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BSNL to examine
option of full mobility on WLL MTNL reduces
rentals Spice subscribers
facing problems
Tata Motors to
acquire Daewoo truck unit Govt clears 15
FDI proposals |
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Farm insurance in
Rabi season Wipro on the
prowl in Europe
China likely to
import iron ore from India IDBI Homefinance
cuts rates
NetOne launched in
Kurukshetra
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BSNL to examine option of full mobility on WLL
New Delhi, November 5 “One benefit of the unified licensing regime is that since we are providing limited mobile service so that we can also provide full mobility service on the same platform using CDMA technology. We will examine that option,” BSNL Chairman and Managing Director Prithipal Singh told PTI here. While declining to give a timeframe for taking a decision on the issue, he said, “So far we have been following the law of the land and rolling out CDMA network for limited mobility purpose. When the law of the land changes, we will have options on whether to have limited or full mobility on CDMA.... We are now looking at these aspects.” He said BSNL would closely study “customer requirements” in various parts of the country before taking a decision. “We will have to see reaction of people and which are the areas where customers still want limited mobility,” he said, adding that there were certain group of subscribers who may prefer to have limited mobile services. The Cabinet, last week, decided to unify the basic and cellular telecom licences in a bid to end the bitter confrontation between the two sides over WLL mobile services. The decision would pave the way for conversion of WLL services into fully mobile telecom services and would prove to be a major booster for Reliance that has over 50 lakh WLL subscribers. Reliance would have the option of converting its WLL services into full mobile service for consideration of an entry fee of Rs 1,096 crore in addition to a penalty of Rs 485 crore. The cellular operators led by Bharti and Hutchison, that were strongly opposing WLL services by basic operators and had taken the legal recourse, were disappointed by the government’s decision, saying it would tantamount to legalising the services by one of the WLL operators.
— PTI
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Mumbai, November 5 “The move is to make our GMS services economical and affordable, apart from substantially increasing our subscriber base,” MTNL Executive Director
R.L. Dube, who was recently transferred from Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, told reporters here today. The company has also reduced the activation charges of its GSM services by half to Rs 250, effective November 10 for a period of two months, he said.
— PTI
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Spice subscribers facing problems Chandigarh, November 5 Some of the consumers have claimed that they had to pay additional Rs 100 to Rs 200 per month as the calls on the Spice network was cut while they were talking during the off-peak hours. Denying the problem at all, Mr Mukul Khanna, DGM, Marketing, Spice Telecom, said,”The customers may be facing the problem temporarily, that too during peak hours. But we want to assure them that whatever problem of networking they are facing, would be resolved by November end. We are making an investment of over Rs 100 crore to upgrade the infrastructure. New towers would be installed to meet the rush during peak hours.” The Spice has about 5.75 lakh customers in Punjab and Chandigarh. The insiders says though the company is adding substantial number of customers every month but it has failed to increase its capacity by installing required number of towers and booster, resulting in frequent failure of calls. Number of customers alleged that despite repeated reminders the company had failed to rectify the problem, and the officials would always claim that it was an “individual”problem and the network was quite normal. The company was earning additional revenue worth lakhs of rupees if not crores, every month simply due to this persisting problem. Mr Ashok Goyal, Executive Director, Spice Telecom, speaking from Delhi, said, “Mobile Customers all over the world face problem of networking during peak hours. Ours could be a short time problem. The Chandigarh Telecom Subscribers Association has also taken up the matter with the TRAI, but without any result. SMS charges up The Spice has announced to increase in its SMS charges from Re 1 to Rs 2 per message for sending messages from its mobiles to WLL network, with effect from November 5, disclosed Mr Mukul Khanna, DGM, Marketing. He said, “The decision has been taken in line with the decision of the industry.” However, Mr Vinod Sawheny, CEO, Airtel, Northern Region and officials of the BSNL clarified that they had not so far decided to increase SMS charges. |
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Tata Motors to acquire Daewoo truck unit
New Delhi, November 5 “The transaction is expected to close in the next two or three months, subject to a final due diligence of DWCV’s operations, the negotiation of further agreements and receipt of applicable regulatory approvals in India and Korea,” the company said in statement here. The possible acquisition of DWCV is likely to help Tata Motors in its efforts to make the truck of the future, the prototype of which is likely to be ready by 2005-06. It will also facilitate the company’s planned foray into the Southeast Asian markets like South Korea, Thailand and Malaysia as well as China, to boost its presence in the foreign markets. Tata Motors had already been selected as the “preferred bidder” for acquiring DWCV, which was incorporated under a reorganisation plan on November 1, 2002. About 10 automakers are believed to have expressed interest in acquiring DWCV, the second largest commercial vehicle maker in South Korea with a marketshare of about 26 per cent. DWCV produces heavy duty trucks in the 200-400 horse power range. The company has over 93 models in cargo, dump, mixer and tractor category. It also makes tractors and utility vehicles and has an annual production capacity of 20,000 vehicles. DWCV has been under court protection after its parent, Daewoo Motor Company, which declared itself bankrupt in November, 2000, sold its passenger car business to a consortium led by US-based General Motors Corp last year.
