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Tuesday,
January 14, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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TRAI
‘favouring’ WLL operators Bt cotton
‘yields’ rich dividends
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Kinetic
launches Nova DLX
Ambuja’s
fly ash road soon SEBI
report on L&T row soon Markfed
to upgrade plant at Khanna
Mastek
logs 67 pc growth in net
ICICI
Bank to enter UK, China
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TRAI ‘favouring’ WLL operators
New Delhi, January 13 Especially perturbed over TRAI’s recent direction to the cellular operators to provide connectivity to basic telecom operators for WLL(M) calls, the cellular industry has published an open letter to the TRAI Chairman pointing out at problems and discrimination faced by the cellular operators. “We have written numerous letters to you in the past two years and more recently on three occasions after the landmark judgement of the Supreme Court, remanding the WLL(M) case to the Telecom Dispute Settlement Tribunal (TDSAT) for a comprehensive review,” the open letter said. “Unfortunately, you (TRAI) continue to maintain a mysterious silence on the cellular industry's pleas for transparent, equitable and fair treatment vis-a-vis WLL(M)”, the cellular industry said, adding that this was impacting adversely over 1 crore cellular consumers. The cellular operators pointed out their subscribers were forced by the regulator to pay two charges — airtime plus an access charge of Rs 1.20 when calling a fixed line of WLL(M) phone — whereas the WLL(M) subscribers need to pay only a single charge for any call they make. “This is because your (TRAI) discriminatory interconnect regulation waives the Rs 1.20 access charge for them,” they added. Last week, TRAI had directed the cellular operators, including Bharti, to offer inter connectivity to all basic telecom operators for completing calls orginating from WLL(M) network and had asked them to comply within three days. Bharti had earlier blocked some calls of Tata telecom in Andhra Pradesh and had refused to give connectivity in Delhi saying the agreement of inter connection had expired. Moreover, some private cellular operators are maintaining that the WLL(M) network is illegal and basic telecom operators should not operate as the Supreme Court had asked for complete review of the policy by the TDSAT. It can be recalled that Communication Minister Pramod Mahajan had announced that WLL was part of the government policy and it was there to stay. The cellular operators also raised the issue of licence fee which they had paid at the time of procuring licence while it was given free of cost to the basic telecom operators for offering mobility.
PTI
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Bt cotton ‘yields’ rich dividends
Hyderabad, January 13 “The Bt cotton technology has worked very well with response from over 70 per cent of farmers being overwhelming while in the remaining cases it is good but not to their high expectations,” the company’s Managing Director M K Sharma told a group of Hyderabad-based reporters who were taken to Warangal district over the week-end to show how farmers had reaped a rich harvest of Bt cotton. The genetically engineered Bt cotton seeds can provide an in-built protection to cotton crop against the deadly bollworm pest and can significantly reduce the number of pesticide sprays and thereby production cost to the farmer. After a series of field trials, the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), appointed by the Centre, had given the go-ahead for commercialisation of the technology in April last year, paving the way for its introduction in the country. The Bt cotton seed contains a genetically manipulated protein that kills bollworm, a deadly pest responsible for extensive crop damages in the past. “I have raised Bt cotton crop over one acre and I am expecting an yield of 13 quintals which is much higher than the local hybrids. I am very happy with the new technology,” Sripal Reddy, a farmer said.
PTI
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Kinetic launches Nova DLX
Bangalore, January 13 At the unveiling here, Joint Managing Director of the Pune-based company, Sulajja Firodia Motwani, told reporters that the Mileage Expert uses a system of light indicators on the speedo-consol and sound beeper to guide the user of Nova DLX into “optimum riding habits”. It’s an electronic device that keeps the rider informed constantly about the efficiency with which fuel is being used, it was explained. The device helps the rider to optimise fuel utilisation, while at the same time leaving him in full control of his vehicle. She said Nova DLX was priced at Rs 35,718 ex-showroom in Bangalore, Rs 500 more than Nova, which was launched last year and has so far sold close to 32,000 units. New bike next month
The company will launch a new motor cycle next month and two more bikes in the coming financial year, she said today. She said February launch of the motor cycle in technical collaboration with Korea-based Hyosung Corporation would be under limited edition. “Two new motorcycles will be launched next year (2003-04)”, she said.
