up factories on the 400 acres in dispute. For now, most haven't relocated. "We are manufacturing the equipment here" in Gurgaon, a city outside Delhi, "and we ship it to whatever location Tata wants," says Arvind Kapur, chief executive of Rico Industries, which makes engine parts for the Nano. "Wherever the Tatas go, we will be there."

Srivastava reports for BusinessWeek from New Delhi.

In the world of innovation, where does India as a whole rank?

s Innovation India's Next Big Thing?

Posted by Marianne Kolbasuk McGee, Sep 23, 2008 05:35 PM

People tend to think of lower-cost IT services -- and not "innovation" -- when Indian outsourcer Wipro Technologies' name is mentioned. So, it may come as a surprise that $1 billion, or about a quarter of Wipro's revenue last year, was generated through R&D services -- including designing semiconductors, automobile parts, and a variety of electronic devices. Looking ahead, Wipro says those R&D services will become an even bigger chunk of the company's business.

The Indian R&D services market is expected to grow from $5 billion last year to $40 billion in 2020, according to Sachin Mulay, Wipro general manager, citing figures from a study by Indian software industry organization, Nasscom.

Wipro is currently "the largest third-party R&D services company in the world," says Mulay in an interview this week with InformationWeek. And "R&D is the next big thing in India," he says.

R&D isn't exactly new at Wipro, it's been providing R&D services for about 25 years, Mulay says. However, Wipro's revenue from this business has been growing nicely lately, at about 30% annually. While the company won't provide "forward looking statements," it does anticipate it will continue to be a major player as the third-party R&D market in India grows eightfold over the next decade or so, he says.

Wipro's R&D services outsourcing business will grow organically and through acquisitions, Mulay says. In the last few years, the company has acquired a few R&D service type companies, including Detroit-based Quantech Global Services, a mechanical engineering design and analysis firm in the automotive industry. ( If company A purchases company B (which was once known as being innovative), does that make company A innovative?)

While Wipro will provide local onsite R&D services to customers, the big draw in outsourcing this work to Wipro is the cost savings from having it performed in India. So that's where the bulk of the R&D activities take place. "The majority of design work will be done in India," even though Wipro does have small R&D teams in places like Mountain View, Calif., in the United States and in Germany.

Today, Wipro employs about 95,000 people worldwide, including 19,000 who work in its R&D services business, Mulay says. Fewer than 10% of those R&D services people are based at customer sites outside of India. Within the next two or three years, the company expects to have a total company headcount of about 200,000 workers.

Certainly, as Wipro looks to expand its R&D services business, the company faces other challenges. For one, Mulay admits that U.S. and other global customers can be uneasy about outsourcing R&D functions to third parties in India, but especially in making such moves public. Contracts with R&D customers "are extremely confidential, they're very sensitive," he says. Still, there are some customers willing to go public with these sorts of arrangements. For instance,Tivo (NSDQ: TIVO) has licensed Wipro-designed middleware that will be built into Tivo's high-definition DVRs, Mulay says.

Also, IT leaders often have their doubts about Indian firms' ability to bring innovation to the table. In an InformationWeek Research survey earlier this year, of 430 IT pros who work with Indian IT service providers, just 10% cite "innovative ideas" as one of the most significant benefits that would prompt them to use such services again; 72% cite lower costs.

Finding talent to work for third-party R&D services companies in India isn't easy, either. "The pool of people in R&D in India is quite limited," Mulay admits. For instance, the pool of R&D people in India tends to move around from employer to employer, often landing jobs at non-Indian companies that set up R&D shop in India.

"People like electronic engineers often end up taking jobs at captive R&D centers," he says. That's required Wipro to become "innovative in our recruiting, building stronger partnerships with engineering colleges" in India, he says. That means recruiting third-year engineering students to work for Wipro even before they graduate.

To help compensate for some of those challenges, it's Wipro's plan to expand its R&D services to cover "the complete ecosystem," he says.

For instance, along with its semiconductor design services for niche markets, Wipro will forge other partnerships to have those chips manufactured and delivered to the customer, as well. "In a sense, we're putting more skin in the game," he says. Instead of getting paid for the design of the chip, the company could instead generate revenue based on the market share that chip captures once it's shipped, he says. "We'll move from input revenue, to output revenue, to outcome revenue," he says. "We'll be joined at the hip with customers."

