Bloodbath on bourses

London, New York: The US, Asian and European stock markets plunged on Monday as government bank bailouts in the US and Europe failed to alleviate fears that the global financial crisis would depress world economic growth.

Investors took scant comfort from Washington’s passage of a $700-billion plan to buy bad assets from banks and other institutions to shore up the financial industry on Friday because of the uncertainty still hanging over the details of the deal and the degree to which it will help. The selling on Wall Street began at the opening bell on Monday and only intensified as the morning went on. Shares moved sharply lower as the banking crisis tightened its grip on the global economy.

The broader American stock market was down more than 4.4 per cent, as measured by the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index, its worst decline since last Monday’s 8.8 per cent drop.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell below 10,000 for the first time since 2004 after losing more than 500 points in the first hour. The index has lost more than 1,100 points — or about 10 percent — in slightly more than a week.

Britain’s benchmark stock index, the FTSE 100, lost 220.11 to 4,760.14 — a 4.42 percent fall. The declines were led by the banking industry, with the mining and oil industries also suffering drops. HBOS PLC’s share price dropped 15.7 per cent, while the Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC fell 13.6 per cent.

Germany’s DAX index fell 4.22 percent to 5,552.27. France’s CAC-40 index dropped 4.85 per cent to 3,882.81. In Russia, the RTS stock index tumbled more than seven per cent in first 20 minutes of trading.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slid five per cent to 16,803.76. Markets in mainland China, Australia, South Korea, India, Singapore and Thailand also fell sharply. Indonesia’s key index plummeted 10 per cent, it’s biggest one-day drop ever.

In Russia, the RTS stock index tumbled more than seven per cent in first 20 minutes of trading.

"Everyone is losing confidence," said Mr Mark Tan, who helps manage about $20 billion of equities and bonds at UOB Asset Management in Singapore. "The problem now is that the lack of foreign confidence could affect the Asian consumer, which would lead to a bigger slowdown in Asia than expected."

Luxemburg, Oct. 6: The European Union finance ministers on Monday begin two days of talks to plot a strategy to contain the turmoil sweeping European banks and to debate ways to increase oversight of the financial sector.

While stock markets plunged across Europe, officials rejected suggestions of creating an EU-wide oversight body, saying governments would likely prefer closer coordination of national responses to help ailing banks.

On Saturday, the leaders of Germany, France, Britain and Italy signalled they would stay away from the sort of massive bank bailout package passed by the US Congress a day earlier. Instead, they offered help to small companies squeezed by the credit crunch with 30 billion euros ($41.5 billion) in European Investment Bank loans.

"This is a very serious situation and one that needs to be addressed," said EU spokesman, Mr Johannes Laitenberger.

"Obviously there is a great effort under way. Nobody is suggesting that this is business as usual, but it’s true that there is not one single magic bullet that will solve this."

On Monday, finance ministers from the 15 nations that share the euro will debate how to deal with the ripple effects from Wall Street’s meltdown, which has led European governments to either bail out troubled banks and mortgage lenders or guarantee billions of dollars in private savings.

The finance ministers will also discuss whether to step up supervision of financial institutions with operations across several EU nations, officials said.

The current turmoil has triggered calls for the euro-zone to soften the economic criteria underpinning the euro, most notably the requirement that a nation’s annual budget deficit cannot exceed three per cent of gross national product.

That is unlikely to happen. The three per cent target has long been contentious and three years ago — in an easing of the euro rules — governments were given room to use public funds to stoke growth in lean years.

Washington, Oct. 6: Stock markets are swooning, credit markets remain frozen, and some foreign officials are predicting that the United States will lose its status as a financial superpower. And yet the dollar — the most visible symbol of America’s financial might — is surging.

Last week, the dollar rose to its highest level in more than a year against the euro, the Canadian dollar and several other currencies. It rose even after the Bush administration’s rescue plan for banks had initially foundered in Congress and even in the wake of a dismal employment report on Friday.

The dollar’s surge seems counterintuitive. Previous financial panics — in Asia, Russia and Mexico — devastated the local currencies, as foreign investors stampeded for the door. The Thai baht, the Russian ruble and the Mexican peso were reliable barometers of confidence of foreigners in those emerging markets. As confidence crumbled, their exchange rates did, too.