PTI
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Ambuja’s fly ash road soon Ropar, January 13 The .75-km-long road stretch was inaugurated by the Punjab PWD Minister, Mr Pratap Singh Bajwa. Mr Ramesh Dutt, State Minister for Health and Public Grievances, Mr Lakhanpal, Principal Secretary (Finance) and Chairman of the PIDB and Mr Gurmeet Singh Rana, OSD to Punjab Chief Minister, were also present. Later, in a seminar organised at the Ambuja rest house, company engineers said the said road, which was the first of its kind in the country, had been made using 50 per cent cement and 50 per cent fly ash. The construction of the road was started in August and completed in October. Mr Suresh Neotia, Chairman of GACL, while addressing the gathering on the occasion, said the idea behind the model road by Ambuja was to demonstrate to the forward-thinking civil engineering community the advantages of the HVFA roads over the bitumen roads. The estimated life of the HVFA road was 30 years and the maintenance was negligible, he maintained. Mr Bajwa assured the GACL management that the Punjab Government had in principle agreed to test the new technology of GACL on the Morinda bypass road.
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SEBI report on L&T row soon
New Delhi, January 13 “It (investigation team) will submit the report in a few weeks,” SEBI Chairman G.N. Bajpai told PTI, but declined to give any details. “Let them come out with a report, then we will apply our mind and I have given them a timeframe,” he said. Grasim bought a 10.05 per cent stake in L&T from Reliance in November, 2001, at Rs 306 per share and a subsequent increase in its stake to a little over 14 per cent in tranches.
PTI
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Markfed
to upgrade plant at Khanna Chandigarh, January 13 Mr S.S.Channy, MD, Markfed, said, here today ‘‘as part of the restructuring process of the plants, we are modernising the Khanna vanaspati plant to cut down process costs and improve quality of edible oil. The new physical refinery will be launched on January 16.
TNS |
rc
Mastek logs 67 pc growth in net
Mumbai, January 13 The company’s total income has increased from Rs 24.47 crore in the December, 2001, quarter to Rs 38.86 crore in the December, 2002, quarter.
Nerolac profit up Goodlass Nerolac Paints has registered a 67 per cent increase in the net profit during the third quarter of the current fiscal. The net profit increased to Rs 11.25 crore from Rs 6.73 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. The Board of Directors has approved in principle the setting up of a new manufacturing unit, to be located in the North India, at a cost of Rs 70 crore.
Dabur-FreeMarkets pact Dabur India has signed an agreement with global supply management solutions provider FreeMarkets for using leading edge technologies to execute online markets for its procurement needs. The deal enabled Dabur to join the league of leading FMCG companies in the world that have adopted high-end technologies for reducing costs, providing greater transparencies and optimising procurement efficiencies.
Polaris centre Unfazed by the recent fiasco over a deal in Indonesia, Polaris Software is firming up its expansion plans which includes setting up a development centre in Hyderabad in the next three months. Polaris has three development centres as of now in the country — Chennai, Gurgaon and Noida.
Lupin’s OTC division Lupin Ltd is gearing up to foray into the Over The Counter (OTC) drugs segment and has decided to unveil a separate division for it in the next fiscal. “We are in the process of creating a separate division for OTC products which will be floated in over 6-7 months,” D.B. Gupta, chairman and managing director, Lupin Ltd told PTI here.
Agencies
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bb
Airtel rates cut Nimulid safe PHDCCI memo Capital Bank Pension plan Air India profit Central Bank Nabard workshop |
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Kinetic today launched a premium variant of its four-stroke scooter “Nova DLX” that features a special microprocessor-controlled device called the “Mileage Expert”.