Eases disclosure norms for debt market securities.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) today decided to reduce the costs for mutual fund investors by doing away with the initial issue fee for close-ended schemes.

The Sebi board, which met here today, also cleared the draft proposal for listing debt securities, eased disclosure norms for existing debt market securities and paved the way for permanent registration of capital market intermediaries.

Speaking to reporters after the board meeting, Sebi Chairman M Damodaran said it is part of the regulator’s endeavour to make mutual funds cheaper.

The new rule is for prospective schemes.

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The post liberalization period was of mergers and acquisitions and still it is continuing as a strategic driver for market dominance, geographical expansion, leverage in resource and capability acquisition, competence, adjusting to competition. M&As are strategic alliances. People Management plays a critical role in M&A. People issues like staffing decision, organizational design, etc., are most sensitive issues in case of M&A negotiations, but it has been found that these issues are often being overlooked.

The ability to succeed in a merger depends entirely on the people who are driving the business - whether they have creativity, capacity to innovate and ability to execute, and more importantly, whether they can do these things collaboratively. To ease the merger transition and make sure the pieces fit together as seamlessly as possible, the HR should take the initiatives in management, recruitment, structure, retention, and managing cultural change. In a merger, the employees should be put in a position to see easily that there was value in their daily work lives. It is more important for the employees to be able to say that they understand why this is happening. To achieve this understanding in the employees, the company’s HR executive minimize their conventional functions as administrators and payroll experts in favor of more proactive roles as coaches and profit consultants.

M&As are strategic alliances. In a merger, two companies join together and create new entity. In an acquisition, one company acquires sufficient shares to gain control of the other organization.

HR Issues in Mergers & Acquisitions:

People issues like staffing decision, organizational design, etc., are most sensitive issues in case of M&A negotiations, but it has been found that these issues are often being overlooked.

Before the new organization is formed, goals are established, efficiencies projected and opportunities appraised as staff, technology, products, services and know-how are combined.

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During the past few months, Indian market continued to create history by crossing one milestones after other. In last few days, the Indian market again created history, but surely not in way the investors wished to. During January 14-22 period, the Indian benchmark index, Sensex crashed 4,100 points thus incurring a loss of Rs 16,000 billion for the investors.

Reasons for the meltdown in the Indian market ranged from the correction which was expected in Indian market to obscure superstition like a placement of bronze bull in front of stock exchange.

The bearish movement in the market may largely be due to following reasons:

a) When Nifty futures turned into discount, it created a lot of short positions.

b) FII Selling: During the week ended Jan. 25, 2008, FII`s was in the negative in each of the five trading days, selling equities worth a whopping USD 2.451 billion.

c) Weak Global cues: All major indexes over the world were in negative on speculation the world`s biggest market was heading for a recession.

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It was Sensex all the way in the regional newspapers too, since its recent nosedive has hit the common man’s savings.

The regional newspapers-Kannada Prabha, Udayavani and Prajavani-described the first day of the crash as black Monday, since it saw stock brokers in Bangalore halt their transactions on Tuesday.

Prajavani wrote that the Sensex this time had affected the common man, costing him his petty savings. “The uncertainty ruling the global market, resulting in ups and downs in the stock market, is not a new phenomenon and is to be expected.

But the steep fall witnessed on Monday and Tuesday was not justified,” the popular newspaper said.

However Udayavani crafted a positive picture which came true by Tuesday evening and Wednesday, as the markets witnessed an upsurge. “Trying to predict the stock market is like trailing fish in the sea.

But the government’s decision to allow release of money generated by the life insurance policies of the postal department (rural/urban) through mutual funds into the stock market will see investments in spite of the crash in Karnataka,” Kannada Prabha said in its analysis about the Sensex crash.

Politics as usual made it to the front pages with talks of Maharashtra governor

SM Krishna wanting to return to Karnataka politics and Janata Dal (Secular) leader MP Prakash, who was home minister in JD(S) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coalition government, holding talks with the Congress to migrate to it.

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Commercial and business loans are very vital to start a small business. Start up companies need to know the different types of business loans to understand the best ways they can be used to advance a business project.

The idea of owning your own business is everybody’s dream. Who wouldn’t want to be their own boss? Owning your business frees you from the shackles of working for someone else and also gives you that business freedom you’ve always craved. The only problem, many people give up that dream quickly when they realize the amount of effort and money it takes to start that dream.

Most entrepreneurs and people looking to start up their very own business will need to borrow money at some point or other. It’s just the nature of starting a business. There is positive news, however, and that is the amount of different ways to find that money. The most common being business loans. Here are five of the more common business loans available to new entrepreneurs:

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India’s stock market bounced back Wednesday and ended a week of sharp losses after the U.S. Federal Reserve cut interest rates.

The benchmark of the Bombay Stock Exchange, the Sensex, rose more than five percent, 864 points, to close at 17.594 points. It was the first gain in seven days.

India’s National Stock Exchange also rose, closing at 5,203 points.

Wednesday’s gains followed a plunge by the Sensex of more than 10 percent at its opening Tuesday, causing trading to halt for nearly an hour.

Analysts say India’s market resurgence is due to the U.S. central bank cutting a key interest rate by three-quarters of one percent Tuesday. The cut was in response to international worries over a slowing U.S. economy amid losses in the subprime mortgage business.

The International Monetary Fund said the U.S. rate cut was appropriate and helpful. But the IMF said a significant slowdown in world economic growth this year still appears inevitable.

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