Americans cheer Obama’s tough auto moves

American taxpayers cheered President Barack Obama’s tough steps to shore up the reeling auto industry. Obama forced out General Motors (GM.N) chief executive Rick Wagoner, pushed Chrysler LLC toward a merger with Italy’s Fiat SpA (FIA.MI), and threatened bankruptcy for both, marking an escalation in Washington’s involvement in rescuing the faltering economy. Full Story : Reuters.com…..

Analyst: Casual gaming to top $1 billion by 2013, social networking key

International research firm Parks Associates envisions a bright future for casual gaming. The firm predicts the “premium” casual games business will be worth a very cool $1 billion by 2013. Full Story : Joystiq.com…..

Gap widens between US retailers

Five leading US retailers offered a cross section look at the state of US consumption on Tuesday, and underlined the growing gap between the sector’s strongest and weakest store chains. The challenges facing retailers were underlined by consumer confidence figures from the Conference Board reaching new lows for February. How ever,Home Depot, Target and Macy’s expressed broad satisfaction with their performance unlike other two chains.

Bank nationalization would test Obama

The nationalization of even a handful of U.S. banks, which some analysts see as increasingly likely, would pose political problems for President Obama.

Obama has worked hard to portray himself as a centrist since his election, and federal ownership of troubled banks would play into arguments that he is a left-of-center politician. Full Story : Thehill.com….

Wal-Mart Profit Tops Expectations

Wal-Mart beat Wall Street’s expectations, and the chain is gaining market share at a time when most others are foundering. In the quarter just ended, the company reported the strongest sales results in its history — nearly $108 billion Full Story : NYTimes…..

World Bank names blacklisted Indian IT firms

World Bank said it barred Indian IT firms, Satyam Computer Services, and Wipro Technologies for “improper benefits to bank staff” and Megasoft Consultants for “participating in a joint venture with Bank staff while conducting business with the Bank”. Satyam’s chairman and founder Ramalinga Raju resigned last week after revealing years of accounting fraud involving $1 billion.

@ a glance : Citigroup, Morgan Stanley unveil brokerage merger plan

After days of speculation, Citigroup Inc. and Morgan Stanley have unveiled plans to merge their brokerage businesses. Full Story : Bizjournals…..

@ a glance : ‘Indian Enron’ rocks business world

Ramalinga Raju, chairman of Satyam Computer Services, resigned on Wednesday after admitting he had “inflated profits over a period of the last several years”. Full Story : Aljazeera…..

The World’s Cheapest Car At Risk

The Tata group is  threatened to move an important auto factory out of India. This  move could delay the debut of the world’s cheapest car, pint-sized Nano, priced at $2,500. It was scheduled to go on sale by the end of the year.

Protesters are angry farmers who claim not to have received proper compensation for the 997 acres Tata acquired. The opposition party, which has led the fight against Tata, requested the company to return 400 acres to the farmers. Company chairman Ratan Tata said that he is prepared to leave West Bengal if the protests continue.