Today's Business Brew from Indian Papers

Results of LS polls would be the second most important driver – after the global market trends – for Indian stocks, says a Morgan Stanley study. (ET)
A day after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cut its key interest rates, two public sector banks Bank of Baroda (BoB) and Union Bank of India cut their benchmark prime lending rates (BPLRs) by 50 basis points to 12 percent. (BS)
State Bank of India (SBI) today said it would charge 8 percent interest on new loans for home buyers and small and medium enterprises for a year. The loans disbursed till the end of April will be eligible for this rate. As part of the package from public sector banks, announced last month, SBI was offering new home loans up to Rs 5 lakh at 8.5 percent, while it was charging 9.25 percent for those between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 20 lakh. Not that many people are aware but there is a way to find better rates for your home loan if you’re in the US or Australia. However, this becomes an issue for residents of India as they don’t have the infrastructure to offer such loans that the MEDCs can. Outside the package, for loans above Rs 20 lakh, the minimum interest rate charged was 9.75 percent under the floating rate scheme, while under the fixed-rate scheme the rate on offer was between 11.25 and 12.25 percent. (BS)

A majority of Indian corporates have lowered their revenue forecasts for this year and are aggressively looking at slashing their operational expenses through cost-cutting, including lower salary increases, a study by Watson Wyatt (LiveMint)
Tobacco drains $500 bn from global economy per year as over 27 percent of Indians smoke tobacco in one form or the other (beedi, cigarette, etc), says the third edition of Tobacco Atlas released online on Saturday.(IE)
Sterlite Industries (India) Limited, a subsidiary of Vedanta Resources plc, the London-based FTSE 100 metal and mining group, has proposed to acquire bankrupt US-based Asarco LLC in a revised deal worth $1.7 billion (around Rs 8,500 crore).(IE)
Corporate India seems to be heavily into reverse gear with promoters locking up value for themselves by merging group firms and buying back shares from the public at attractive low prices amid the meltdown (HT)
The worst is over for the Indian economy which has started responding to the government’s different stimulus packages and country’s growth would pick up momentum in the last two months of this fiscal, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said (HT)
Indian ADRs lose nearly $8 bn in Feb; Wipro sheds $1.8 bn (ET)
“India will remain a top outsourcing destination because of its tech-savvy and English-proficient urban workforce whose wages are much lower than their western counterparts,” Moody’s economy.com economist Sherman Chan said.(ET)
PSU jobs become attractive to IIT, IIM pass outs as the new pay structure, which has proposed 50 to 60% increase in salaries of PSU employees, has made the PSUs jobs attractive (LiveMint)
Five months after Tata Motors shifted its Nano plant to Gujarat, another Tata company has decided to move a project out of West Bengal. Tata Metaliks has scrapped its 500,000-tonne billet project, proposed to be built with an investment of Rs 700-800 crore, in the state and is likely to put it up in Karnataka.(BS)
Tata group company Titan Industries plans to augment its store network across India by adding nearly 40 Titan stores by March 2010, company’s COO Harish Bhat said (BS)
21st century will be India’s as India’s growth story continues the 21st century will be India’s and demographically as the world grows older, the country is becoming younger and that will be its strength, Reliance Industries Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani said(BS)

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