B U S I N E S S

Additional BSNL levy on private operators
New Delhi, October 12
BSNL has slapped a levy of Rs 15,000 per annum on private telecom operators for providing them additional inter-connect — a move that has enraged the operators. The charge, which would be levied with a retrospective effect, was described by operators as “arbitrary” and a result of BSNL’s “unilateral decision.”

Cruise shipping may be opened up to FDI
New Delhi, October 12
The government may open up cruise shipping to FDI as part of its efforts to promote tourism and also amend the Merchant Shipping Act to simplify registration procedures for foreign cruise companies. An exclusive policy for cruise tourism is being evolved which is likely to spell out details of the FDI regime, besides measures, to upgrade ports and other related infrastructure.

Essar to foray into power trading
New Delhi, October 12
After Tatas and Reliance, yet another corporate giant — the Rs 20,000-crore Essar Group — is entering the inter-state power trading business. Essar Electric Power Development Corporation Ltd, an Essar Group company, has approached the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission for a category ‘C’ licence to undertake 200-500 million units of inter-state trading a year.

A Pakistani woman mans her stall during the Second Asian Women Entrepreneurs Eid Festival, 2005, in Dhaka on Wednesday. The five-day festival is organised by the Women Enterpreneurs Association of Bangladesh in collaboration with the High Commission of Pakistan in Dhaka. The festival has attracted participants from India, Pakistan, Turkey, Iran, Indonesia and Bangladesh. Actress Demi Moore poses during a photo call at the presentation of a publicity movie for a Spanish mark of "Cava" champagne in Barcelona(Spain). — Reuters photos

Nahar group to open 40 outlets
Ludhiana, October 12
The Nahar group, which owns the ‘Cotton County’ readymade garments brand, plans to open 40 more retail outlets in the country by March, 2006, and would ramp up its spindles’ capacity by investing Rs 325 crore in the next two or three years, Nahar Industrial Enterprises Limited Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Kamal Oswal said here.

MS, Yahoo reach instant messaging agreement
Seattle, October 12
Microsoft and Yahoo Inc. have reached a deal to make their two instant messaging programmes work together, in a partnership that could provide a challenge to market leader America Online, people familiar with the situation said. One of the sources works closely with Microsoft and has been involved in company discussions.

Titan’s “many looks, one watch” for women
New Delhi, October 12
With Raga Coordinate, a new range of wrist watches specially designed for women, Titan is hoping to rake up sales by 45 per cent in the festive season taking the total turnover up by 20 per cent to Rs 720 crore this fiscal.

Rs 1,200 cr worth of FDI proposals cleared in Punjab
Ludhiana, October 12
The Punjab Government said today that FDI proposals worth Rs 1,200 crore, particularly in the IT sector, would be implemented in the next five years. "We have approved FDI proposals worth Rs 1,200 crore, which would be implemented in five years," Principal Secretary (Industry and Commerce) S C Aggarwal told reporters here.

Corporate ReSULTs

Triveni Engg Q2 net up
New Delhi, October 12
Triveni Engineering & Industries Ltd today reported a 45 per cent jump in its net profit during the second quarter this fiscal to Rs 43.15 crore compared to Rs 29.76 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal.

• Mphasis BFL net profit up

Additional BSNL levy on private operators

New Delhi, October 12
BSNL has slapped a levy of Rs 15,000 per annum on private telecom operators for providing them additional inter-connect — a move that has enraged the operators.

The charge, which would be levied with a retrospective effect, was described by operators as “arbitrary” and a result of BSNL’s “unilateral decision.”

BSNL informed Unified Service Access Licence operators that it had fixed a charge of Rs 15,000 per annum per E-1 link.

A circular, issued by BSNL in this regard recently, also insists that operators make provision for HDSL modems, besides convert all passive links to active links.

BSNL has insisted that all new PoIs will now be given only on the basis of active links, and all existing PoIs will have to be shifted to active link by December, 2005.

“The charges fixed by BSNL are unilateral and arbitrary and have been done without any discussion with operators. This must be discussed with private operators and reasonable amount can be worked out and charges be accordingly fixed. There is no reasonable ground for levying the charge retrospectively”, operators association AUSPI said in a letter to BSNL.

The passive links are deployed by service providers for inter-connection with BSNL.

Operators said HDSL modems were not required as all suitable protective actions were taken by service providers. The charge, which has recently been unilaterally fixed at the rate of Rs 15,000 per E-1 per annum, that too from back date is not fair and we consider it absolutely arbitrary.”