"We don't use outsource to describe our R&D services, we call it extended engineering," he says.

FINANCE

Japan's biggest bank to buy 20% stake in Morgan Stanley

The investment by Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group highlights the crucial role of Asia as the U.S. tries to restore health and confidence to its tottering financial system.

By Don Lee
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

September 23, 2008

SHANGHAI — Major Asian banks that have pulled themselves from the depths of their own economic crisis of the 1990s are showing now just how crucial a role they may play as the U.S. tries to restore health and confidence to its tottering financial system.

Japan's biggest bank said Monday that it planned to spend as much as $8 billion for a 20% stake in investment banking firm Morgan Stanley in New York. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group in Tokyo is one of a number of Asian banks that appear primed to seize buying opportunities.

For years, Asian nations have financed the heavy spending of the U.S. government and American consumers by investing much of their massive trade surpluses in U.S. government and corporate bonds.

With huge stockpiles of foreign reserves, China, Japan and other Asian countries have the wherewithal to plow much more money into distressed American assets in the coming months. Many Asian financial institutions, which a decade ago foundered from bad lending practices and mismanagement, today look a lot better than their U.S. counterparts.

But Washington's plan to borrow $700 billion to finance a banking system bailout could give foreign investors pause. On Monday the dollar plunged, signaling some global investors' concerns, analysts said.

The move by Tokyo-based Mitsubishi UFJ appears to be part of a previously announced strategy to expand in the U.S. Last month, it agreed to pay $3.5 billion for the 35% of UnionBanCal Corp., parent of San Francisco-based Union Bank, that it did not already own.

Meanwhile Monday, Japan's largest brokerage firm, Nomura Holdings, agreed to pony up $225 million for the Asian operations of Lehman Bros. Holdings Inc., which filed for bankruptcy protection last week.

"It says a lot about the strength of Japanese banks to be able to do this," Tu Packard, a senior economist at Moody's Economy.com, said of the Mitsubishi UFJ plan. "The Japanese have lots of experience dealing with troubled assets."

Morgan Stanley also had been in talks with China Investment Corp., China's sovereign wealth fund, which took a 9.9% stake in the U.S. investment bank last December. But an investment banker familiar with the discussions said there was not enough time to work out the regulatory and political issues involved in such a deal.

Like the Japanese, Chinese banks have plenty of experience with bad assets. Beijing has poured tens of billions of dollars over the years into its top state-owned banks to shore up their finances.

These banks had relatively small exposure to collapses such as that of Lehman Bros. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the biggest lender, said it held about $152 million in Lehman bonds. That's a trifling amount for a bank that last month reported after-tax earnings of about $9.5 billion in the first half of this year.

The lender had more than $44 billion in cash and cash equivalents as of June 30. The Bank of China, which reported nearly $129 million in Lehman debt, said it had about $69 billion in cash at the end of June.

Although Chinese banks have been slow to expand overseas, they have picked up the pace in the last couple of years, along with many other Chinese companies. Industrial and Commercial Bank and others have invested in foreign banks and moved to set up branches overseas. Last year, China Minsheng Banking Corp. bought a 9.9% stake in the San Francisco-based parent of United Commercial Bank.

There is growing caution, though, in China and the rest of Asia about investing further in the United States. Spooked by the yearlong U.S. financial meltdown, Asian governments have slowed the pace of their purchases of American securities in recent months.

Still, five of the eight top foreign holders of U.S. government and public-sector debt are Asian countries, according to Moody's Economy.com.

China and Japan alone hold more than $1.7 trillion in U.S. Treasury and so-called agency bonds, mostly debt issued by mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. That's nearly half of all the foreign holdings of long-term U.S. Treasury and agency debt.

The recent U.S. government takeover of Fannie and Freddie was partly prompted by a large sell-off in July of the companies' bonds by Asian investors, with Japan, China and South Korea accounting for a big part of that. Foreign investors were worried about the financial health of the private mortgage giants and were uncertain whether the U.S. would stand behind their debt.

