 |
|
BPL mobile plans additional Rs 300 cr investment KOLHAPUR, Nov 4: The BPL mobile company plans to invest Rs 300 crore till March 31, next year, with a view to cross the 3-million subscriber mark, .......more Centre’s coffee industry stablisation package almost ready BANGALORE, Nov 4: Heaving a relief over improved international market conditions, the Indian coffee industry is keenly looking forward to the assured.....more Police
launch special SAMBALPUR, Nov 4: Smuggling of gems stones from the western Orissa districts has become a flourishing and lucrative .....more Strong earthquake shakes northern Japan TOKYO, Nov 4: A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.2 shook northern Japan today in the same ........more |
|
Reliance, Bharti no threat in international telephony: VSNL SINGAPORE, Nov 4: The Tatas-controlled Videsh Sanchar Nigam today said it would invest Rs 2,000 crore during the current fiscal to expand and.........more ‘VSNL open to acquisitions, takeovers for growth’ SINGAPORE, Nov 4: Close on the heels of acquiring tyco global network for about ......more Patni forays into 60 bn telecom vertical biz for IT-SVCs MUMBAI, Nov 4: Software major Patni Computer Systems Ltd today announced its successful entry into the 60.....more CR
recovers fine to MUMBAI, Nov 4: The Central Railway has recovered fine to the tune of Rs 5,47,031 from ticketless travellers, in a special drive conducted last week. .........more |
BPL mobile plans additional Rs 300 cr investment KOLHAPUR, Nov 4: The BPL mobile company plans to invest Rs 300 crore till March 31, next year, with a view to cross the 3-million subscriber mark, according to its Chief Operating Officer B P Singh. Mr Singh told a press conference here today that the company has made substantial investment on network expansion, infrastructure creation, branding and marketing during the last six months, and has recently introduced a second billing initiative. This has ensured substantial growth in the subscriber base and revenue for BPL mobile, he said while adding that the company has registered over 80 per cent growth in subscriber base since September last across Maharashtra, Goa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry. In the first half of the current financial year, BPL mobile has added 4.6 lakh subscribers of whom over 1.21 lakh are in Maharashtra and Goa, he said. (UNI) |
 |
Centre’s coffee industry stablisation package almost ready BANGALORE, Nov 4: Heaving a relief over improved international market conditions, the Indian coffee industry is keenly looking forward to the assured industry stablisation package by the Central Government. The package had almost been drawn up by the Commerce Ministry and has to be vetted by other key ministries, including Finance before the Central cabinet approved it, Mr Arun Kumar Bhandari, Chairman of the United Planters Association of Southern India (UPASI) told newsmen here on the eve of the 46th annual conference of the Karnataka Planters Association (KPA). Mr Bhandari said that the package among other things provided for repayment of interest burden of planters to banks, reduction in interest rates and rescheduling of long term loans. A similar package amounting to over Rs 3000 crore was being planned for tea which was also going through a long crisis period. Though the industry had recovered from one of the worst ever crisis during the last six decades the increas in prices would neutralise the production costs and the Government need to come to the rescue of over 40,000 debt ridden growers who would not be INA position to take care of the interest amount totalling nearly Rs 300 crores on a loan of about Rs 1000 crores, Mr A S Shankre Gowda, chairman of KPA said. There was need for the Government to repay the interest burden to the banks thereby providing relief to the growers, Mr Bhandari said adding that such relief was not new. It already existed for other agricultural commodities besides a few select industries, including the public sector, he added. According to estimates of the coffee board the production of coffee this year was expected to be 292,400 tonnes of which karnataka alone contributed 210,000 tonnes. The exports this year was 1176,640 tonnes between April and October 13. The prices of coffee (plantation a variety) which plummeted to Rs 56.58 a kg in 2001 was now available at Rs 81.36 kg, he added. The international coffee organisation indicator prices which fell to 60.43 cents per pound in 2002 from 85.09 cents for Arabica in 2000 was today at 78.86 cents per pound. Various issues dogging the plantation industry would be discussed over the next two days of the meeting which would begin with a Upasi-KPA technical session in which Mr Abhijit Sengupta, additional secretary in Commerce Ministry and coffee board chairman Lakshmi Venkatachalam would address the delegations. The conference of KPA would be inaugurated by Union Minister of State for Planning M V Rajasekharan, with Karntaka Chief Minister Dharam Singh attending as chief guest. (UNI) |
|
