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USEC Inc. will send a representative to India as part of a commercial nuclear mission organized by the U.S. India Business Council and the Nuclear Energy Institute, the Company announced today. The mission will be in the country from December 2-9 and is the largest ever U.S. commercial nuclear trade mission to visit India.

The United States recently enacted a nuclear agreement with India that will facilitate commercial nuclear trade between the two countries. USEC sees India’s commercial nuclear market as a promising area for potential growth, with India looking to add up to 40,000 megawatts of nuclear powered generation in the decades to come.

USEC representative Dr. Vijay Sazawal will represent the Company in the mission. Dr. Sazawal, director of government programs for USEC, has more than 30 years of experience in the commercial nuclear industry and played an advisory role in briefing various U.S. industry and government officials on policy issues related to the Indian civil nuclear program.

USEC’s new uranium enrichment technology, the American Centrifuge, will be well suited to meet increased demand from growing markets such as India.

The modular architecture of the technology will allow the Company to expand capacity as demand warrants. USEC is deploying the new gas-centrifuge technology at the American Centrifuge Plant in Ohio, scheduled to be completed at the end of 2012.

USEC’s AC100 centrifuge machine is designed to produce 350 separative work units per year and is expected to be the most productive enrichment technology in the world. SEC Inc., a global energy company, is a leading supplier of enriched uranium fuel for commercial nuclear power plants.

Godrej Consumer Products Ltd <GOCP.BO> on Tuesday said its board approved the buyback of shares for up to 150 rupees each.

The buyback through the open market will be for a maximum of 149 million rupees, it said in a statement on Tuesday.

Major world banks showed the strain of economic crisis on Tuesday, with Britain’s Barclays altering its fund-raising plans to quell shareholder anger and profits in Japan’s largest bank tumbling.

The crisis, which began with a collapse in the U.S. housing market undermining major financial institutions, also revealed further signs of hitting industry and retail.

Japan’s Mazda Motor Corp announced Ford Motor Co. was ending 12 years of control through the sale of a 20 percent stake. The deal highlighted desperation among the U.S. big three auto makers as they scramble to raise cash.

Japan’s economy minister said recession in the world’s second-biggest economy could last longer than feared. Falling British inflation, and the prospect of the same in the United States, paved the way for further interest rate cuts.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial average, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100, down 1.5 to 1.8 percent, pointed to a weak start on Wall Street. European shares fell 1.6 percent and Japan’s Nikkei shed 2.3 percent. Barclays, facing shareholder ire following a decision to take 5.8 billion pounds from Middle East investors on terms tougher than the British government offered, cancelled this year’s executive bonuses, as U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs and Swiss bank UBS have done.

It also said Qatar Holding LLC and Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan would each make up to 250 million pounds ($372.9 million) of reserve capital instruments available to existing shareholders — effectively offering the prospect of enjoying some of the higher rates of return agreed to Gulf investors.

Barclays, one of the four biggest UK banks, had declined to accept any capital from the government under a 37 billion pound bailout, wary of conditions imposed on their operations.

The crisis has taken a firm hold in Asia too.

Japan’s biggest bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, announced first half profit had tumbled 64 percent and stuck to its recently lowered full-year forecast, hit by recession at home and losses on its stock portfolio.

Australia’s biggest investment bank, Macquarie Group, said it was heading for its first fall in annual profit in 17 years.

HSBC added to the employment gloom, saying it would cut a further 500 staff in Asia, mostly in Hong Kong, due to deteriorating economic conditions and caution about next year.

Citigroup Inc, the second biggest U.S. bank, revealed plans on Monday to cut 52,000 jobs by next year, the second-largest corporate lay-off plan in history.

INFLATION WANING

In Britain, already officially in recession, inflation dropped to 4.5 percent in October from 5.2 the previous month.

The larger than expected fall heightened expectations of a substantial cut in the UK’s 3.0 percent interest rate next month to stimulate the economy and temper growing fears of deflation, following a dramatic 1.5 percentage point cut this month.

U.S. producer prices, due later, are expected to show pipeline inflation pressures there dropping sharply.

