WEEKLY NEWS(27TH SEPT – 3RD OCT)

DELHI CWG BECOMES BIGGEST IN TERMS OF PARTICIPATION

After a controversy-marred build-up and negative publicity, the set a historic landmark of being the biggest-ever in terms of participants with more than 6700 and officials confirming their entries for the event.

Delhi will now be known to have hosted the biggest Games surpassing participation in Melbourne four years ago which stood at 5766 athletes and officials.

The Indian contingent was in the spotlight at the Games Village where they hoisted the tri-color amid cheers from scores of volunteers and athletes.

Olympic gold-medallist shooter Abhinav Bindra was named the host country's flagbearer for the opening ceremony. The 28-year-old rifle marksman will lead a jumbo 619-member contingent -- 379 men and 240 women -- in the grand ceremony scheduled to be held at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium.

RUPEE POSTS ITS BEST WEEKLY RISE IN NEARLY 9 MONTHS

The partially convertible rupee closed at 44.47/48 per dollar after hitting 44.46, its strongest since April 30 and 1.1% above Wednesday’s close of 44.94/95.

“Capital inflows and prospects of more in the near future is helping, with possibly oil and import covering seen.

Robust foreign fund inflows drove Indian shares to 33-month highs on Friday while strong auto sales in September pushed key auto stocks higher helping the benchmark index post its fifth weekly gain.

The central bank usually buys or sells dollars via state-run banks to prevent extreme volatility in the market but doesn’t protect any particular level.

GOLD IS THE ULTIMATE BUBBLE, SAYS SOROS

Billionaire financier this month repeated his warning is locked in the “ultimate bubble”, and told investors bluntly it was “certainly not safe” in troubled times. Mr. Soros was simply repeating a warning he issued at the World Economic Forum (WEF) back in February.

At the time gold was trading at less than $1,150 per ounce.

It has since risen to touch $1,300 this week, and is up more than 400% from its low of $252 in 1999.

In this world, gold is the ultimate bubble because apart from the cost of actually digging it out of the ground it has almost no real fundamentals other than price itself.

CONTD.

In reality, it illustrates the fascinating investment philosophy of one of the most successful financiers of the last 50 years and is the best way to understand what is really going on in the precious metal market.

Investors have been buying it precisely because the price has been going up and is expected to carry on rising.

Rising gold prices have encouraged investors to add gold to their portfolios and central banks to reverse a long-standing drift towards eliminating the low-yielding asset from their reserves and start adding it instead.

RATAN TATA IN UK ADVISORY COMMITTEE

The chairman of the salt-to-software Tata Group, has been included in a 19-member group of notables that will assist the UK government in preparing business strategies and highlight priorities for the British economy.

Mr. Tata’s inclusion in the panel illustrates the increasing visibility of the Indian group in the UK, where it owns marquee brands such as and the venerable tea company.

Sony chairman Sir Howard Stringer and Mr Tata were included in the list at the last moment.

INDIA'S BILLIONAIRE CLUB SWELLS TO RECORD 69 MEMBERS

Concerns over infrastructural bottlenecks notwithstanding, Indian business tycoons continue to build upon their sizeable cash piles, with a record 69 billionaires featuring in Forbes India's Rich List for 2010.

The 8.5 per cent of the Indian economy and bullish stock markets have pushed up the net worth of the tycoons in the top 100 list, making as many as 69 of them billionaires.

The four richest Indians are worth a combined $ 86 bn, well short of the $ 180 bn record they set three years ago.

Though the fortunes of both and steel magnate have dipped in comparison to the previous year, they still retain the top two positions, with Mukesh Ambani holding on to his numero uno rank for the third straight year.

Infotech tycoon Azim Premji has moved up to third place, displacing younger Ambani sibling Anil Ambani, who "despite making peace with his brother", has dropped to the sixth position.