— PTI
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Govt clears 15 FDI proposals New Delhi, November 5 The major investment proposals pertain to agriculture, information and broadcasting and information technology sectors and had been recommended by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB). One proposal worth Rs 50 crore is from Mauritius-based Venture Infotek Ltd for investment in Venture Infotek Global Pvt. Ltd. (earlier known as Equifax Venture Infotex Pvt. Ltd) for development of computer software (processing and special purpose vehicle). Two new companies are planned to be set up. Hughes Network Systems Inc, the US, has been allowed to invest an unspecified amount in Hughes Software Systems New Delhi, through acquisition of up to 20 per cent foreign equity.
— UNI
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Farm insurance in Rabi season New Delhi, November 5 This was stated by the Union Agriculture Minister, Mr Rajnath Singh, while addressing a meeting of the consultative committee attached to his ministry here today. He said that based on the outcome of the pilot project, it is proposed to fine tune the programme and launch it from Kharif 2004. The pilot project would implemented by the Agriculture Insurance Company of India. The farm income insurance programme would target two critical components of the farmer’s income — yield and price — through a single policy instrument. The farm income insurance programme has been
conceived to provide income protection to farmers by integrating the mechanism of insuring production as well as market risks. Besides, protecting farm incomes, the programme aims at ensuring sustainable production at the agriculture sector, food and livelihood security, crop diversification and enhanced competitiveness of the agriculture sector in the context of exports. Under the proposed programme, a farmer’s production and price risk for the crop produced by him would be protected by ensuring the minimum
guaranteed income. If the actual income falls short of the guaranteed income, the farmer would be eligible for a compensation to the extent of indemnity from the Agriculture Insurance Company. An area approach as in the national agriculture insurance scheme would be used for actual yield and price measurement of the insured crop. A premium subsidy of 75 per cent is proposed to be given in case of small and marginal farmers and 50 per cent for other farmers. The programme would be available to all the states and would be compulsory for farmers availing seasonal agricultural operations loans from financial institutions. The NAIS will be withdrawn for the crops covered by the
FIIP, but would continue to be applicable for other crops.
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London, November 5 Wipro, which has been on the prowl for acquisitions since it acquired Spectramind in 2002, is interested in vertical market specialists in continental Europe. “We are not as strong in some areas as we would like to be. We will invest in boutique companies or vertical market specialists that will expand our service capabilities in these areas,” Wipro’s Vice-President of enterprise sales in Europe Kees Ten Nijenhuis said. The company is also looking to take on competitors such as IBM Global Services and Accenture for more high-end consulting work. Mr Nijenhuis said, “in the UK you will see us develop vertical sectors.” The company’s areas of focus are utilities and the public sector. It is said to be expanding abroad because competitive pressures in India are driving up costs. The opening of a software factory in the Philippines is due to be announced this quarter. “We are also investing in China, but although labour is cheap, the political and economic situation is very explosive. It’s tough to do business and the infrastructure is not in place,” said Mr Nijenhuis. After Wipro acquired Spectramind for $ 90 million, it bought 100-person energy practice of Boston-based tech consultant American Management Systems Inc for $ 25 million. It also acquired NerveWire Inc, a financial services consultant in the US for $ 19 million this May.