Had the Treasury had not stepped in, there could have been an investor stampede out of such bonds and possibly other U.S. debt.

Some experts believe that Asian investors will be wary of substantially boosting their dollar holdings.

"I believe [China's] central bank will definitely decrease its proportion of dollars . . . and hold more gold and other currencies like the Euro," said Cao Jianhai, an economist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing.

At the same time, he said, it's not likely there will be any big immediate change, because that would contribute to a weaker dollar and further erode the value of China's holdings.

If Asia substantially pulled back on its purchases of U.S. securities, there could be significant implications for Americans. If the U.S. government had to print more money to support its needs, that would feed inflation. The U.S. could entice overseas investors into continued purchases of American securities by offering higher yields, but that would increase borrowing costs for the U.S. government -- and pinch consumers with higher rates on mortgages and other loans.

But more likely than any sudden moves, analysts say, Asia will continue a gradual shift to diversify its holdings.

"I think the Asian countries by and large are committed to global financial stability," Packard said. "As they say, we are all joined at the hip."

don.lee@latimes.com

Times staff writer E. Scott Reckard contributed to this report.

Gogoi blames Buddha for Singur - Assam not keen on Nano relocation, says CM

NISHIT DHOLABHAI

New Delhi, Sept. 22: The Tatas are welcome in Assam, but without the Nano. Claiming that the Left Front government in West Bengal was responsible for the Singur crisis in Hooghly district, Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi today said his state was not interested in offering land for manufacturing Nano. The Tatas have formally notified the West Bengal government that if the crisis in Singur is not resolved, the industry giant will shortly begin to look for options to get the Nano rolling. "Unless I have the land, how can I invite him for the Nano project? No, we don't want the Nano project," Gogoi said. Assam has already had a bitter experience of people's opposition to construction of a hotel and the Nano project would invite problems like eviction and rehabilitation, the chief minister said. To attract investors to the Northeast, the Centre has a Northeast Industrial and Investment Promotion Policy that offers tax sops to willing corporates. Gogoi claimed to have told West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee a few years ago that the rehabilitation problem was likely to arise because of the small car project. "But he said that people of West Bengal want big industry; now he has a problem. It is the West Bengal government's fault," the chief minister told journalists on the sideline of a news conference. Assam government has acquired a 750-acre project where a Tata-run educational institution will come up. The government has acquired 2,000 acres of land for a Knowledge Park with the people's consent. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has already invested in the northeastern state. Gogoi said he would meet the Tatas soon to discuss the company's investment and added that the Mahindras were also ready to invest in Assam. The chief minister was in New Delhi to meet officials of the 13th Finance Commission and seek the Centre's help on problems of erosion and floods in the Brahmaputra that have become a perennial problem for the state. Gogoi has termed erosion as a bigger problem than floods and demanded a special package.

'I do not see AIG selling stake in India'

Q&A: J Hari Narayan

Falaknaaz Syed / Mumbai September 23, 2008, 0:20 IST

Three months into his new assignment, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) Chairman J Hari Narayan is charting the road map for strengthening the regulatory framework and also dealing with the turmoil in the US. He spoke to Falaknaaz Syed about his plans for the sector and his impression about how the financial crisis will impact the insurance sector in India. Excerpts:

Also Read   News Now Paper Specials - F&O Update: Nifty Oct futures end at 14pts premium - FII-TO-FII TRADES: Pantaloon traded at 19% premium - Do not lose credibility with forces, IAF chief tells industry - N-deal with India to support 2.5 lakh high-tech jobs in US - US crisis may dampen FII investment in equities: CEA - Moser Baer receives Rs 415 cr from global investors More     Also Read   News Now Paper Specials - Govt revives plan to take FIIs out of FDI sector limits - Delink spectrum from licence, service, says Trai - Anil takes on Mukesh, again - Finance firms bank on emails, letters to calm fears - Anil slots Rs 60k cr for green energy - 'Younger ones get short shrift' More   Also Read   News Now Paper Specials   - Subprime Crisis: US faces economic turmoil - Fighting Inflation : Inflation at a 13-year high - Your Money : Personal finance - Credit Policy : RBI's monetary policy review - Tracking the downturn : Economic slowdown and its impact - Time Out : food, travel, sports, health...  More

Have the Tatas and AIG submitted their reports and do you see AIG selling its stake in life and non-life insurance firms to the Tatas?
No, AIG India has not yet submitted the report. However, we do not see the situation arising, where AIG has to sell the stake in Tata AIG Life and Tata AIG General. If AIG had to sell its assets, it would have done that before it approached the US Federal Reserve. The loan that AIG has received from the US Fed, compared to their assets, is small. AIG may have a cash-flow problem, but they are not that stressed out and so I do not anticipate AIG selling stakes in the two insurance companies in India.

Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) wants a higher limit on equity investment and has also sought other flexibilities. What have you decided?
The new investment norms will apply to future investments of LIC and will not apply retrospectively. The LIC chairman and his team met us to tell us about the constraints they will face, given the volume of investment lined up. Maintaining the prudential norms for exposure is very important. We do not want our insurance firms to be over-exposed. We want to take a conservative line and prefer stability. We are in dialogue with LIC.

When can non-life insurance companies decide the policy wordings on their own?
We need to build a consensus before freeing the wordings and, by December, we hope to do that. One, we need to get a consensus on certain wordings as a number of these terms carry specific meanings. For instance, in India, the word fire as used in insurance includes a whole lot of other perils and not just fire. Two, there are concerns that over time, we have used certain words, which have been examined by courts. Now, if we change them and bring in a new word, again there may be some judicial lack of clarity. So it is also important that the meaning of a word is as given by the court so that it reduces disputes later. We can see how other countries have done it. Besides, Indian documents are written in a stylised, archaic manner. So while we are releasing wordings, we have to work on making the style simpler.

Do you think banks should be allowed to sell products of multiple insurance companies?
At the moment, I am evaluating both the options (sale of single and multiple products). In the bancassurance model, as it stands today, 70-75 per cent of the transactions are with five banks. We also need evidence, which so far is not so forthcoming that the bancassurance model improves service. In case a bank wishes to move to a multi-product, multi-insurance company system, it can do so by setting up a broking company. Broking will come under the (purview of the) insurance regulator. But whether a bank can set up a broking company or not is an issue dealt with by the banking regulator (RBI).

How are you simplifying the wordings of health insurance policies?
We have managed to get a consensus on what pre-existing diseases should mean and that will be a standard across the industry. Another issue is on calculating age, as different companies do it differently. Now, we have a common platform on age. There are some other issues that still need to be sorted out. What is supposed to be covered and what are the circumstances in which a cover is unavailable have to be clearly spelt out. These are the two main elements and the rest is standard stuff.

Is Irda asking life insurers to reinsure more?
At present, in life, reinsurance is of the order of 2 per cent. It will be healthy for the industry if it is pushed up to 10 per cent. We are talking to life insurers and are suggesting they reinsure more. There are certain advantages you get. One, you get access to useful international expertise. It will enable the development of new products and, to that extent, the risk may be more widely shared. This may be important, especially if you have catastrophic events. It will also provide clarity.

Insurance companies hardly disclose any business figures other than the new business premium. What is Irda doing about it?
We consider it a priority area. We are looking at the governance issues of insurance companies very closely and we will be coming out with appropriate regulations. Also, we are in dialogue with experts such as the Institute of Actuaries of India, chartered accountants, the industry, the (life and general insurance) councils to figure out the range of indices or figures that we would like to publish on a systematic basis, not just premium figures.

As a continuation to last week's theme of supporting Michigan businesses, today I would like to provide you information regarding the biggest industry in our state, the automotive industry. It's a well known fact that Japanese automakers make higher quality vehicles than American automakers and has been for many years? Or is it???

 

That is what our media would like you to believe. They have no problem making front page news of every hiccup in the American auto industry. Yet when a similar event occurs with a foreign automaker, we rarely hear about it. Therefore, Mike Coogan from Wyandotte forwarded me some information recently that may change your opinion.

