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Wednesday,
May 8, 2002, Chandigarh, India
  
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Basic
operators can offer WLL: SC Hutchison
offers voice messaging Ashok
Leyland net jumps, sales down Hyundai
sales rev up 4.5 pc |
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Iffco-Kribhco
to bid for HPCL, BPCL Rs
18,862 cr IT dues against 120 firms Rs 735
cr outlay for agro processing Now
design your own sari NHPC
earns Rs 469 cr profit Graphic: Gross NPA's of public sector banks
Intel
launches new Pentium 4 processors
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Basic operators can offer WLL: SC
New Delhi, May 7 Judges R. P. Sethi and K. G. Balakrishnan declined to stay a March 15 order of the Telecom Disputes Appellate Tribunal (TDAT) upholding the government decision and fixed July 19 for hearing a petition filed on the issue by the Cellular Operator's Association of India (COAI). The COAI had urged the court to set aside the tribunal's order, which had upheld the government's decision of January 15, 2001 allowing fixed service providers (FSP) to introduce Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)-based Wireless In Local Loop (WLL) mobile telephone services. In its order, the tribunal had ruled that the attempt of the COAI to claim exclusivity on available technology "is invalid and if accepted, would result in an over rigid policy in a field where is constant flux of available technology. "The attempt to segregate wireless technology and wired technology into rigid compartments cannot also be sustained," the tribunal ruled. It said "increasing teledensity in the country is an object which must be pursued with zeal and vigour. Nothing should be allowed to stand in the way of pursuing this object. Assailing the tribunal order, the COAI said in its appeal to the Supreme Court that "the entire decision-making process in seeking to introduce WLL was completed in less than four months. The tribunal has failed to appreciate that in the process of introducing WLL, the larger public interest issues have been ignored. These, COAI said, include the importance of investor confidence in India as an investment destination; that competition would be adversely affected by back-door entry of FSPs into the mobile field; the need to project a long-term durable and stable policy to ensure inflow of investments in infrastructure development. Challenging the legality of the tribunal, the COAI maintained that "public interest is best served by open healthy and fair competition. The entry of the third and fourth cellular operators with valid licences is serving public interest by driving industry growth and delivering the benefit of freedom, choice and affordable services to the consumer." Stating that “public interest” claim used to justify the WLL services was misleading, the COAI in its petition pointed out that with WLL monthly rental at Rs 450 to Rs 550, the difference in tariffs between existing fixed-line service and WLL was huge and significant. “Additionally, under the new service there are no free calls making it virtually impossible for the target fixed-line consumers namely the rural and low income subscribers to afford WLL (mobility),” it said. The COAI pointed out that a rural subscriber had to pay much more for the new services as against the fixed-line option, as monthly bill for fixed line for 100 calls was Rs 90 (which included the rental). The appellants stated that there was no guarantee that tariffs — rentals and call charges — would not be changed to the disadvantage of a consumer, something the impugned order completely overlooked, leaving the consumer including a villager, extremely vulnerable.
IANS, PTI
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Hutchison offers voice messaging
New Delhi, May 7 As part of the service, subscribers of Hutchison Essar, a joint venture between Hutchison Telecom and Essar Group will be able to send voice messages to cellular as well as fixed-line phones in the USA and Canada at Rs.5.99 per minute. This is sharply lower than an average of Rs.40 per minute for an international phone call to the USA and Canada. Similarly, messages can also be sent between Hutchison subscribers on Orange (in Mumbai), Celforce (Gujarat) and Command (Kolkata). This will cost subscribers Rs.2.99 per minute, Sudershan Banerjee, CEO of Hutchison Essar told reporters here. The voice messaging services, developed in collaboration with Hotmail founder Sabeer Bhatia's
TeliVoice, will be launched under the brand name of VoiceXpress and will be available to both post-paid and pre-paid Hutchison Essar
users. IANS
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Ashok Leyland net jumps, sales down
Chennai, May 7 The sale of vehicles by Ashok Leyland declined by 8.6 per cent from 32,475 vehicles in 2000-2001 to 29,673 vehicles in 2001-2002, but the company managed to shore up its net profit from Rs 91.68 crore the previous year to Rs 92.25 crore in 2001-2002. Announcing the results of the company after a Board meeting, Ashok Leyland Managing Director R Seshasayee told reporters that the company had proposed a dividend of 45 per cent as against 40 per cent the previous year. The drop in sales was due to decline in the orders for medium duty vehicles, which accounts for most of the company’s sales. The southern market, where the company enjoys MDV market share in excess of 60 per cent, shrunk to an unprecedented 16 per cent during 2001-2002. Concurrently, the company had to contend with an unanticipated 33.6 per cent decline in the MDV bus market, of which the State Transport Undertakings segment shrunk by 42 per cent. However, inroads made into the northern market, which overtook the South in market size during the year, helped the company shore up its volumes. The company would switch to Hino as primary platform responding to customer choice, he said.
