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TRAI issues directive on value-added services
Planning Commission for restructuring oil sector
Govt plans upgradation of hill airports
8 pc hike in ATF price
HPTDC divestment put on hold for now
IT round-up
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Anil hits out at cousin Nikhil
Pak designs impress Vallaya
SEBI nod on demutualisation still awaited
Expedite IISCO-SAIL merger, says PM
Indian hair go everywhere
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TRAI issues directive on value-added services
New Delhi, May 3 “Any value-added service, which was earlier being provided free of charge, shall not be made chargeable without the explicit consent of the customer,” TRAI said in a statement It also directed operators to publish in all communications and advertisements relating to premium rate services, the pulse rate and tariff for the
service.
TRAI said it has observed that in the last few months, a number of operators and also some independent agencies are increasingly providing value added services like quiz, ringtones, televoting etc. through SMS. “In most of these cases, the charges for these services are more than the normal published tariffs. The customers are informed about these value added premium rate services through SMS, advertisements in newspaper or TV. But in this communication, the cost implication of the service is not intimated. Sometimes the messages are only followed by wordings “T&C apply”. This practice of service providers works against the interest of consumers,” TRAI said. TRAI has also noted a number of instances where consumers are charged for value added services without their explicit consent. “One such instance is at the time of launch of any new Value Added Service, the customer is given the service free for a certain trial period. Subsequently, after the expiry of the trial period, the consumer is informed, usually by SMS, that if he does not want the service he should “unsubscribe” by sending a SMS to the service provider,” it said. In such cases, the burden of informing the service provider, not to have that service once it has become chargeable, is put on the customer. This amounts to offering value added service without the explicit consent of the customer, it said.
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Planning Commission for restructuring oil sector
New Delhi, May 3 According to information available from the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas: “The ministry is examining the recommendations of the Planning Commission and would soon send its response for further action.” The commission will soon finalise the draft document for mid-term appraisal. The commission has also favoured the review of the current pricing of imported and domestic crude oil, natural gas and all its components, petroleum products and pipeline and transportation and other services. “The government should introduce price competition in all petroleum products. It should impose universal service obligations by requiring a percentage of sales in notified areas but allow differential pricing in different markets to reflect cost of supply,” recommended the commission. Petroleum Ministry officials said if the recommendations are accepted it would enable the oil companies to charge higher prices for petrol and diesel, besides kerosene and LPG in the hilly and remote areas in the northern states in comparison to the coastal areas and regions around the refineries. However, the commission has agreed that the state governments may subsidise the oil prices in the remote areas. At present, the consumers are getting subsidy over Rs 100 per cylinder on LPG and around Rs 10 per litre on kerosene. According to Petroleum Ministry estimates, the oil marketing companies are expected to incur under-recovery of over Rs 17,720 crore in 2004-05 due to subsidised kerosene and LPG. It would include Rs 9,316 crore on account of subsidised PDS kerosene and Rs 8,484 crore on account of subsidised domestic LPG supply. The ministry has also agreed with recommendation of the Planning Commission, said officials, to rationalise the “ tax and duty structure in the oil and gas sector.” Even Left parties have demanded review of the excise and customs duty. However, the final decision will have to be taken by the Finance Ministry and the Cabinet. Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar has also reportedly agreed with the Planning Commission’s view that “ transportation and distribution assets in the oil and gas sector should be developed so that it could provide services under common carrier principle applicable to natural monopolies.”
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Govt plans upgradation of hill airports
New Delhi, May 3 Announcing this in a written reply, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Praful Patel said development works have been planned and taken up in the current Five Year Plan 2002-07 for areas like Kangra in Himachal Pradesh for upgradation of airport to make it operational for 50-seater type of aircraft, at Leh for the construction of a new civil port, at Pakyong in Sikkim and Chiethu (Kohima) in Nagaland for construction of new airports. To another question, he said a number of cities and towns have been proposed by some state governments for construction of new airports, which included Mopa (Goa), Chakan and Navi Mumbai (Maharashtra), Ludhiana (Punjab), Ajmer (Rajasthan), Gulbarga, Bellary and Bijapur (Karnataka) Kannur (Kerala) and Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh). Three more airlines have asked the government for permission to fly on domestic routes, the minister said. They are Paramount Airways, Visaa Airways and Magic Air. The government has received proposals for grant of initial no-objection certificate for scheduled air services from them, Mr Patel told the Rajya Sabha.— Agencies
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8 pc hike in ATF price
Passengers travelling by the nation’s airliners could now have to pay increased fares as the country’s oil majors have decided to hike Aviation Turbine Fuel
(ATF) prices by eight per cent to a maximum of Rs 2525.43 per kilolitre.