 

Did you know:

 

1.  Which country can boast that their brands occupy 2 of the top 3 spots for long-term reliability?
 
  Answer: United States.
Per J.D. Power Vehicle Dependability Study, Mercury and Cadillac are in the top 3, along with Lexus. An d in 2007, Buick was tied with Lexus for the top spot.

http://www.jdpower.com/corporate/news/releases/pressrelease.aspx?ID=2008115

2.        As of August 2007, which manufacturer had the most recalled vehicles in the U.S. for that year?
 
Answer: Volkswagen.
According to Business Week, Volkswagen had the most recalls at this time a year ago.  The second worst was Toyota.  
 
3.  Which midsize sedan has the highest initial quality?
 
Answer:  The Chevrolet Malibu has better initial quality than any competitor, including the Honda Accord, Toyota Camry and Nissan Altima.  The Ford Fusion also beat all 3 Japanese competitors.  
This too is from the J.D. Power Initial Quality Survey, which also reveals that above average are American brands Mercury, Ford, Cadillac, Chevrolet , Pontiac, Lincoln, and Buick.   Below average are import brands Acura, Kia, Nissan, BMW, Mazda, VW, Subaru, and Scion (and several others).
http://www.jdpower.com/autos/articles/2008-Initial-Quality:-Midsize-and-Large-Cars

4.  Which large sedan has the highest initial quality?
 
Answer: Again per J.D. Power, the highest quality large car is the Pontiac Grand Prix, beating the Toyota Avalon.  Two other Detroit cars that beat the Avalon are the Mercury Sable and Mercury Grand Marquis.
http://www.jdpower.com/autos/articles/2008-Initial-Quality:-Midsize-and-Large-Cars

5.  Which midsize pickup has the highest initial quality?
 
Answer:  The Dodge Dakota has the best quality for midsize pickups, proving that Chrysler too can beat the imports. Both the Dakota and the Ford Ranger beat the ToyotaTacoma. 
http://www.jdpower.com/autos/articles/2008-Initial-Quality:-Pickups-and-Vans

6.  Which car is the most economical overall?
 
Answer:  Per Edmunds.com, the premier automotive analysis site, the most economical car in America, taking into account not only mileage but all costs, is the Chevrolet Aveo.  The Honda Fit is #3 and the Toyota Prius is a distant #34.
http://www.edmunds.com/help/about/press/127806/article.html

7.   Which car did the Los Angeles Times describe as "a better car than BMW or Mercedes or Lexus or Infiniti"?
 
Answer:  "Cadillac makes a better car than BMW or Mercedes or Lexus or Infiniti, and that car is the 2008 CTS. No other car in the mass market dares so much as this expressive and audacious bit of automotive avant-gardism."  Dan Neil,20LA Times.
http://www.latimes.com/classified/automotive/highway1/la-hy-neil12dec12-pg,0,5427133.photogallery
 
8.  Which company makes the winner of the 2008 "Green Car of the Year" award?
 
Answer:  The Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid is the winner of this award.  How could a full-size SUV defeat the media darling Toyota Prius?  Read the link below and you will discover, "What's equally eye-opening is that the Tahoe's 21 mpg city fuel efficiency rating is the same as that of the city EPA rating for the four-cylinder Toyota Camry sedan. "  

Did you catch that?  A huge, full-size SUV from Chevrolet that gets the same city mileage as a 4-cylinder Toyota Camry!!  Chevy obtained this remarkable achievement through the use of its 2-mode hybrid system, a technology that Toyota does not have. And I was also personally involved in the design of the braking system for this vehicle. Therefore, purchasing it puts money directly into my and my coworkers' paychecks!
http://www.greencar.com/features/2008greencar/

9.   Which car was selected by the North American automotive press corps as the "North American Car of the Year" for 2007?
 
Answer:  Not only was the  Saturn Aura picked by the automotive press corps as better than the Honda Fit and the Toyota Camry, "When a panel of 47 journalists named the Saturn Aura the North American Car of the Year over the Toyota Camry, the vote wasn't even close, 205-89." Chicago Tribune, 1/15/07
http://www.northamericancaroftheyear.org/news.html

10.  Which car won the same award for 2008?
 
Answer:  GM again crushed the Japanese competition in 2008 when the Malibu received 190 votes to the Honda Accord's 95.   The Accord actually ca me in 3rd since GM's other finalist, the Cadillac CTS, received 165 votes.
http://www.northamericancaroftheyear.org/news.html

11.   Which company had a luxury vehicle, a midsize sedan, and a large truck removed from the Consumer Reports recommended vehicles list in October 2007 because of mounting quality problems?
 
