On the first of this month the STAR Group which runs channels like STAR Plus, STAR Movies and more made an interesting decision which could see other media houses following suit. STAR has launched a new channel ‘STAR CJ Alive’ in association with South Korea’s CJ O.This is however not an entertainment channel. It’s a 24 hour , round the clock shopping channel. It’s a venture the company hopes that customers will adopt especially here in India because shopping has largely been a conservative experience. Will the consumer be confident enough to order a product whose quality he might completely not be able to trust?

When Robert Crow the Vice President of RIM more famously known as the company which makes the BlackBerry came out of the Indian Home Minister’s office yesterday after a hectic meeting he seemed to be in a really good mood. At least that’s what his grin seemed to suggest. A few minutes later when the media reported that the Home Minister had pretty much read the riot act out to Blackberry, we knew that Crow’s smile was an apparent one hiding the realization that BlackBerry has  found itself in a big mess here in India and faces being banned by the end of the month.

BlackBerry has been in the news recently for its dealings with the Saudi government . Barely had RIM put out that fire by negotiating with the Saudi government regarding the sharing of encrypted data that a potentially bigger flare sparked up in India. The issue has been on the same lines – the sharing of encrypted information exchanged across BlackBerry handsets.

If there’s one sector in India which is yet to explode and discover its full potential ,it’s probably the Hospitality and Tourism Industry. While the sector is growing steadily every year there is still a lot more organization required to start drawing in the type of money that it really is capable of. Opportunity aplenty, the Hotel Industry in India is naturally blessed to make the most of the Indian landscape, natural history and culture that the country is blessed with and it is a good step that a long overdue implementation in attracting future servicemen to India’s hotel and tourism Diaspora has finally happened. I am talking about the fresh announcement by the government that the Central Board Of Secondary Education or the CBSE will introduce and henceforth offer the Hotel Management subject at a standard 11 and 12 school level.

As of writing this, the Sensex is on the verge of crossing 18,000 for the second time in 3 months. It’s a surprising scenario to many because it’s a situation that was not expected. Many brokerages had gone on record to say that the Sensex would not reach this level in the current trade because the signs of a breakdown had begun to appear. Europe was and still is in the woods and the thinking was that the situation in Europe would rub off onto the other markets.

Frankly speaking, an effort to time the fall of this market has proved futile again and again. The pattern of thinking has been to anticipate a fall in the markets but as we have seen, the Sensex may tumble into a multipoint fall but does not continue the tumble but rather makes up the fall in a few sessions. Throw in a few flat sessions in between and the cycle has repeated.

But in the past few days the trading has been strong. Buying has increased which is why we stand at the threshold of 18K.

There’s a popular saying in these parts which goes – “A Delayed Monsoon Is A Denied Monsoon”

Things last year were so bad that I had said that we were even prepared to accept a delayed monsoon. If the water bearing clouds of the South West Monsoon fail then India has no choice but to resort to importing food crops, vegetables and pulses. It’s a complicated weather system and the monsoons are pretty much the lifeblood of India.

It’s still June .Figures from the Met department have shown that the going so far has been good .The monsoon’s progress has been slow but it isn’t a big worry.Normally around the third week of June, the monsoon reaches Central India. This year the rains have come to South India and just 2 days back entered Central India.

10.7 billion dollars – that’s the amount spent by Bharti to acquire Zain’s African operations. Makes one wonder just to what level a company will go to further itself. Not very long ago, Sunil Mittal, the boss of the Bharti Group had stated that in an article to Forbes Magazine that he was like a “Junkie Looking For His Next Fix”. With Zain in Africa, Mittal has got his big fix .In one way Bharti was obsessed with acquiring Zain after the MTN deal did not work out. Now that they have, Bharti’s African safari has just begun.

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It’s been a long winding road for the Ambani brothers. The Supreme Court after months of deliberation has spoken and the verdict is undoubtedly in favor of the Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Industries .The war it seems has ended and the Anil Ambani led RNRL has lost. While the judgement of this controversial RIL-RNRL case will be debated for long, for now our focus is on the judgement itself delivered by the 3 member bench of the Supreme Court headed by the Chief Justice of India Himself. It’s also necessary to look at the immediate future of the respective companies involved from a market point of view.

What a bizarre month it’s been if you’re an ardent follower of cricket!

Lalit Modi’s off field activities have dominated the headlines even more than the great on field action. The hours after Chennai won the IPL trophy were dominated not by news of Chennai partying and rejoicing or even the highlights of the final but rather the suspension of Lalit Modi as the Chairman and Commissioner of the Indian Premier League.

While it might seem strange that the face of the IPL has gone from being a marketing whizkid to the villain he is seen now, the actions of Lalit Modi are not surprising. Allegations still standing, Modi has fallen a victim to his ego and despite his abilities hasn't been able to manage his own greed.

In an article a few months ago here on The India Street, I had pointed out as to how the 17,000 level on the Sensex had become like an electric fence. A market barrier that was seen as a warning. Investors were not confident enough to believe that it was a fundamental thing . Like many we too believed that a correction was due around this level. Though some bearish traders did go a step ahead and went on to suggest that in light of the recentness of the global economic situation, our own Sensex reaching the 17,000 level was a case of the market being overbought and many scrips being overvalued.

For us to personally believe that the market was not overbought, it was necessary to see that this level could sustain for a long time. Over time as we now see this has happened and 17,000 is no longer an electric fence.