But the dollar is not like any other tender. As the de facto reserve currency of the world, it benefits from global upheaval, even those that originate in the United States.

"It’s ironic, given that we just messed up big time, the response of foreigners is to pour more money into us," said Mr Kenneth S. Rogoff, an economics professor at Harvard. "They’re not sure where else to go."

On Sept. 17, when the collapse of Lehman Brothers sent stock markets around the world reeling, foreign investors rushed to buy Treasury bills, driving down the yield to nearly zero. That reflected the fact that investors were flocking to the safety of the United States government, even if it meant their investments would lose money when adjusted for inflation.

Indeed, the appeal of the United States reflects a lack of better options. Much has been made over the last few years about the rise of the euro as a rival to the dollar. But Europe hardly looks like a safe bet now, with its own crisis metastasising.

Japan’s banks are far more stable than those in the United States or Europe, which has made the yen the only major currency to rise in value against the dollar in recent weeks. But Japan, and Asia as a whole, is weakening, along with the global economy.

"It’s like the world is full of sick people," said Mr Ashraf Laidi, the chief currency analyst at CMC Markets, a trading firm. "The US was the first to check into the hospital, and went into intensive care. But then other countries started to feel the chill, and now they’re checking into the hospital."

Currency traders, Mr Laidi said, are betting that because the United States was the first to falter, it will be the first to recover. That perception has gained ground with the mounting problems in Europe, where more banks are failing by the day, and Germany and Ireland have guaranteed all deposits in an effort to stave off bank runs.

The dollar has also been propped up the Federal Reserve, which has set up a network of currency swaps with the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan, the Bank of England and other central banks to supply dollars to foreign banks. Acting on an unprecedented scale, the Fed expanded these swap lines by $330 billion, to $620 billion.

Mumbai, Oct. 6: Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), locked in a legal dispute over its gas supply contract with the state-run NTPC, on Mond-ay informed the Bombay High Court that it was willing to look for an out-of-court settlement.

"The matter can be settled amicably," RIL’s lawyer, Mr Milind Sathe, said.

Mr Sathe wanted the court to record that it was desirable for both the parties considering that the dispute involved a vital energy source to make an attempt to sort out the issue.

"This would help us in our efforts to settle," he said. However, the advocate-general, Mr Ravi Kadam, representing NTPC, opposed any such observation by the court. Finally, Justice R.Y. Ganoo merely recorded that RIL thought that settlement was possible.

The parties were at liberty to explore options of an amicable settlement side- by-side, the court said. The hearing has been adjourned till November 11, for the recording of evidence.

Reliance Industries won international tender floated by NTPC for supply of 12 million metric standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd) of natural gas for NTPC’s power plants in 2004.

But the two parties failed to reach an agreement on certain issues, including the cap on liability in case of breach of contract.

NTPC has now sued RIL, contending the contract had been concluded and the Mukesh Ambani-led company must perform it.

The outcome of the case would also affect the ongoing dispute between RIL and Reliance Natural Resources Ltd, which is supposed to get the gas earmarked for NTPC if RIL-NTPC contract fails.

Though RIL had expre-ssed its willingness to reso-lve the dispute, it appeared to rule out seeking the help of "independent authorities" for settling a similar row with Mr Anil Ambani’s RNRL.

The two cases are being heard by separate benches in the Bombay High Court and both involve supply of gas by Reliance Industries from its Krishna-Godavari basin gasfields.

In the case before a division bench of Justices J.N. Patel and K.K. Tated, Reliance Industries lawyer Harish Salve said the issues between RIL and Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL) were "legal issues" and only the High Court can solve them.

Bengaluru, Oct. 6: A host of a popular TV show asked a young girl in the audience — "If there is one thing that you could absolutely not do without in your life, what would that be?"  "My mobile phone" was her quick reply.

Considering the fact that 68 per cent of mobile phones in the sub Rs 3,000 price range bought by Indian consumers is largely bought by the youth, mobile phone manufacturers as well as consumer electronics stores are outdoing themselves by introducing at least 2-3 new models into the market every single month.  Deccan Chronicle caught up with them to find out that most are unveiling anywhere between 6-18 new models within a few days of each other this festive season.