This is despite the fact that the operators are not using any resource of BSNL like power, space, AC. In fact, there is no rationale for per E1 charges and charges, if at all, should be on a per cable basis, operators said.

It was BSNL, which insisted that operators set up passive links, and now that they have already installed passive links, forcing them to migrate to active link would mean a drain on financial resources.

“Further, it may not be cost effective to our members to establish passive links in smaller locations, and thus insistence on active link not only will be uneconomical, but also this will delay the PoIs even further as the earlier points raised by BSNL against co-location ( union problems, lack of space etc) still prevail in the circles,” AUSPI said.

Operators have asked BSNL to leave the choice of providing active links or passive links to them. This should be based on the techno-commercial feasibility. — PTI

Cruise shipping may be opened up to FDI

New Delhi, October 12
The government may open up cruise shipping to FDI as part of its efforts to promote tourism and also amend the Merchant Shipping Act to simplify registration procedures for foreign cruise companies.

An exclusive policy for cruise tourism is being evolved which is likely to spell out details of the FDI regime, besides measures, to upgrade ports and other related infrastructure.

A high-powered steering group under the chairmanship of Minister of Shipping and the Minister of State for Tourism as its co-Chairman has already been set up to finalise a cruise policy, an official statement said today.

The government might consider liberalising FDI norms and also have a re-look at section 21 of the Merchant Shipping Act to relax registration procedure for foreign cruise companies, it said, adding that the objective of all these efforts was to make India an attractive cruise tourism destination.

The Shipping Ministry has already relaxed cabotage to allow foreign flag cruise vessels do coastal legs without hassle in the absence of Indian flag vessels in this segment.

The government is also contemplating developing seven ports as cruise shipping stations. These are Cochin (Kerala), New Mangalore (Karnataka), Marmugao (Goa), Mumbai (Maharashtra), Kolkata (West Bengal), Port Blair (Andaman & Nicobar) and Tuticorin (Tamil Nadu), the statement said. — PTI

Essar to foray into power trading

New Delhi, October 12
After Tatas and Reliance, yet another corporate giant — the Rs 20,000-crore Essar Group — is entering the inter-state power trading business.

Essar Electric Power Development Corporation Ltd, an Essar Group company, has approached the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission for a category ‘C’ licence to undertake 200-500 million units of inter-state trading a year.

The company has a net worth of Rs 7.67 crore, slightly higher than Rs 7.5 crore net worth stipulated by the power regulator for a category ‘C’ licence.

There was ample scope of trading opportunities in the country and the company planned to increase trading volumes over the next few years depending upon business conditions, EEPDCL Director A.K. Srivastava, who is also Managing Director of Essar Power Ltd, said in the application.

The company would be supported by Essar Power Ltd and in-house trading experts of other Essar Group companies, he said, adding that being a part of the group would also give the company financial expertise to raise resources in future.

If approved, EEPDCL would be only the second firm after state-run MMTC Ltd with a category ‘C’ licence. So far, 17 companies have received trading licences of which 10 have a category ‘A’ licence, which is for trading only 100 million units of electricity in a year.

Only five companies — Tata Power Trading, Reliance Energy Trading, NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Ltd, PTC India and Adani Exports — have a category ‘F’ licence which allows trading of more than 1000 million units of electricity in a year. — PTI

Nahar group to open 40 outlets

Ludhiana, October 12
The Nahar group, which owns the ‘Cotton County’ readymade garments brand, plans to open 40 more retail outlets in the country by March, 2006, and would ramp up its spindles’ capacity by investing Rs 325 crore in the next two or three years, Nahar Industrial Enterprises Limited Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Kamal Oswal said here.

The group would fund 30 per cent of the expansion through internal accruals and the remaining 70 per cent as loans from banks and financial institutions.

The group also hopes to ride on strong demand for Indian textiles in the post-quota regime and raise its combined turnover of Rs 2,500 crore by 2007 with a topline growth of 20-25 per cent and profit before tax by 30-35 per cent.

The group, which has manufacturing facilities in Madhya Pradesh and Punjab, also plans to up its headcount by 10,000 on completion of the expansion project. “At present, we employ 20,000 persons and by 2007, we would have 30,000 employees,” he said. — PTI

MS, Yahoo reach instant messaging agreement

Seattle, October 12
Microsoft and Yahoo Inc. have reached a deal to make their two instant messaging programmes work together, in a partnership that could provide a challenge to market leader America Online, people familiar with the situation said.

One of the sources works closely with Microsoft and has been involved in company discussions. The other is familiar with the deal. Both spoke on condition of anonymity.

