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Following the $20-billion bailout package announced by the US government, the beleaguered Citigroup Tuesday said its Indian operations were on track and that it was business as usual in terms of fresh recruitment and growth plans.

‘Throughout these difficult markets, Citi India has maintained strong and stable operating income, unparalleled access to funding, extraordinary levels of liquidity and the best talent in the business,’ Citi India’s chief executive Sanjay Nayar said.

‘Our business is strong and our support for our clients has been unwavering,’ he said in a statement after the US bank Monday announced the details of the bailout plan approved by the government.

‘We hope it puts to rest the unfounded rumours on our financial position and brings the focus back to the fundamentals of our global franchise,’ he said. ‘This announcement sends a strong signal to all our clients here in India about our continued commitment to serve them as we have been doing for more than 106 years.’

According to a spokesperson for the bank in India, there was also a minimal impact of Citi’s employment reduction in India.

‘We continue to hire in India, especially on campuses where we remain very active,’ the spokesperson told IANS.

‘What the media has reported with regard to job cuts are completely speculative, and we cannot confirm any of these except to repeat that there is minimal impact in India and we continue to be strong hirers and we have many open positions.’

The spokesperson also said that Citi’s other businesses such as its retail lending arm Citi Financial was also on track and it is business as usual.

In the statement announcing the details of the bail out plan, Citigroup’s global chief executive Vikram S. Pandit said: ‘This weekend, the US government and Citi worked together in an unprecedented way to address market confidence and the recent decline in Citi’s stock price.’

‘We reached an agreement based on an innovative market solution to further strengthen our capital ratios, reduce risk, and increase liquidity,’ Pandit said, adding: ‘We appreciate the tremendous effort by the government to assure market stability.’

He said Citigroup was committed to streamlining its business and providing outstanding banking services to clients across the globe. ‘We’ll continue to focus on opportunities and alternatives to further enhance the company’s overall position and value.’

The Citi Board of Directors has unanimously approved the transaction with the US government, the statement said.

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The rupee slid 0.6 percent to its lowest in three weeks on Tuesday as foreign portfolio outflow worries gathered momentum after the stock market extended a slide into a fifth session in a row.

Foreign funds have withdrawn $13.1 billion from Indian shares this year, adding to downward pressure on the rupee that has been weighed down by a widening trade deficit as export growth slows down.

Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said on Tuesday exports could miss the government’s annual target of $200 billion for this fiscal year as the slowdown in developed nations trims overseas demand.

The partially convertible rupee ended at 49.66/67 per dollar, off a low of 49.80, its lowest since Oct. 29 and weaker than Monday’s close of 49.34/36. It had hit a record low of 50.29 on Oct. 27.

“There was some dollar supplies coming in around 49.80 from some exporters,” said Agam Gupta, head of forex trading at Standard Chartered Bank.

Dealers said demand for the U.S. currency from custodial banks kept pressure on the rupee, and they expected the unit to head back past 50 if outflows continue.

The BSE Sensex fell 3.8 percent on Tuesday, taking its losses to 15.2 percent over five consecutive sessions, as prospects of a global recession and massive job cuts at Citigroup rattled investors.

One-month non-deliverable forward contracts were quoting at 50.42/57, weaker than the onshore spot rate, indicating a bearish outlook for the currency.

Chidambaram said the government would take steps to stimulate the economy and the rupee would strengthen again once capital starts flowing in.

With the easing of inflation rates and a growing global consensus to revive growths, Corporate India is betting on interest rate cuts to come sooner than later. And shrinking demand in recession-hit advanced economies is being cited to push for a case to revive growth fast.

There is also a growing case for a cut in consumer credit. “As the situation now is, as I see interest rates coming down, lenders will work in concert to ensure credit flow,” KV Kamath, managing director and chief executive of the country’s second largest lender ICICI Bank, told delegates at the annual India Economic Summit organised by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here on Sunday.