The increase in prices affected from May 1 entails an increase of Rs 2477.12 per kilolitre in Delhi. The price of ATF has increased to Rs 33,035.51 from Rs 30608.39, oil company sources
said. ATF prices have spiked by Rs 2477.12 in Kolkata. It would now be priced at Rs 37,258.92 compared to its earlier rate of Rs 34811.80, while the price of the fuel increased by Rs 2501.20 in Mumbai from the earlier figure of Rs 31388.03, sources said. Similarly, ATF prices rose by Rs 2525.43 to Rs 35984.12 from its earlier price of Rs 33458.69 in Chennai, sources
said. ATF prices shot high after crude oil futures spiralled to a record $ 58.28 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchanges
(NYMEX) on April 4 last, considered to be the highest since 1983. — PTI
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HPTDC divestment put on hold for now
Shimla, May 3 “We have set individual targets for every hotel complex and we wish to give our employees at least one year’s time before taking a final decision on disinvestment,” he stated. The mere fact that HPTDC has registered a net profit of Rs 81 lakh after a gap of five years goes on to prove that every employee has put in his best, he added. “We will set higher targets and we hope to increase the net profit of the HPTDC to Rs 3 crore in the next three years,” said Mr Bali. He added this would only be possible through public-private partnership as some big names in the hospitality industry were keen to invest in Himachal. He said Cabinet had already given a go-ahead for signing of MoU with Himalayan Ski Resorts for setting up of the Rs 2,000 crore ski village near Manali and another party had expressed keenness to set up a snow village on the Kalka-Shimla highway, to attract tourists with artificial snow. Mr Bali said efforts were on to rope in private investment to develop international standard infrastructure, break seasonality factor by holding events all the year round and open up the tribal and unexplored areas to visitors. Efforts were on to woo the film industry to come and shoot in the beautiful locales of the state, he added.
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IT round-up
Bangalore, May 3 The centre would initially house 50 employees and the company expects to increase the headcount to 125 by the end of 2005, VeriSign senior executives told reporters here. Manoj Srivastava, Vice-President of Global Product Engineering, VeriSign, said the development centre here would undertake end-to-end product engineering, design, development, testing and software lifecycle management for products and services running over IP and telecommunication networks. The $ 6 million investment would be on infrastructure, human resources, and R&D in the wireline and wireless, e-commerce and other forms of online transaction processing (OLTP), Srivastava, who heads the centre, said.
Maran to meet Intel boss
Communication and IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran today asked world’s largest chip manufacturer Intel to set up a facility in India in view of the fast growing domestic IT market. “I am meeting Intel chief Craig Barett in the end of this month and I have one point agenda to press him for setting up a manufacturing facility here,” Maran told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar. Intel is understood to have shortlisted two locations — India and China — for setting up a factory, the minister said adding “I am going to the US in May end for this purpose.” He also welcomed Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s announcement with regard to countervailing duty on components for mobile phones saying “I had personally taken pains to bring companies like Nokia to come here and set up manufacturing facilities.”
Symbol Technologies Inc today announced its expanded presence in India with the official opening of a new state-of-the-art software development centre in Bangalore. The centre will focus on developing Symbol’s next generation of wireless and mobility systems management products and augment its three other global technology development centres, a company statement said. Symbol has had a software development facility in the Bangalore area for several years. Plans to build the new facility were announced on October 7, 2004. The new 80,000-square-foot facility will enable Symbol accelerate its delivery of new products and solutions, while also extending its presence in the Asia Pacific region, the statement added.
Birlasoft to invest $ 15 m
Birlasoft, the software arm of the C K Birla group, will invest $ 15 million to add new facilities at Noida and Bangalore this year and hire 1200 persons for these centres. The Bangalore development centre will be opened in August 2005 while the Noida facility will be launched in December this year. “The two centres will cost the company around $ 15 million,” Birlasoft CEO Kamal Mansharamani said today. Birlasoft already has two centres in Noida and one each in Chennai and Australia, employing a total of 2,400 professionals. “With these new centres, the headcount will go up to 3,600,” he said. The expansion has become necessary as Birlasoft is focusing on offshore activity. The company has posted annual growth of 28 per cent during the last three years. “We will be a $ 250 million company by 2008 and for that we will have to achieve 35 to 40 per cent growth,” he said. Birlasoft also plans to simultaneously enlarge its global footprint. It already has presence in the US, UK, Australia, Singapore and West Asia.