Police launch special drive to curb gem stone smuggling SAMBALPUR, Nov 4: Smuggling of gems stones from the western Orissa districts has become a flourishing and lucrative trade over the years in view of high value of the stones in the international market. Businessmen from different parts of the country, with the help of local brokers, are often seen camping at Deogarh, Rairakhol, Nuapara, Kantabanji, Bhawanipatan, Jharsuguda and all other places in western Orissa in search of gem stone deposits to extract the precious stones. They undertake the job easily through the local labourers who keep it secret against a good payment. Even the local sarpanch and the ward members have in many places extended support to the businessmen. As a result the gem stone business hardly comes to public notice. But the police in western Orissa have recently taken a special drive to save the precious property of the state from the smugglers. A recent drive under the direction of deputy Inspector General of Police (northen range) Pranabindu Acharya to nab the gem stone smugglers has led to several successes. The police have recently arrested 13 people from Deogarh and Kantabanji areas and recovered gem stones worth Rs six lakh from the possession of one Mahul Agrawal and Rajkumar Agrawal of Kantabanjhi. According to Mr Acharaya, in majority of the cases the businessmen of Kantabanjhi are masterminding extraction of gem stones from inaccessible areas. Prominent among the stones extracted from western districts are garnet, cat’s eye, ruby, iolite, soberil, corundum, alexander, topaz, quartz, neelam, kakaneli and a number of other varieties. In some places, the highly-coveted diamonds are also available. They are found in large quantity in the Mahanadi river bed. The DIG said plans are afoot to involve forest, Revenue and Mining Department officials to chalk out an action plan to stop such illegal business. He said the police would further intensify the drive to curb smuggling in the entire western Orissa. (UNI) |
|
Strong earthquake shakes northern Japan TOKYO, Nov 4: A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.2 shook northern Japan today in the same region that was hit by a deadly tremor last month, scaring local residents, many of them still in evacuation centres. The earthquake, with a focus 18 km underground, shook the Central Niigata region just before 0900 hrs (0530 hrs ist), the meteorological agency said. No Tsunami warning was issued and there were no reports of major damage or injuries. "It was an aftershock ... We have not received any reports of damage at this point," chief cabinet secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda told a news conference, adding that the Government would continue to gather information. There were no reports of injuries except for a man in his 40s who suffered a burn while cooking. "A man burned the back of his hand ... And was taken to hospital in an ambulance," said a fire department official in Nagaoka city, near where the earthquake struck. But it scared local residents still nervous after a 6.8 magnitude tremor on October 23. The death toll from that quake rose to 39 on Thursday when a 71-year-old man died of a heart attack believed to have been triggered by the stress and fatigue of living in an evacuation centre, Kyodo news agency said. More than 3,000 people were injured in the quake, which was Japan’s deadliest since a 7.2 magnitude tremor killed more than 6,400 people in the western city of Kobe in 1995. Some 46,000 people are still unable to return to their homes, living in evacuation centres or in their cars, Kyodo said. Public broadcaster NHK showed school children hiding under desks and ceiling lights swaying immediately after the tremor. At a nursery school, teachers gathered frightened children in the middle of a room and tried to comfort them as some wept. The tremor caused some disruption to utilities and transport. A nuclear power plant operated by the nation’s biggest utility, Tokyo Electric Power Co., shut down automatically when the tremor struck, the company said. There was no radiation leak, a spokesman said. Bullet train services in the region were suspended but later resumed operations, Kyodo said. NHK said some roads were closed but that Niigata airport was operating as usual. The meteorological agency warned that there could be more aftershocks on a similar scale over the next month. "The outlook is that aftershocks of around magnitude 5.0 could continue over the next month or so," an agency official said. (AGENCIES) |
|
Reliance, Bharti no threat in international telephony: VSNL SINGAPORE, Nov 4: The Tatas-controlled Videsh Sanchar Nigam today said it would invest Rs 2,000 crore during the current fiscal to expand and consolidate and asserted that rivals Reliance and Sunil-Mittal promoted Bharti did not pose any threat to its leadership position in the international telecom business. "We will maintain our leadership position," executive director of VSNL’s international business group, Vinod Kumar, told visiting reporters when asked about the threat perception to Tatas’ leadership position from rivals Reliance and Bharti. "We have operational experience which is not easy for them (rivals) to recreate. We have relationship with carriers and enterprise customers. Moreover, the Tata brand and its reputation will help," he said asserting the group had resources and financial commitment to "stay ahead" in the game as far as international