While the price-conscious youth buy entry level mobile phones, they also want handsets that are stylish and easy-to-use. And these customers are not only getting exactly what they want, but much more with handset manufactures adding on features such as torchlight, dust resistant keypads, colour screens and multi-media capabilities like a camera and a radio. In an attempt to keep excitement levels high among the youth, with each new launch bringing in funky features and converged technologies, Samsung India has come up with a catchy, brand tag line: ‘Next is What?’

"We plan to unite the youth of the country with the power of music. It is they who are driving the demand for affordable multi-media phones with music and imagery," said Sunil Dutt, country head, Mobile Business, Samsung India Electronics Pvt Ltd. The company has launched 31 new mobile phone models this calendar year and plans to introduce 10 more models by the year end and the overriding feature in most of the models is music.

Samsung also unveiled Innov8 for its high-end customers, which it claims is the ultimate mobile entertainer, with an 8 mega pixel camera phone which offers a surround-sound cinematic video experience, mobile internet browsing and gaming capabilities for Rs 45,999. This launch comes shortly on the heels of its Karaoke Music Phone, Beat 270, its premium touch screen phone, TouchWiz and its all-in-one phone, Samsung Omnia priced at Rs 39,000. "With the launch of our new touch screen and music phones we expect the multi-media phone contribution to grow to around 40 per cent of our total product portfolio by the year end," stated Dutt.

Consumer electronics giant, LG’s strategy is to offer the most essential features to consumers from across the spectrum, irrespective of whether they are entry-level, mid-segment or high-end consumers with the promise of delighting them with each new feature. The company introduced the Secret K750 model, the slimmest, 5 mega pixel camera phone costing Rs 20,000 with scratch proof, tempered glass screen recently. And its KP199 phone for Rs 4,400 launched in the first week of September addresses two major customer needs in India — higher talk time and battery capacity. The phone offers upto 11 hours of talk time and upto 30 days of standby time through a high capacity 1350mAh battery, which is ideal for places where the power supply is irregular.

"We have launched 19 models in the Jan-Sept period and will announce half a dozen new models for the festive season, closing the calendar year with a total of 30 new models ranging from basic handsets to multi-media and high-end phones. While all the new models for the festive season are multi-media enabled, two are high-end models and rest are targeted at the mass market with prices starting from Rs 2,500 to Rs 20,000," said Anil Arora, Business Group head, GSM Handsets, LG Electronics India Pvt Ltd.

"India is a unique bipolar market, as consumption of mobile phones is being driven at both ends of the spectrum, from users who are just entering the folds of mobility to the evolved users, who look for more and more out of their device," said a spokesperson from Nokia.

The firm’s upcoming launches for the festive season include, N85, N79, Nokia 7310 and 7210 Supernova. The company which has tracked consumer tastes, preferences, monetary disparity and regional requirements after talking to 1,65,000 consumers from 27 countries, believes that ‘one size does not suit all’ and therefore has ‘A Nokia for everyone’. Thirteen new models were launched in India this calendar year with prices ranging from Rs 1,789 to Rs 34,999, all of which seek to create a personal connect with each target segment.

"Mobile phones are being positioned more as a lifestyle accessory. As a result, entry level consumers want colour phones with music and cameras and don’t hesitate to change handsets every six months," said R Swaminathan, regional head for Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh Circles, Reliance Communications. The company is going with the theme ‘my music, my pictures’ for the festive season and is introducing a series of co-branded mobile phones with LG, Motorola, Samsung and Blackberry for entry level to high-end consumers.

A visit to some of the major consumer electronics stores will reveal that most of the action and buzz in the technology section is centred mostly around the special mobile zones, designed to engage the youth. "We have uniquely designed gondolas which display a gamut of mobiles where customers can touch, feel and experience, before they buy," said Srikant Gohale, CEO, Impact Retail, a consumer electronics retailer which has inaugurated five 20,000 sq ft multi-level formats across the country.

Ajay Baijal, president & CEO of Reliance Digital, said rather than selling a box to a customer, it sells him an experience. "Our sales people guide him on how to record MP3 songs, click a picture or shoot a video. We also make sure that we have on display as contemporary a collection as possible every month. A certain level of hype has also been generated with the launch of the iPhone and the Nokia ‘N’ and ‘E’ series which will be further enhanced with many new launches from major players this festive season," he said.