Maruti, Wipro in agreement NEW DELHI: Maruti Udyog and Wipro Infotech have collaborated to set up a first-of-its-kind dealer management system (DMS), which will be implemented in the Application Service Providing (ASP) mode for Maruti dealerships across the country. Through this system dealerships will have access to updated information from Maruti and a real-time view of their operational processes that will help them manage their businesses better. The DMS will issue alerts to dealerships whenever they are falling short of performance norms in various areas such as level of customer complaints handling and sales. More importantly, it will enable the dealer CEOs to proactively monitor their various key performance indicators to effectively manage their businesses. This will include inventory, sales, inquiries and debts. Customers will benefit from the “single face of Maruti” irrespective of the dealership. This should help raise customer service levels and enhance the quality of management at dealerships. The DMS is a centralised solution with all dealerships logging onto ad Central DataCenter where the application will be hosted. The security features will be controlled at the DataCenter along with a disaster recovery site for backup. Wipro, as the core IT partner with Maruti, will be responsible for implementation, networking, training and subsequent sustenance of the dealer management system. The system, apart from dealer integration with a central database, also serve as a knowledge repository from where dealerships can access information on customer schemes, product features and price lists.
— UNI, TNS
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China likely to import iron ore from India Kolkata, November 5 Talking informally with newspersons here last night, Mr Jain said there was a huge demand of steel in China, which was adding nearly 13 to 15 million tonnes each year to meet its demand. Stating that China could even buy steel from India to meet its demand, the Chairman informed that he had recently visited China as a member of one of the delegations and got this impression while interacting with the Chinese businessmen. He mentioned that China had emerged as the single largest consumer of steel in the international market and expected that there could be a tremendous surge in steel demand in that country which would cross over 300 million tonnes in the next three to four years.
— UNI
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IDBI Homefinance cuts rates Mumbai, November 5 The revised interest rate, which comes into effect from yesterday, for upto 5 year loan tenure is 7.75 per cent (earlier 8.25 per cent), a press release issued by IDBI Homefinance Ltd (earlier known as Tata Homefinance Ltd) said, quoting managing director and CEO, M Rego. The new rates for 6-10 years, 10-15 years and 15-20 years are 8.25 per cent, 8.5 per cent and 8.75 per cent respectively, he said. The company has disbursed loans aggregating Rs 110 crore in the first seven months ending October of the current fiscal, he said, adding, the total portfolio stood at Rs 460 crore. IDBI had taken over Tata Homefinance in September 2003. Immediately after takeover, the company announced an interest rate cut from 9.75 per cent to 8.25 per cent on September 17, 2003 for five year loans. The IDBI subsidiary has 16 branches in 12 cities.
— PTI
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NetOne launched in Kurukshetra
Kurukshetra, November 5 He said the NetOne was a CLI-based accountless service for surfing Internet whereby no separate application was required to be filled in for getting an Internet
account. This facility would enhance availability to be used by any BSNL landline telephone subscriber, who had a computer and a normal BSNL telephone connection. For connectivity the user would get the account in no time. It would also ensure inexpensive service at night at a cost of 10 paise per minute call rate and as such, the scheme offered value added service, Dr Chawla added. Karnal Telecom District General Manager P.K. Paliwal, WLL service was also planned to be expanded in a number of towns apart from Kurukshetra, Shahabad and Kaithal, where this service had already been launched in July, 2003.
— OC
Lupin promoters sell 4 pc stake
MUMBAI: The promoters of Lupin, Dr Desh Bandhu Gupta and Associates, have announced that they have sold nearly 4 per cent of Lupin’s total equity in the market for a consideration of about Rs 90 crore. With this disinvestment, the promoters’ shareholding in Lupin Ltd stood at about 50 per cent, the company said. Enam Securities were the brokers to this deal.
— UNI
Govt to appoint 2 advisers for CMC
NEW DELHI: After a brief lull in
disinvestment following the Supreme Court ruling in the HPCL case, the government today took renewed steps in getting the beleaguered privatisation programme back on the rails inviting bids for not one but a pair of advisers for selling its residual stake in CMC Ltd. Both the selected parties will be called Joint Coordinators-cum-Advisers and will have to form a syndicate of co-managers in consultation with the government.
— UNI
Insurers get highest ratings
NEW DELHI: ICRA today expressed concerns over the future profitability of three general insurers but retained highest safety “iAAA” rating. Profits of National Insurance Company (NIC), Oriental Insurance Company (OIC) and United India Insurance (UII) are expected to come under pressure due to increasing competition, re-pricing of investment portfolio at lower yields, continuing pricing
insufficiency of motor third party business and high management
expenses. — PTI
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