Answer:  Toyota's much publicized quality problems resulted in Consumer Reports actually removing from their recommended vehicles list the Lexus GS luxury car, Camry V6 sedan, and Tundra pickup. This demotion occurred in October 2007.    
 
This Q&A list was put together by an employee of an American car company who just might lose his job because of public perceptions that do not match reality.  If you are one of the many Americans who gave up on Detroit's cars because of a bad experience many years ago, it's time to rethink your position.  Rethink Detroit.

 

Secondly, you also may be under the belief that buying a vehicle from a foreign automaker supports American jobs because it was built in America. Yes, that is true. But if you compare the amount of American jobs supported for every American vehicle sold to that of foreign automakers, the difference is almost 3 to 1!

 

Detroit automakers:  79 U.S. jobs per 2,500 cars sold in America.  
Foreign automakers:  33 U.S. jobs per 2,500 cars sold in America.  

 

That is because while purchasing a vehicle from a foreign automaker could support some American manufacturing jobs, purchasing a vehicle from an American automaker also supports all the design, engineering, finance, sales, marketing, HR, etc. jobs! And that does not include all of the jobs of their American suppliers.

 

Please take some time to educate yourself from the wealth of great information from these two websites. Our future depends on it!

 

http://levelfieldinstitute.org/

http://www.overthehillcarpeople.com/

 

Until next time . . .

 

Be Positively You!

 

                                                                                                                                  Pat Tardiff

 

p.s. To really make this newsletter work, we need your help. Therefore, do you have a positive experience to share with others? Just send me a short email summary of 400 words or less. Pictures are also encouraged.

 

p.p.s. Do you know someone that may benefit from the experiences we share? Then forward this letter and if they agree, they can just send an email to pat@BePositivelyYou.com with "I'd Like to Make a Positive Difference" in the subject line and I'll add them to the distribution list. Either way, we'd love to hear from you!

---

Want to do more with Windows Live? Learn "10 hidden secrets" from Jamie. Learn Now

What happened to the 100 year mortgage?

---

September 22, 2008

Foreign Banks Hope Bailout Will Be Global

By NELSON D. SCHWARTZ and CARTER DOUGHERTY

PARIS — The financial crisis that began in the United States spread to many corners of the globe. Now, the American bailout looks as if it is going global, too, a move that could raise its cost and intensify scrutiny by Congress and critics.

Foreign banks, which were initially excluded from the plan, lobbied successfully over the weekend to be able to sell the toxic American mortgage debt owned by their American units to the Treasury, getting the same treatment as United States banks.

On Sunday, the Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr., indicated in a series of appearances on morning talk shows that an original proposal introduced on Saturday had been widened. "It's a distinction without a difference whether it's a foreign or a U.S. one," he said in an interview with Fox News.

The prospect of being locked out of the bailout set off alarm bells among chief executives of overseas banks whose American affiliates also hold distressed mortgage-related assets, like Barclays and UBS. The original text provided access to the $700 billion bailout for any financial institution based in the United States.

As the day wore on, some raised their concerns with the Treasury Department, arguing that foreign institutions were both big employers and major players in the American capital markets. By Saturday evening, the language had been changed to allow any financial institution "having significant operations" in the United States.

While Mr. Paulson has agreed with that argument, the Bush administration is also leaning on foreign governments to pitch in with bailout programs of their own as needed. "We have a global financial system and we are talking very aggressively with other countries around the world, and encouraging them to do similar things, and I believe a number of them will," Mr. Paulson said on Sunday.

The request is expected to be discussed during a conference call among Group of 7 finance ministries scheduled for Sunday evening, a European official said.

Allowing foreign banks to participate in the federal rescue package has not yet drawn widespread scrutiny in Congress, where a number of lawmakers, including Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, have acknowledged that millions of American citizens do business with UBS, the Royal Bank of Scotland, and many other foreign-based banks in the United States.

But a number of lawmakers are wary that such an extension may worsen what could ultimately turn out to be a trillion-dollar bailout for Wall Street.