presence is concerned. He, however, clarified that VSNL was not underestimating the rivals and in fact had respect for them. Giving details of investment of 230 million dollars being made for acquisition of tyco global network and Tata-Indicom Singapore Chennai cable, launched yesterday, Kumar said VSNL, acquired by Tatas from the Government three years ago, would make "capital expenditure of Rs 2,000 crore during the current fiscal." Admitting that returns on huge investments being made by Tatas in VSNL were still to fructify in terms of returns, he said "we want to see returns quickly but we can’t transform overnight". "We require huge investments to make possible this radical transformation," Kumar said elaborating that the share of total revenue from voice traffic had come down from about 98 per cent (when Tata’s acquired VSNL in 2001) to about 55 per cent now. The corporation was focusing on new reuenue streams by pursuing a four-pronged strategy — voice telephony, international data traffic, broadband and domestic data business — to stay ahead. In fact, the acquisition of TGN and other projects have enabled VSNL to tap new business apart from just remaining ‘India-centric’ and the corporation would actively pursue newer markets for servicing MNCS world over for their interests in India. For the domestic customers, VSNL along with other group companies was developing facilities to bring bandwidth at the doorstep to help enterprises take advantage of all possible Value-Added Services. "Our group was created to take leverage from all the other group entities, including Tata consultancy services... But we want to provide all the services through one point for which Tata Indicom was created about two years ago," Kumar said. On the group’s international presence, he said VSNL had already made Singapore as its headquarter for international presence even as it was expanding its operations in the US, UK, Hong Kong, Japan and other important commercial markets. "We have a team in the UK and soon will have another one in Hong Kong," he said while clarifying that VSNL would not establish local network in other countries although they would have requisite licences in a host of nations once the process of acquisition of TGN was completed. (PTI) |
|
‘VSNL open to acquisitions, takeovers for growth’ SINGAPORE, Nov 4: Close on the heels of acquiring tyco global network for about Rs 600 crore, Tatas-controlled Videsh Sanchar Nigam today said it was open to acquisitions and takeovers for maintaining high growth momentum. "We are looking at more opportunities," VSNL’s Director operations, Narasimhan Srinath, told PTI shortly after the launch of Tata indicom undersea optical fibre cable connecting Singapore and Chennai. "We have significant investments planned for the next two years," he said, adding the future growth could come both from organic and inorganic (acquisitions and takeovers) routes. Srinath said the corporation would be interested in three basic areas relating to customers, products and network whenever it got a proposal for buyouts. On whether the group had any particular proposal under active consideration, he said "interested parties keep getting in touch with us." Asked if the investments by Tatas were yielding results and whether the group had enought sustaining power to withstand pressures, he said "we have to have staying power... We have this." As part of investment plans, VSNL was actively pursuing establishing metropolitan area network to distribute the huge broadand capabilities it had acquired. "During the current financial year, the focus would be on establishing the national long distance capabilities. We will cover eight major cities during the current year and take it to 30 under the man programme by the next fiscal," he said. "Our effort would be to provide retail broadband services at affordable price of below Rs 1000," he said. (PTI) |
|
Patni forays into 60 bn telecom vertical biz for IT-SVCs MUMBAI, Nov 4: Software major Patni Computer Systems Ltd today announced its successful entry into the 60 billion telecommunication vertical business for IT services. In keeping with its inorganic growth strategy for market and domain expansion, Patni informed bse here that it has successfully completed the acquisition of US-based cymbal corporation, a telecom service provider, for 68 million. Cymbal provides Patni with a services capability which integrates deep domain expertise, consulting skills and global delivery that are in demand with telecom operators looking to establish strategic partnerships. As per the terms of agreement, 35 million has been paid on the date of acquisition. The balance of 33 million would be paid over three years, based on meeting projected revenue and profit targets, the company said. Cymbal will be integrated into patni and function as a business unit headed by Neeraj Gupta, former chief executive of Cymbal Corporation. Through this transaction, the company acquires all assets of Cymbal corporation, including its employees and consultant base of over 500 personnel. The acquisition also provides Patni access to 14 key strategic communication service provider accounts, including Virgin mobile, Hutchison telecom and Comcast. In addition, IT gains an advanced entry into the large telecommunications professional and support services segment, which is expected to grow to over 65 billion globally by 2007, according to gartner group estimates. The acquisition would be ebidta positive and would help in reducing Patni’s concentration of revenues from its top customers while increasing its number of million dollar accounts. The acquisition of Cymbal on November 3 is expected to add over 8 per cent sequential revenue growth for Patni in the quarter ended December 31, 2004, the company added. (UNI) |