The agreement would allow the users of both services to send and receive messages, regardless of which system they were using.

Previously, the systems did not work with each other.

Microsoft has long sought to forge some sort of a deal to boost the profile of MSN Messenger. The company also has been in talks with AOL over possible partnerships with Microsoft’s MSN online unit, although it’s not clear where those talks stand now.

The spokesmen for Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL declined to comment.

AOL’s instant-messaging product, AIM, had more than 53 million unique US users in August, compared to about 29 million for the competing MSN Messenger and 23 million for Yahoo’s Messenger, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.

Microsoft already has a product that lets business users send and receive messages from Yahoo Inc., AOL and Microsoft’s instant messaging systems. But the product does not extend to consumer users. — AP

Titan’s “many looks, one watch” for women

New Delhi, October 12
With Raga Coordinate, a new range of wrist watches specially designed for women, Titan is hoping to rake up sales by 45 per cent in the festive season taking the total turnover up by 20 per cent to Rs 720 crore this fiscal.

Titan Watches Marketing Head Manoj Tadepalli said the range had been designed keeping in mind the growing demand for fashion and lifestyle products.

“Raga Coordinate, starting from Rs 1,800 to Rs 4,000,” Mr Tadepalli said.

Titan also has the international series in gold and steel, which has cinestar Aamir Khan as its brand ambassador. Nebula is the other range which is in 18 carat gold and also has the Rohit Bal designer collection. — PTI

Rs 1,200 cr worth of FDI proposals cleared in Punjab

Ludhiana, October 12
The Punjab Government said today that FDI proposals worth Rs 1,200 crore, particularly in the IT sector, would be implemented in the next five years.

"We have approved FDI proposals worth Rs 1,200 crore, which would be implemented in five years," Principal Secretary (Industry and Commerce) S C Aggarwal told reporters here.

Buoyed by the interest shown by IT companies in Punjab, the state government expects that in this fiscal, 1,500 acre of land may be allotted for IT-related activities.

Stating that it is difficult to set up multi-product SEZ in Amritsar on small piece of land, Aggarwal said the state government is considering the division of Amritsar SEZ in three-product category. — PTI

BRIEFLY

Fiat deal with Autoliv
Milan, October 12
Fiat has agreed to develop electronic safety components for cars with Autoliv, the world’s largest maker of air bags. Fiat’s components unit, Magneti Marelli, and Autoliv will develop and market electronic control units for air bags and automatic emergency systems, Turin, Italy-based Fiat said. After ending a failed partnership with General Motors, in February, Fiat has announced agreements with PSA Peugeot Citroen, Ford Motor and Tata Motors. — Bloomberg

Toyota still indecisive
Mumbai, October 12
Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) has not made up its mind on setting up its second plant in Karnataka even though it has received the go-ahead from the state government in this direction. “The Karnataka Government has given us the go-ahead, but we are not resolved yet,” TKM Managing Director A. Toyoshima said here today. He did not, however, rule out the possibility, saying that we are conducting a serious study on this. But, it is too premature to say anything concrete.” — PTI

Yanmar buys Sonalika stake
Chandigarh, October 12
Yanmar a 100-year-old tractor company of Japan, has picked up 12 per cent stake in Sonalika group’s flagship company, International Tractor Ltd, An agreement to this effect has been recently signed between Mr T. Yamaoka, President of Yanmar, and Mr L.D. Mittal, Chairman, Sonalika group of companies. Ernst and Young and BMR supported the deal as advisors. ITL has a world class manufacturing facility in Hoshiarpur, which will be utilised for product outsourcing from India as part of this collaboration. — TNS

Wage accord
Mumbai, October 12
The management of Talbros Automotive Components Ltd and the labour union have signed a wage settlement agreement for three years effective October 1, 2005. As a result, all workers at the Chennai plant have joined duty and the plant has resumed normal operations, the company said. — PTI

Rs 1570-cr order
Mumbai, October 12
Siemens Ltd and the Germany-based consortium of Siemens AG has bagged a Rs 1570-crore turnkey export order from Qatar. The scope of supplies and services for the company is approximately Rs 1,390 crore. The export order has been awarded by the Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation for the development of a power transmission network within 22 months, it said. — PTI

Price band
Mumbai, October 12
The Gujarat Industries Power Company (GIPCL) has fixed the price band from Rs 63 to Rs 75 per equity share of the face value of Rs 10 each for its forthcoming public issue opening October 13. The minimum application will be for 90 equity shares and in multiples thereof, says the company. — PTI