"I'm skeptical of the bailout, the whole bill is only a couple of pages long," said Representative Scott Garrett, Republican of New Jersey, who is a member of the House Financial Services Committee. As for the participation of foreign banks, Mr. Garrett said: "I have a concern with it, they probably should be treated differently, but Congress is really not getting any say."

Christopher Whalen, a managing partner at Institutional Risk Analytics, said that Mr. Paulson needed to justify why a wider bailout was in the national interest.

"Can you imagine the Congress floating a bailout for Deutsche Bank or UBS? It is the responsibility of the German or Swiss government," he said. "We shouldn't be bailing them out."

While politicians in the United States may emphasize the benefits for banks based overseas, the definition of what is a European or American bank has blurred in recent years with the growth of global giants like HSBC, Barclays and Deutsche Bank.

Deutsche Bank, for example, became a major player in the United States with its acquisition of Bankers Trust in 2001. It has written down more than $11 billion in investments linked to the subprime crisis.

Barclays, meanwhile, is on course to buy a significant portion of the North American operations of Lehman Brothers, the 158-year-old firm that filed for bankruptcy protection last week, helping to set off the global financial panic that forced Washington to act.

Gaining access to the relief was a top priority for European foreign financial institutions with banking operations in the United States, according to officials in industry and government.

They argued that the reputation of Wall Street and the United States government would suffer immensely if properly licensed foreign banks in the United States were shut out of the system.

"Who would open a bank again in the United States?" asked one executive of a major European bank who has been following the discussions.

At the same time, it was unclear how much European governments would bow to the Treasury Department's encouragement to set up national programs to deal with their own vast mortgage problems. Real estate markets in Britain, Spain and Ireland have been particularly hard-hit as their own housing market bubbles — which grew in tandem with America's — have collapsed.

Other governments have struggled to get budget deficits under control in the last few years. The German government, for example, has discouraged talk of a stimulus package, and British officials said Sunday that they were not working on a plan like that of the United States.

Robert Kelly, chief executive of the Bank of New York Mellon, said the central bankers around the world would probably be scrutinizing the American bailout proposal. "I would expect every finance minister is looking closely at what is happening in the United States, trying to hypothesize what the impact will be, and is thinking about the tools the Fed and Treasury have used," he said. "I would not be surprised, and probably expect, some of those tools to be used in Europe as well."

If the plan is approved in Congress and is signed into law, the benefits would be large for European banks with licensed operations in the United States, which incurred major losses from mortgage-linked securities.

UBS, the Swiss giant, has been among the hardest-hit institutions in the world; both its chairman and chief executive left amid more than $40 billion in write-downs. Even so, it still retains roughly $20 billion more in potential exposure to the troubled American housing market.

If a battle does develop in Congress over foreign participation, UBS, among others, is poised to make just these arguments. Officials at the Zurich-based giant point out the bank employs more than 30,000 Americans, is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and owns two broker-dealers registered under United States laws, UBS Securities and UBS Financial Services, better known to Americans as the former Paine Webber unit.

"These are Americans who work in New York," said one executive who requested anonymity because the American plan was still in development. "And they are working for a bank that was incorporated in the United States." One senior Wall Street executive said he believed that the proposal would apply to other institutions with regulated American entities. Credit Suisse, for example, includes the old First Boston Corporation, though that name was dropped years ago. He said the biggest issue being debated was what securities would be included in the proposal, and how the actual mechanism to buy them would work.

In Asia, the plan to purchase distressed assets drew little reaction over the weekend. Asian banks generally have not invested significant assets in American mortgage-backed securities.

The bigger question in Asia, bankers said, lies in how the American legislation will affect HSBC, the large British-based bank with significant operations in Asia. The bank's American subsidiary was a large buyer of mortgages over the last decade, and kept many of these mortgages on its books instead of trying to repackage and resell them as mortgage-backed securities.

Richard Lindsay, a spokesman for HSBC, said that senior management was still evaluating the situation and said it was a "positive step forward but it won't solve the problems of an overleveraged industry."

Eric Dash contributed reporting from New York, Keith Bradsher from Hong Kong and Julia Werdigier from London.