|
CR recovers fine to the tune of Rs 5,47,031 MUMBAI, Nov 4: The Central Railway has recovered fine to the tune of Rs 5,47,031 from ticketless travellers, in a special drive conducted last week. The drive, conducted in five divisions had 3111 cases registered relating to ticketless, irregular travel and unbooked luggage, a release issued here said today. (PTI) |
|
Oil prices decline but Bush victory points to upward trend SINGAPORE, Nov 4: Oil prices were lower in Asian trade today on news of higher weekly US crude inventories but dealers said the re-election of President George W Bush points to higher prices in the longer term. At 11:35 am (0905 ist), the benchmark light sweet crude for December delivery was at 50.57 US dollars a barrel, down 31 cents from its close of 50.88 dollars in New York yesterday. "Prices are down but I don’t think they will drop too much, especially after the Americans come in later tonight," said Gerard Rigby, deputy head for trading at China aviation oil in Singapore, referring to US trading hours. "Bush’s re-election is a bullish factor. He’ll keep a strong stance in the Middle East and is against dipping into the strategic oil reserves." Analysts earlier said the market was betting that a win by Bush would push prices higher because his policies would be likely to further fuel tensions in the oil-rich middle east. Losing democratic challenger john kerry had been thought more likely to dip into the us strategic petroleum reserve if voted into the white house and would have pursued a stronger fuel efficiency drive. Oil prices gyrated in us trading, falling briefly after the energy department released a survey showing crude oil inventories rose 6.3 million barrels to 289.7 million barrels in the week to October 29. (AFP) |
|
Rupee spurts to five-month peaks against USD MUMBAI, Nov 4: Euphoric over re-election of George W Bush as President of the United States, the rupee today spurted to a nearly 5 month peak of Rs 45.2750/2850 per dollar in early trade with sentiments upbeat for further sharp gains on the back of strong foreign fund inflows. Notwithstanding a rise in global oil prices, the rupee surged by nearly 10 paise from the overnight close of Rs 45.36/37 following sustained heavy dollar sales by foreign banks, custodians for Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), a forex dealer said. The rupee opened distinctly firm at Rs 45.26/29 per dollar. In volatile trade at the interbank foreign exchange here this morning, strong dollar selling by banks helped to offset negative effects of the rally in oil prices, another dealer said. Crude oil prices surged to USD 51.06 a barrel but later eased to USD 50.56 a barrel in early Asian trade. The rupee rallied sharply by 13 paise yesterday buoyed by strong foreign fund inflows following early indications of Bush’s victory. In cross currency trade, the euro was quoted at Rs 58.04/06, pound sterling at Rs 83.62/64 and the Japanese yen (100) at Rs 42.58/60. (PTI) |
|
Nicholas gets orders from drug majors, NEW DELHI, Nov 4: Domestic drugmaker Nicholas Piramal India Ltd (NPIL) today said it has won orders from two multinational pharma companies, including allergan inc, for manufacturing drugs and it expects peak sales from these contracts to be about 30 million dollars a year. The Mumbai-based pharma firm said one order was from allergan inc for supplying bulk drugs that go into making two of its anti-glaucoma drugs. Though NPIL did not name the other company, it said the order was for manufacturing many ready-to-take medicines for sale in the United States. The company said the revenue expectation was based on the initial set of products to be supplied under the contracts. NPIL said it expected capital expenditure of Rs 20 crore for the two contracts. (UNI) China cuts crude export quota by two thirds in ‘05 SINGAPORE, Nov 4: China has slashed its crude oil export quota for 2005 by two thirds from this year to divert more supply to the domestic market, Commerce Ministry officials said on Thursday. Crude export quota for Chinese companies was set at 1 million tonnes (20,000 barrels per day) next year, down 2 million tonnes from 2004, they said. There is no limit for oil exports by foreign companies operating in China, they added. "Exports will be reduced since domestic oil supply is rather tight," one official said. Petroleum demand in China, the world’s second-largest oil consumer after the United States, soared over the past few months, driven by a galloping economy. Crude imports, already accounting for 40 percent of China’s oil needs, rose 34 percent in the first nine months from a year earlier to 90.31 million tonnes (2.4 million barrels a day). (AGENCIES) |
|
|