Kamath, who is also the CII president, said the signal repo (repurchase) rate should be reduced “by 200 to 300 basis points ( two to three percentage points).” The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has cut the cash reserve ratio-proportion of money banks have to park with the RBI-by 3.5 percentage points to 5.5 per cent,releasing about Rs 1,40,000 crore into the system over the last two months.

The repo rate-the rate at which banks borrow from the RBI-has been cut by 1.5 percentage points to 7.5 per cent. Rahul Bajaj, Chairman, Bajaj Auto, said that unfreezing of credit to consumers would act as a catalyst to arrest the downslide.

“The government should follow pro-growth policies. The government should consider reductions in indirect taxes like excise duties on some products to increase demand,” Bajaj said.

A fresh round of interest rate cuts could be announced over the next few days after inflation, fell to 8.98 per cent for the week-ending November 1, slipped to single-digit levels in data released last week after a 21-weeks, having hit a high of 12.91 per cent in August. Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu chief executive officer Jim Quigley urged India’s business and government leaders to remain focussed on growth strategies, including infrastructure investment and developing and retaining skilled workers.

“The strong domestic consumer base and the ability to create jobs makes the outlook about India optimistic and an above 6 per cent growth in the current environment is very impressive,” Quigley said. Rajat M. Nag, managing director-general, Asian Development Bank, Manila said that Asian economies would remain relatively unscathed due to the soundness of their financial systems.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon carried his concern for the poor to the G-20 leaders, asking them to take speedy action to ensure that current financial crisis does not deepen the human suffering. “We cannot allow it to become a reason for neglecting other critical issues: unacceptable levels of poverty and hunger, the food crisis and climate change,” Ban said in a letter to the world leaders, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who are in Washington for the G-20 summit.

This will be the first time that the G-20 summit aimed at promoting dialogue between advanced and emerging countries on key issues regarding economic growth and stability of the financial system has been organised at the level of heads of State, as well as the first time that the United Nations Secretary-General has been invited to attend. The cost of inaction is too great, the UN Secretary General stressed, warning that the “already fragile political and security situation” in many of the hardest-hit countries could take a turn for the worse.

During his discussions with the UN member States, he said, he gleaned some key messages need for “truly global” stimulus package underpinned by “green growth,” ensuring access to liquidity for poor nations and curbing protectionism. The Secretary General also said that part of the stimulus package must come from aid commitments and welcomed the latest International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank initiatives.

Lastly, Ban said in the letter released by the world body said that “inclusivity must be our watch-word on financial reform,” backed by a new multilateralism that is “fair, flexible and responsive.”

Reaffirming its commitment to market principles and liberalisation, the US today said that it expects a “thorough” discussion on the financial crisis and hoped world leaders will arrive at an agreement on reforms to stabilise the global markets when they meet here this weekend. “This will be the first step that the G-20 has met at leader level.

We expect a thorough discussion, of causes, of actions, near-term actions to be taken, longer-term actions to be considered, and, importantly, agreement on fundamental principles for reform. “So I would say we are expecting an important and vigorous discussion with some quite concrete results,” Special Assistant to US President for International Economic Affairs Dan Price told reporters.

“This is the first in a series and there will be further meetings, not only to review the decisions that may be taken at this meeting, but also to follow up and receive recommendations on areas where further work has been tasked,” Price said. Leaders from the G-20 including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, will converge here on Friday for the two-day discussions to discuss ways to overcome the financial downturn.

“There are a number of areas where important work could be done in the near term. We believe that leaders will want to come to some agreement on those areas of near-term work, put in some timeframes, and then be in a position to see where we are on achieving those by the time of the next meeting,” Price said at the White House briefing.

When it comes to aviation GPS one brand which comes in all minds is the Garmin Avionics. They are the leading manufacturer and sellers of the aviation GPS and top brand in the world. Especially they have a wide range to choose from when it comes to portable GPS.

They have come up with two brands under the portable GPS category namely Garmin 496 and 396. Although each of them have their own advantages and disadvantages you can choose between them with the features they offer and whether they indeed would be useful for you not.

Firstly Garmin 396 comes with the color mapping and the satellite weather alerting system. This also comes with an updated database on U.S. obstacles and terrain database.