New York, Oct 6: The cost of determining a person’s complete genetic blueprint is about to plummet again — to $5,000. That is the price that a start-up company called Complete Genomics says it will start charging next year for determining the sequence of the genetic code that makes up the DNA in one set of human chromosomes.

Such a price would represent another step toward the long-sought goal of the "$1,000 genome." At that price point it might become commonplace for people to obtain their entire DNA sequences, giving them information on what diseases they might be predisposed to or what drugs would work best for them.

"It’s a shockingly low price," said George M. Church, a professor of genetics at Harvard who is an adviser to Complete Genomics and to several other sequencing companies. Then again, the cost of DNA sequencing has dropped by a factor of 10 every year for the last four years, a faster rate of decline than even for computers, Dr. Church said.

DNA consists of a string of chemical units, usually represented by the letters A, C, G and T. The order in which those letters appear governs a person’s inherited traits. Sequencing involves determining that order. The human genome — the complete set of DNA — consists of about six billion letters, counting both members of each pair of chromosomes.

The first human genome sequence, completed by the federally financed Human Genome Project in 2003, is estimated to have cost a few hundred million dollars. Last year, the genome sequence of James D. Watson, a discoverer of the structure of DNA, was completed at a cost of about $1 million. Today, the cost is about $100,000.

Complete Genomics will not begin its service until the second quarter of next year. By then, the cost of competing technologies will no doubt have fallen further. Just last week, Applied Biosystems, a leading manufacturer, said it expected that its newest machine would allow a human genome to be sequenced for $10,000, although that includes only the cost of consumable materials, not labor or the machinery.

Knome, a company that offers to provide consumers with their DNA sequence, charges $350,000. The price includes sequencing costs, analysis of the data and the customer service.

California, Oct. 6: When PJ Haarsma wrote his first book, a science fiction novel for preteenagers, he didn’t think just about how to describe Orbis, the planetary system where the story takes place. He also thought about how it should look and feel in a video game.

The online game that Mr. Haarsma designed not only extends the fictional world of the novel, it also allows readers to play in it. At the same time, Mr. Haarsma very calculatedly gave gamers who might not otherwise pick up a book a clear incentive to read: one way that players advance is by answering questions with information from the novel. "You can’t just make a book anymore," said Mr. Haarsma, a former advertising consultant. Pairing a video game with a novel for young readers, he added, "brings the book into their world, as opposed to going the other way around."

Mr. Haarsma is not the only one using video games to spark an interest in books. Increasingly, authors, teachers, librarians and publishers are embracing this fast-paced, image-laden world in the hope that the games will draw children to reading.

Spurred by arguments that video games may teach a kind of digital literacy that is becoming as important as proficiency in print, libraries are hosting gaming tournaments, while schools are exploring how to incorporate games in the classroom. In New York, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is supporting efforts to create a proposed school that will use principles of game design like instant feedback and graphic imagery to promote learning.

Publishers, meanwhile, are rushing to get in on the action. Scholastic, the American publisher of the Harry Potter series, recently released "The Maze of Bones," the first installment in a 10-book mystery series that is tied to a Web-based game.

In advance of the publication of "Brisingr," the third book in the best-selling "Inheritance" fantasy series by Christopher Paolini, Random House Children’s Books commissioned an online game. About 51,000 people have signed up since June to play and chat on message boards on the site.

But doubtful teachers and literacy experts question how effective it is to use an overwhelmingly visual medium to connect youngsters to the written word. They suggest that while a handful of players might be motivated to pick up a book, many more will skip the text and go straight to the game. Others suggest that video games detract from the experience of being wholly immersed in a book.

Some researchers, though, say that even when children don’t read much text, they are picking up skills that can help them thrive in a visually oriented digital world. And some educational experts suggest that video games still stimulate reading in blogs and strategy guides for players.

To be sure, some of the experiments pairing electronic games with books will be little more than marketing gimmicks. But publishers and authors suggest that some projects may push creative boundaries, helping to extend storytelling beyond the traditional covers of a book. The premise of Scholastic’s series "The 39 Clues," for example, is that online players search for some of the clues themselves.

While video games may seem to have little in common with books, some see a connection.

"I think they are looking for the same thing," said Rick Riordan, author of "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" novels. "They are looking to be dropped into an intriguing story and to become a character in the story."