In a further sign of the crisis spreading to the broader economy, major British retailer John Lewis Partnership’s department store sales fell 14 percent year-on-year in the latest week.

British building supplies company Wolseley announced a slew of layoffs and shop closures. Property developer Barratt said its forward order book was 43 percent smaller than the previous year.

Politicians are seeking ways of stimulating demand, possibly by tax cuts, while others resort to more innovative measures.

Taiwan said it would issue shopping vouchers worth T$3,600 ($108) to its citizens. Premier Liu Chao-shiuan said the plan was expected to contribute 0.64 percent to GDP.

In Washington, lawmakers argued over a proposal by Senate Democrats for a $25 billion bailout loan for the auto industry to stave off an even wider economic collapse.

“The reason people think failure could be cataclysmic is that there are so many companies that are tied to the auto industry,” said Marc Pado, U.S. market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald & Co.

Automakers have been hit by a collapse in consumer spending, triggered by a housing crash and worsened by rising unemployment. Officials say even with major stimulus measures in place, it will take a long time for the U.S. economy to recover.

“There’s going to be stress in the capital markets for a number of months here because housing prices are still declining and I think it’s moved beyond housing,” Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said at a conference.

Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will testify to Congress later on the $700 billion U.S. bailout plan.

Large scale business sectors have a high capital for investment in hosting their own servers for websites. On the other hand, small business units will be struggling hard to make a presence online without investment for server hosting and bandwidth requirements. Co location hosting is introduced as a solution for this problem.

This is the simplest and easiest way by which companies can host their own websites. Colocation stands between owning a server and hosting a website. Hence the cost is also maintained between these two strategies. In other words, this is the cheapest way by which companies can make online presence.

The providers working in this sector helps you to reduce the head ache of owning a server. The connection between your website and your business is inseparable. Any damage to the servers hosted will directly affect the backbone of your firm, thereby impacting your business. The disconnection in the online strategy will interfere with the performance of your online business.

In the co location environment, your providers will be taking care of every such issue on your behalf. Even when you take little risks, you can enjoy the presence created by your business. In fact, you will be making more money with little investment.

Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday told industry leaders to be cautious against “dirty money” entering India as government and policy makers pull all stops to improve liquidity amid a global credit crisis and worsening economic growth outlook. “I have placed the issue before the Prime Minister as well.

We must be careful and ensure that dirty money does not enter (into our country),” Modi said addressing top corporate captains at the annual India Economic Summit organised by the World Economic Forum and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here. Modi was obliquely referring to “hawala transactions” as he emphasised that “dirty money” did not refer to “black money”.

“If dirty money gets into the financial and banking sector, they will dictate for the next 10 years,” the Modi said. The government is examining records of more than 600 financial transactions that it believes could be linked to terror funding and other suspicious activities in the country and the region.

It has also recently approved amendments in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Modi, who earned the praise of the industry for the speed at which land was allotted to Tata Motors for the Rs 1 lakh small car (Nano) project, said invitation to the Tatas was aimed at keeping the entrepreneurial spirit alive and giving shape to the dream of a people’s car.

“Our efforts to bring Tatas to Gujarat was part of an honest intention to help a leading industrial house of the country, honour the sentiments of the industry in general and ensure that the common man’s dream of an affordable car doesn’t shatter,” he said.

Despite opening strong, Indian equities markets were again in free fall mode Friday on weak global cues and mid-afternoon a key index had shed more than 260 points at its lowest point before inching up a bit but still more than 240 points in the red.

Overnight US markets closed in the green but a key index of the New York Stock Exchange actually went even below Oct lows - below 8,000 - before bouncing back on short covering. Asian markets too were showing gains Friday morning when Indian markets opened.

“Markets opened strong as both US markets and Asian markets were in green but the buying mood is simply not there as it is very clear that even the Euro region is into a recession,” said Jagannadham Thunuguntla, head of the capital markets arm of India’s fourth largest share brokerage firm, the SMC Group.

Mid-afternoon the 30-share benchmark sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) was ruling at 9,293.82, down 242.51 points or 2.54 percent from its previous close Wednesday at 9,536.33 points.