This Garmin 396 also comes with high resolution screen which can be read even under direct sunlight and comes with lithium-ion battery. And also many similar features to that of Garmin 296.

While the Garmin 496 packs all the features that Garmin 396 has but is even bundled with mini-MFD which is available only with 496. It also has more sophisticated software and more features making it an ideal choice for the pilots. Hence, between them Garmin 496 scores more and comes out with flying colors.

There are mainly two types of vinyl fences based on the process of manufacture. Out of this, the co-extruded vinyl fence has a high demand due to various reasons.

In a co-extruded vinyl fence, there exist two layers of which the outer layer has a high ultra violet coating where as the inner layer has only a thin layer of ultra violet inhibitors. This greatly reduces the cost of manufacture of this vinyl fence. When this kind of fence making requires a highly sophisticated technology and equipment, the cost of the fence remains lowest owing to the reduced cost of materials used for making the fence.

The inner layer of materials is made of a different colour than the outer layer. This is also intended at reducing the cost of the product without affecting the quality. There are a large number of manufacturers making co-extruded horse fence and other fencing. They take special car to give extra thickness to the external layer of the fence. This will avoid the chance of a scratch penetrating the colour of the interior layers.

This fence will have the same level of durability and quality that an aluminium fence will have. Since they are available in various designs, they easily got customer attention.

The Scottsdale landscaping options available in the market can be made to work in a way that will help you. Such services can be sought from online stores according to your requirements. Landscaping can be chosen based on the price and the quality. Some materials are really costly and such designer landscaping will be expensive as well. The plans which can be obtained from designers can be availed in easy to use ways.

Phoenix landscaping options can be used along with other design options and accessories like statues and sculptures. This will add to the beauty of the landscaping and thereby make them more attractive. You can choose a Scottsdale landscape contractor that goes well with your ideologies as well. Landscaping is easy to lose if you are too careless about the placing. To avoid this, you can use the contractors’ services for upkeep and maintenance. The landscaping services are highly comfortable to use. There will be slight variations to the materials used for making the landscaping a reality. Otherwise all landscaping will have the same basic pattern which makes the designs common and inconvenient for you. You can prefer to go for designs which can be modified as per the property in concern.

After launching carbon trading and currency futures, the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX), a leading Indian bourse, has secured the nod from markets watchdog Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to start stock exchange operations in the country.

‘We’ve just got the licence to start a stock exchange. We have domain expertise in many areas and it was only logical for us to leverage that expertise,’ a top MCX official told IANS.

‘We are studying the issues involved. So it will take some time to launch actual stock market operations,’ the official said, adding that an affiliate of New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) has five percent equity in MCX - the maximum allowed by India.

The diversified exchange, promoted by the Mumbai-based Financial Technologies Group, had introduced carbon credit trading this year and has a strategic tie-up with the Chicago Climate Exchange to tap the $60- billion global market.

Carbon credits are generated by enterprises in the developing world by using cleaner technologies that help them save on energy consumption and consequently reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

For each reduced tonne of carbon dioxide emission, an organization receives a carbon emission certificate under a United Nations mandate. This can be sold either immediately or through a futures market, just like any other commodity.

Freight futures are another promising market for the exchange for which it has a strategic collaboration with the London-based Baltic Exchange, which is one of the world’s leading shipping markets.

The rising cost of freight impacts the prices of commodities and can add up to 10 percent of the total trade cost. With freight futures, cross-border traders and other stakeholders can hedge their risks against volatility in freight rates.

MCX, which started operations five years ago, has spot and futures trading in 60 commodities with a focus on energy basket and metals.

It launched currency futures trading earlier this month and has already notched up an average daily trading volume of Rs.3-6 billion, compared to Rs.20-40 million for the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

MCX is now a widely held company, and some of the key shareholders include the State Bank of India, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE), besides several banks and financial institutions.

Some of the private sector shareholders include Corporation Bank, HDFC Bank, Bennett Coleman and Company, Fidelity International, Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services, Kotak group, Citibank and Merrill Lynch.