Traditionally the bustle started at Dalal Street at 1000 hrs IST but all that changed as the BSE opened the markets at 0900 hrs IST on January 4, 2010.

The move is expected to affect the volume of trading but regulars at Dalal Street don’t seem too keen about this change in their daily schedule.

Girdhari Saraf has been setting up his makeshift share transfer certificate trade in Dala Street for the last 15 years, travelling everyday from Bhayander.

However, change in timing is not something he is looking forward to.

“Many people come from very far. If the markets open at 0900 hrs IST they will not be able to reach on time,” says Girdhari Saraf.

Though Mumbai is known as an extremely professional city that never sleeps, most regulars at Dalal Street seem to be reluctant to give up on their morning sleep to catch up on extra trade.

The broking community says that while it might be useful for some investors, it will create problems for the backend operations and staff.

At a time when India’s top tech firms Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys and Wipro are redefining their positioning as global services providers by growing their presence in the emerging markets of Latin America, Eastern Europe and Asia, they face stiff competition from these newer rivals.

Over the past two years, companies such as CPM Braxis, EPAM Systems, Ness Technologies, Softtek, Merchants and Spi Global have emerged as stronger rivals for Indian tech firms, especially while bidding for an outsourcing contract being fleshed out by a ‘first-time outsourcer’.

Brazilian firm CPM Braxis, for instance, which counts GE, ABN Amro and Whirlpool as clients, reported revenues of around $567 million in 2008. One of the top four Brazilian banks, Bradesco, is also among the biggest customers for the company.

Microsoft with 1,318 visas came next, with Intel (723) in third place, while Google with 211 in 25th place brought up the rear. IBM India (695), Infosys (440), Polaris Software Lab India (254) and Satyam (219) were the other major Indian visa getters.

At least 200 US and Asia-based technology, financial and consulting companies applied for H-1B visas in 2009. The major technology companies that did not rank in the Top 25, but did rank in the Top 50 include Yahoo, Amazon, Apple, Texas Instruments, Nvidia and IBM, according to e-week.com.

Some of the leading research universities in the United States also rank in the Top 50 — University of Maryland, University of Michigan, Johns Hopkins, University of Illinois, University of Pennsylvania, Yale, Stanford, Harvard, University of Pittsburgh, Columbia and Baylor College of Medicine.

The new green Money Transfer service will use Tata’s PCO service and True Value Shop (TVS) network. PayMate has provided the technology to facilitate this service to be started first in the rural areas in Kerala.

For this technology, the customers have to register at a Green TATA PCO, TVS or with Corporation Bank. Then, they will be provided with an mPIN, which will authorise them to make necessary transactions. For example, on registration, the sender will receive a transaction code through the mobile. Then, the recipient has to verify the code given by the sender to receive the money from the sender.

According to the companies, Green Money transfer service is intended to provide effortless service to the rural people. Corporation Bank is hopeful that this person-to-person money transfer will enable the bank to supplement its business in the rural India. Recently, this Green Money Transfer facility has been launched in Kerala and it will be spread to other areas later.

“All industries felt that the fiscal stimulus should continue for a while because the recovery was fragile and it needs to be more robust specially for export-led industries for which global recovery is slower,” said Swati Piramal, President of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ASSOCHAM), after holding a meeting with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee ahead of the annual budget.

Indian industry also demanded that the customs duty remain same and the government bring some innovative schemes to encourage investment.

“Customs duties should remain the same. The peak rate should not be brought down from 10 percent. The logic for that (is) we have a difficult time therefore that should remain… to support industry over here. The second issue, which was common, was in terms of investment plans. Not enough investment is actually happening on the ground, so therefore industry needs to be encouraged and a suggestion was made that we should bring back the investment allowance for example,” said Harsh Pati Singhania, President of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

The industry representatives also demanded tax reforms through introduction of a Goods and Services Tax and reduction of the fiscal deficit.

However, we shouldn’t get carried away. Sometime back we were celebrating 10000 then 12000, then 15000 then 18000 and so on. If our economy continues to grow the way it has and our corporate sector continues to perform, the Sensex has to rise.

Its pure cause and effect. So we wouldn’t be surprised if soon a time arrives when we look forward to a level of 25000 and beyond. However, no matter what stock market analysts and other storytellers will have you believe, no one can predict when this will happen. It could take a less than a year or even three – it’s the future and no one can predict the same with accuracy.

Prof Roscoe said: “A key requirement of new payment systems will be the ability to make payments from person to person, such as paying a builder or a friend.

“What we have is technology which enables anyone to easily create a secure connection between two devices: it can work via Bluetooth, WiFi, the internet or across ordinary telephone or SMS connections.

“The core of our technology is a new security protocol that enables strong cryptographic keys to be created with the least possible work. The key to the protocol is that it prevents anyone from doing any searching to break into the transaction.”

A user of the technology checks if a 4-8 digit numeric code generated within their own phone matches with the one generated by the payee. This number is random and there is no need to maintain secrecy. This guarantees that the customer’s mobile is connected to the correct store, or to the cell phone of the person they have to pay. Thereafter, the payment takes place without exchanging sensitive details like credit card numbers or PIN.