UNI
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Hyundai sales rev up 4.5 pc
New Delhi, May 7 The April sales were, however, lower by 20.8 per cent as compared to 9,513 cars sold in the previous month, a company statement said here. For the year ended March 31, 2002, Hyundai India’s sales had grown by 7.4 per cent to 93,244 cars from 86.798 units a year ago.
PTI
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Iffco-Kribhco
to bid for HPCL, BPCL
Kandla, May 7 “Together with Kribhco, we are going to bid for HPCL and BPCL which are listed for disinvestment by the government. It will be our joint effort to acquire one of these companies”, IFFCO Managing Director US Awasthi told PTI. He said the Iffco-Kribcho combine would also be in the race for picking up a government stake in Shipping Corporation of India (SCI), apart from certain fertiliser companies that come up for sale. “But we will concentrate on our endeavour for acquisition of one of the oil companies. Our main goal will be to purchase these oil refining enterprises as it will be extremely beneficial to our urea units”, Awasthi said. Acquisition of the oil companies would ensure adequate and timely supply of naphtha to both IFFCO and KRIBHCO. Naphtha is an important feedstock for urea manufacturing that happens to be the core business of the fertiliser cooperatives. However, feedstock is not the sole reason behind the move. Awasthi said there are several synergies between the fertiliser and petroleum sectors, adding that IFFCO-KRIBHCO’s engineering expertise could easily be extended to refining activities too.
PTI
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Rs 18,862 cr IT dues against 120 firms
New Delhi, May 7 The outstanding income tax against the top 50 companies was Rs 12,483 crore as in June, 2001, Mr Ramachandran said in two separate replies in the Upper House. The Central Excise duty outstanding against the top 50 industrial units was Rs 4,057 crore on March, 31, 2002. The reasons for the non-recovery of the income tax dues include tax demands being in dispute, cases getting held up in appeals, stay against recovery of tax demands by appellate authorities and courts and applications pending before the Settlement Commission or the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction. The amount of income tax recovered in respect of the top 50 companies was Rs 720 crore, Rs 980 crore and Rs 1,088 crore during 1998-99, 1999-2000 and 2000-2001, respectively.
UNI
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Rs 735 cr outlay for agro processing New Delhi, May 7 Presiding over the 54th General Council Meeting here today of the NCDC, Minister of Agriculture Ajit Singh said for 2002-03 an amount of Rs 331.5 crore (45 per cent of the total outlay) has been earmarked for agro-processing activities involving modernisation, upgradation, rehabilitation of existing processing facilities besides setting-up of new units. Rural economic activities for weaker sections such as fisheries, dairy, poultry, handlooms, SC/ST cooperatives will have a provision of Rs 120 crore which constitutes 16 per cent of the total outlay. During the last financial year (2001-02), the NCDC had released an all-time high amount of Rs 720 crore and had also sanctioned a record amount of Rs 1,001 crore to cooperatives in the agro-allied sectors in the country. Referring to the recently announced Exim Policy for 2002-07, the minister said 20 agri-export zones have already been notified in addition to removal of several restrictions on export.
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Now design your own sari
Chennai, May 7 A computer-aided design centre at the state-run textile corporation in southern India, popularly known as Co-optex, will let women design their own saris. The customer will be able to sketch her own design at the centre in Chennai and Co-optex weavers will weave it to her specifications. Two other such design-your-own centres will be set up soon in Madurai and Erode, Textiles Minister V. Somasundaram said. There are plans for a similar centre in Coimbatore as well. New designs will be created with the help of the National Institute of Fashion Technology, Chennai, and the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, the minister said. An exclusive showroom for power loom products will be set up in Chennai and two export-oriented readymade garments parks will open in Chennai and the textile town of Madurai, about 600 km south of here. The textile parks, which will cost Rs.480 million and come up with federal assistance, will provide space to 200 entrepreneurs and employment to 20,000 people. Last year Tamil Nadu produced textile goods worth nearly Rs.7 billion and exported products worth Rs.1.46 billion, Somasundaram said. The export target for this year is Rs.1.75 billion and would be achieved through participation in international fairs, he added.
IANS
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NHPC earns Rs 469 cr profit New Delhi, May 7 NHPC Chairman Yogendra Prasad said the profit was 5.78 per cent higher than the previous year’s figure of Rs 443.42 crore. The corporation achieved another feat during 2001-02 by bringing down its outstandings from the state electricity boards (SEBs) from Rs 3,299.23 crore to Rs 2,235.26 crore. The NHPC realised Rs 2,175.63 crore during the year — Rs 1,058.33 crore in cash and Rs 1,117.3 crore through bonds.
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Allahabad Bank Blue Star net up UK session FDI up 43 pc Contract for TCS Eastman Chem Hero Honda Omax plant |
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