— Agencies
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Anil hits out at cousin Nikhil
Mumbai, May 3 After media quoted an unnamed spokesperson for Anil Ambani on the matter, Reliance sources confirmed that Nikhil Meswani was among senior RIL
executives who had briefed journalists on the battle between the Ambani brothers. Anil’s spokesperson is reported to have said: “Nikhil is not involved in discussions. He has no locus standi.” The spokesperson reportedly went on to accuse Nikhil of giving out false information to media “in violation of SEBI’s insider trading regulation and fraudulent trade practices regulation.”
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Pak designs impress Vallaya
Jalandhar, May 3 Leading fashion designer, J.J. Vallaya, said this while talking to The Tribune here today. “I visited Karachi to attend a fashion show two years back and found that the people of both countries have similar preferences for designer clothes. I was bowled over by the designs that had been put for display. If designers of both countries share their unique abilities and experiences, it will prove beneficial to bring the sub-continent at the forefront of global fashion industry,” he said. “There is a need to promote Indian fashion in Pakistan so that Indian designers could sell their products in Pakistan and vice versa”, says the Indian fashion icon. He believes that Pakistani fashion is largely traditional in nature, but the influence of Bollywood is very strong as Hindi movies and serials are quite a rage there. Donning a pony tail and clad in a ‘kurta’ with black trousers, Vallaya showed his concern about the growing influence of China in Indian fashion scenario. “China is coming in a big way to capture the Indian saree market. Several leading stores in metros have already started selling Chinese Silk sarees at comparatively low prices. While the country was lagging behind India in terms of embroidery and other value-added work, it has now started doing well in this sector too,” he said. Already having dominated the Indian fashion industry for nearly a decade, Vallaya has opened stores for display of his designer wear at Dubai, Delhi and Mumbai. “Punjab is, however, yet to develop a passion for high-priced costumes as is the case in metropolitan cities,” he said. Vallaya is contemplating to set up a fashion academy of international repute in Punjab. “I believe that Punjabi art of weaving Phulkari fused with western designs can work wonders,” he added.
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SEBI nod on demutualisation still awaited
Ludhiana, May 3 The idea of demutualisation is in pattern with stock exchanges across the globe where ownership is segregated from management and trading. It aims to improve efficiency. “The sooner the decision is taken, the better would it be,” said an official. LSE, it is learnt, is among the more than 15 stock exchanges across the country waiting for the approval. It had submitted details of its proposals in February this year. Sources said SEBI had asked for certain amendments, details of which were submitted last week. “Though the delay is not affecting functioning of stock exchanges, it is surely making us lag behind when it comes to following international standards.” SEBI had, reportedly, asked regional stock exchanges to demutualise by March 31 this year. Brokers would offload shares to the extent of 51 per cent within a year of approval for demutualisation.
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Expedite IISCO-SAIL merger, says PM
New Delhi, May 3 Union Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan had recently assured Parliament that the merger would be completed by the year-end. Prime Minister discussed the merger issue at the high-level meeting of ministers of the infrastructure sector which he had convened recently to take stock of the recent slowdown in infrastructure growth. He asked all concerned ministries, including petroleum and natural gas, power and coal, to prepare status papers and ensure that infrastructure supply constraints do not hamper growth. Meanwhile, the sale of controlling stake in 13 public sector companies, which had been cleared by the previous government, has been called off, Rajya Sabha was informed today. "In keeping with the National Common Minimum Programme guidelines, it has been decided to call off the process of disinvestment through strategic sale, approved earlier," Minister of State for Finance S S Palanimanickam told the Upper House.
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Indian hair go everywhere
China, Hong Kong and three other countries are the top five importing countries of human hair from India, the Lok Sabha was informed today.
Tunisia, Italy and the US are three other importing countries of human hair, the imports and exports of which have no specific restrictions, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry EVKS Elangovan said in a written reply. “It can be done freely,” Mr Elangovan said. Replying to a specific query, he said the total exports of human hair and its products during 2003-04 was of the order of $ 70.26 billion.
— UNI
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Video
Encouraged by the positive response to the telecast of a premier fashion week in Pakistan, fashion designers of India are now pinning hopes on the opening of trade with Pakistan to further promote couture industry. The commonality in the tastes of people blended with imprints of rich culture and heritage of both East and West Punjab that go into the making of various designer apparels is being seen as a potential factor in promoting fashion industry.