The Sensex opened strong at 9,799.25, up 262.92 points or 2.76 percent from its previous close Wednesday, hit a high of 9,836.11 but then began to slide to hit a low of 9,267.49 before inching up a bit to its current value.

The broader-based 50 share S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also showed a similar trend and mid-afternoon was ruling at 2782.55, down 65.9 points or 2.31 percent from its previous close Wednesday at 2848.45 points.

The BSE midcap index was ruling at 3,221.69, down 59.58 points or 1.82 percent from its previous close Wednesday at 3,281.27 points.

The BSE smallcap index was ruling at 3,771.06, down 42.32 points or 1.11 percent from its previous close Wednesday at 3,813.38 points.

All 13 sectoral indices were in the red with capital goods, automobiles, consumer durables and metal stocks showing the most losses.

“The US markets may have closed in the green but if a mature market shows 15 percent intra-day volatility then you know that the underlying sentiment is very weak and the bounce is only due to short covering,” Thunuguntla said explaining why Indian markets opened strong but immediately went into a tailspin.

“Germany, Europe’s largest economy, has just reported negative growth of 0.5 percent for the last quarter ending Sept and had reported negative growth of 0.4 percent in the previous quarter, so, going by the technical definition of a recession, they are into one,” Thunuguntla said.

Similarly, France, Europe’s second largest economy, has reported a growth of just 0.1 percent last quarter and had reported negative growth of 0.3 percent in the previous quarter, so they too are as good as in a recession, Thunuguntla said.

The world’s largest economy, the US economy, is already in a recession, so there are no positive cues from the global situation, he said.

“The writing is on the wall for such iconic representatives of American capitalism as General Motors and Ford because even if there is government help forthcoming and there is also a stimulus package they may survive for a few more months but not beyond that,” he said.

“Who will replace them is a trillion dollar question but the era of American capitalism as we know it is certainly coming to an end - old water is being washed away and new water will flow in,” Thunuguntla said, adding: “Till that happens uncertainty will rule and sustained recovery is not possible.”

Worldwide spending on information technology, especially in the United States will slow “significantly” in 2009 due to the global financial crisis, a leading IT market intelligence firm has forecast. Worldwide IT spending will grow 2.6 per cent year over year in 2009, down from the pre-crisis forecast of 5.9 per cent growth, according to a newly revised forecast from IDC. In the United States, IT spending growth is expected to be 0.9 per cent in 2009, much lower than the 4.2 per cent growth forecast in August.

“Although all the economic forecasts went from up slightly to down drastically in a matter of days, the good news is that IT is in a better position than ever to resist the downward pull of a slowing economy,” said John Gantz, chief research officer at the IDC. “Technology is already deeply embedded in many mission-critical operations and remains critical to achieving further efficiency and productivity gains. As a result, IDC expects worldwide IT spending will continue to grow in 2009, albeit at a slower pace.

” On a regional basis, spending growth in Japan, Western Europe, and the US will hover around one per cent in 2009. In contrast, the emerging economies of Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Latin America will continue to experience healthy growth, but at levels notably lower than the double-digit gains previously forecast.

On a sector basis, software and services will enjoy solid growth while hardware spending, with the exception of storage, is expected to decline in 2009, the IDC said in a press release.

The Telecom Commission Tuesday recommended to impose a licence fee of three percent of average gross revenue (AGR) on those mobile operators which will offer stand-alone third generation (3G) mobile services.

The existing players like Airtel, Vodafone and Idea which at present pay two to six percent of their aggregate revenues as user charges for offering 2G services would be required to pay one more percent if they secure airwaves to offer 3G services.

The 3G radio frequencies will enable network operators to offer a wide range of more advanced services while achieving greater network capacity through improved spectral efficiency.

Services include wide-area wireless voice telephony, video calls, and broadband wireless data, all in a mobile environment.

However, the commission deferred imposing a one-time spectrum enhancement charge on 6.2 megahertz (MHz) of spectrum for telecom operators.

The commission also recommended a one percent increase of fee across slabs up to eight MHz of spectrum and two percent increase above eight MHz. These will be applicable from Jan 1, 2009.

The commission has also introduced a three year lock-in period on stake sales by promoters of new telecom companies and these operators cannot issue special dividend during these three years.

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.