India's space mission

The flawless 11th flight of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C8) of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is more significant than all its previous missions, though each one so far has marked a step forward in the country’s space capability. For one, the PSLV-C8 is the first purely commercial flight that has successfully put an Italian 352-kg astronomical satellite, called AGILE, into space orbit on a contract won against stiff global competition. In fact, Isro had to modify the standard configuration of the PSLV to meet the requirements of the low-weight AGILE, which, additionally, had to be placed in a low inclination orbit. For this, Isro had for the first time to do without the six solid propellant strap-on motors of the first stage and reduce the propellant in the fourth stage by 400 kg, compared to the previous PSLV flight.

Despite these design modifications, Isro has managed to recover the bulk of the PSLV cost, reckoned at around Rs 65 crore, by charging the Italian space agency a competitive price of $ 29,000 per kg. Indeed, the AGILE, too, is unique in certain respects. It is said to be the only European mission entirely devoted to high-energy astrophysics studies. Besides, it is the first satellite powered by commercially available, space-qualified rechargeable lithium-ion batteries.

As such, the country will now be viewed as a price-competitive contestant in the global satellite launch market, estimated at between $1.5 billion and $2 billion. Even if India manages to corner just 2 per cent of this market, as Isro hopes to do, it will mean substantial business in a wholly new sphere, and make Sriharikota the country’s first commercial spaceport. Considering the impeccable record of the PSLV—all its operational flights so far have been successful—and the deft design modifications to suit the customer’s needs, more orders are bound to be on their way for commercial space launches. In fact, since its first flight in 1994, the PSLV has accomplished several feats. These include launching eight Indian remote sensing satellites, an amateur radio satellite HAMSAT, a recoverable space capsule SRE-1, and six small satellites for foreign customers.
Amongst its most notable achievements is the launch of India’s exclusive meteorological satellite Kalpana-1 into geosynchronous transfer orbit. While undertaking a wholly commercial mission this time, Isro has also managed to use the spare capacity of the PSLV-C8 (which can carry a 1-tonne payload) for catapulting into space an advanced avionics module (AAM), weighing 185 kg, to test advanced launch vehicle avionics systems like mission computers, navigation and telemetry systems. Isro has so far been using mission computers developed in the 1990s. However, state-of-the-art navigational systems and computer aids have now become vital since it is the PSLV which is proposed to be used to launch India’s first spacecraft mission to the moon (Chandrayaan-1).

So great achievement & congrats to all the concerned personnel in ISRO
BS

Pfizer Earnings Fall on Drop in Norvasc, Zoloft Sales

Pfizer Inc.'s first-quarter profit fell 18 percent and the drugmaker cut its 2007 forecast, as competition from cheaper drugs hurt two of its best-selling products, Norvasc for blood pressure and Zoloft for depression.Net income for Pfizer, the world's largest drugmaker, declined to $3.4 billion, or 48 cents a share, from $4.1 billion, or 56 cents, a year earlier.Revenue this year will be $1.2 billion less than Pfizer projected after an adverse court ruling accelerated generic competition to Norvasc, and sales of the inhaled insulin treatment Exubera missed targets, the company said. Zoloft also faces generic rivals. Pfizer has said it is cutting 10 percent of its workforce by 2008 to offset the lost revenue.

The impact of generic Norvasc, coupled with increased promotional spending around Exubera, are contributing to a greater decline.Pfizer shares fell 10 cents to $26.97 at 4:02 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The stock has risen 8.1 percent in the past 12 months. The shares have lagged behind the 14-member Standard & Poor's 500 Pharmaceutical Index, which has increased 20 percent in the past 12 months.

Revenue rose 6 percent to $12.5 billion on higher drug prices and an 8 percent raise in sales of its top-selling drug, the Lipitor cholesterol pill, the company said today. Profit excluding certain costs was 68 cents a share, beating the average estimate of 17 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

U.S. regulators today also favorably reviewed Pfizer's experimental HIV/AIDS drug maraviroc, according to documents posted on the Food and Drug Administration Web site. The agency staff report said maraviroc was effective and caused no unusual deaths A panel of advisers will recommend April 24 whether the FDA should allow the drug to be marketed.
Net income this year will fall to $1.30 to $1.41 a share from $2.66, before Pfizer sold its consumer unit, the company said. Excluding certain costs, profit will be $2.08 to $2.15 a share, lower than the $2.16 average estimate of 24 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Pfizer's January forecast was for $2.18 to $2.25.
The drugmaker will close two U.S. plants and five research centers in the U.S., Japan and France.
Lipitor sales rose 8 percent to $3.4 billion, beating the $3.1 billion estimated by J.P. Morgan & Co. analyst Chris Shibutani in New York.Prescriptions for Lipitor, which makes up about 40 percent of Pfizer's profit, have declined after cheaper, generic versions of a similar pill, Merck & Co.'s Zocor, became available last June and newer drugs, including Merck and Schering-Plough Corp.'s Vytorin and Zetia, have been gaining popularity.

Pfizer increased sales by raising the price 4 percent to 6 percent and offering fewer discounts, said Ian Read, Pfizer vice president of worldwide pharmaceuticals.Lipitor itself may lose patent protection as early as 2010 in the U.S. Pfizer is appealing a decision by a Canadian court to throw out its Lipitor patent. Lipitor had $800 million to $900 million in 2006 sales in Canada.
Sales of the two-year-old pain medicine Lyrica more than doubled to $395 million and sales of the smoking-cessation drug Chantix, approved in the U।S. in May, were $162 million.

Bloomberg

Who pays for low rupee volatility?

The recent high volatility in the rupee market is likely to continue in the months to come. This is an outcome of the RBI running into its limits of sterilised intervention. As the cost of sterilisation rises, the pressure on the RBI to step away from purchasing dollars and pushing more liquidity into the system will grow. As the latest RBI bulletin shows, the biggest event on the monetary policy front in February was not the public announcements made by RBI officials. It was the currency trading done behind the scenes. The RBI purchased dollars worth $11.9 billion, thus pumping liquidity into the economy. In other words, the monetary tightening is largely lip service to the cause of fighting inflation. While firms and households will find their interest burden and credit contraction painful, it is unlikely that the rate hikes will do much to quell inflation unless the behind-the-scenes story of dollar purchases also aligns itself to the same effect.

Why should ordinary people pay the cost for exchange rate stability? Firms and exporters, who have foreign currency exposures and who would suffer if the exchange rate moves, should be encouraged to hedge their own risk। A vibrant currency futures market will help. The emergence of such a market in Dubai shows that the demand for such hedging instruments is strong. To provide low exchange rate volatility as a public good to them, paid for by the entire economy at high cost, is bad policy. Moreover, it is unsustainable, because firms and households who end up bearing the cost of ‘hedging’ on behalf of exporters are not going to endlessly accept this as a happy equilibrium state. Then argument is being made that the higher volatility in the rupee should be countered by greater capital controls which would reduce RBI intervention, its sterilisation measures included. To solve the challenges to monetary policy posed by the ‘impossible trinity’ through capital account restrictions will be a setback to reforms. India should be moving forward and developing financial markets that its globalising economy needs. It should not solve these problems by trying to go back to the past.hey will protest.

FE