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MTNL launches IPTV
BSNL board skips IPO talk
Rural M’rashtra to get largest mobile network, Punjab the smallest
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Your ‘dream home’ is on back burner Construction work at a number of real estate projects on the VIP Road in Zirakpur has been moving at a snail’s pace. Tribune Photo: Manoj Mahajan
GDP to come down to 7.9 pc: Moody’s
Oil rises above $117
Mukesh backs Tata
Rlys Insurance Scheme
Shortage of Labour
Thomas Cook to raise Rs 200 cr
‘Indian firms must gear up to tackle climate change’
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MTNL launches IPTV
New Delhi, August 27 Designed to reinvent home television entertainment, all MTNL residential customers in Delhi would now be able to experience the next generation of TV entertainment services. MTNL, incidentally, has become the first telecom company in the country to launch the IPTV services. It will be a new interactive personalised TV service for MTNL customers. Using a high-speed Internet connection from MTNL and a Smart Broadband set top box, customers can connect to a set of personalised interactive features via their home television. While DTH and cable television are limited to broadcast services, Smart Broadband’s offering will take entertainment to the next level with features like, pause live TV, digital instant and scheduled recording, on-demand movies and music, interactive multi-player games, interactive services like education, communication, information and T-commerce besides others. R.S.P Sinha, chairman and managing director, MTNL after launching the service said: “With its unique two-way capability, IPTV is generations ahead of currently available cable and DTH services. We are excited about the choice, variety and flexibility that our customers will get, besides a great viewing experience.” Kapil Dev Kumar, chief operating officer, Smart Broadband Services Pvt Ltd said: “We have plans to add many more features over the next few months like personalised stock ticker, interactive viewing, e-mail and chat, travel information, weather and T-commerce to give customers complete control over their entertainment experience.” Smart Group has also entered into a contract with BSNL for providing co-branded interactive video services to their customers in 54 cities across the country. These cities account for about 50 per cent of the urban population giving Smart TV Group the largest coverage footprint for IPTV services.
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BSNL board skips IPO talk
New Delhi, August 27 While the company is still trying to bring around employees to agree to a public listing, which would also make the already prosperous PSU further rich, the board avoided the issue as the talks apparently were poised precariously. Officials of the PSU after the meeting said the board could not take up the issue today as the talks with the unions were inconclusive and they would continue this week also. The BSNL employees’ union had earlier warned the management not to proceed with IPO despite being offered share in the stake. They threatened to strike work, arguing that the proposal for 10 per cent equity dilution in BSNL was devoid of any merit. The union had also rejected the argument that BSNL was in need of funds for expansion and hence it was taking the IPO route. BSNL is already having more than Rs 35,000 crore stashed in banks, the union claimed. It further pointed out that none of the amount through IPO would come to BSNL and would directly go to the government. BSNL is conservatively valued at $100 billion and 10 per cent equity dilution would have fetched the PSU $10 billion (Rs 40,000 crore) from the market. Last week, BSNL chairman and managing director Kuldeep Goyal had said: “Employees’ acceptance is critical to the process to start and succeed. We are in no hurry for the IPO. We have made no tangible progress toward any consensus on the IPO.”
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Rural M’rashtra to get largest mobile network, Punjab the smallest
New Delhi, August 27 It plans to install about 11,000 towers to provide the service in all villages with a population of 500 and above, adding installation of towers is likely to be completed in 12 to 18 months. The ministry said work for setting up about 7,900 towers in 500 districts in 27 states has already begun. Of these, over 6,000 towers are being installed by state-owned BSNL and the remaining by six private companies. About 1,100 towers have already been set up and mobile telephone services launched, the ministry said. The largest number of 1,017 towers are to be set up in 33 districts of
Maharasthra, while the least number of 13 towers are to be installed in three districts of Punjab, the statement added. —
UNI |
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Your ‘dream home’ is on back burner
Chandigarh, August 27 With supply over-exceeding demand and the builders’ unwillingness to lower the retail cost has led to a slow down in the construction of these projects. The rising interest rates and construction costs (steel and cement prices have been on a boil) have further aggravated the situation. A majority of real estate projects coming up in Mohali, Zirakpur and Kharar-Landaran belt have already gone slow on construction, while a sizeable number of projects in Zirakpur have put all construction work on hold. The trend is especially evident on the VIP Road in Zirakpur, where the basic structure of the buildings has come up but builders have gone slow on the finishing work. Since these projects have a sizeable number of speculative buyers, the buyers who had booked the flats by paying the booking amount, too, are waiting to exit. Since the builders are unable to get buyers, they are under pressure to return the booking amount after the bookings are surrendered. Obviously not ready to return the amount, the builders do not want to pump in more money for finishing these projects. Since they have already made a killing by selling the flats at over-rated prices, they are now re-investing money in new projects. While most of the builders have now re-invested their profits by initiating new projects in the emerging real estate zones of Punjab and Haryana, those who had invested here in search of a home are now facing a hike in the home loan interest rates, even as there are no prospects of getting possession in the near future. Navdeep Kapoor, a senior executive in a private company who has invested in a flat on the VIP Road, rued that though he has already paid up about 80 per cent of the cost to the builder, he was not sure when he would be given the possession of the flat. “About six months ago, the builder told us that the basic structure was ready and we must deposit a total of 80 per cent of the cost so that he could expedite the finishing work. Most of the genuine investors paid up but for the past three months there has been no work at the site,” he said. With home loan rates hiked by the banks, genuine buyers are feeling the pinch. Over the past one-and-half year, the rate of interest on home loans has gone up from nine per cent to 11.75 per cent. As a result, a number of home loan accounts have become non-performing assets (NPAs). A senior official in Punjab National Bank confirmed that the NPA in home loan has shot up over the past six month. “Earlier, the NPA in home loan segment was negligible. Though we cannot give a specific percentage of the NPA in this segment, it has gone up,” said the officer. To be continued
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GDP to come down to 7.9 pc: Moody’s
New Delhi, August 27 The forecast by Moody’s on the growth of Indian economy has come just two days ahead of quarterly release of GDP data for fiscal 2008-09 by the government. “India’s annual GDP growth is expected to decelerate sharply to 7.9 per cent in 2008... Amid slowing credit growth and higher interest rates,” research arm of the Moody’s Group said. Led by an easing domestic demand, the private consumption growth is also likely to decline to around 5 per cent, Moody’s economist Sherman Chan said. “Strong inflation will also squeeze household budgets, hurting consumption growth in real terms,” he said. However, next year the situation is likely to improve with the economy rebounding mildly, the rating agency said. Earlier this month, the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council had made a similar forecast and said the GDP growth rate for the year was expected to slide to 7.7 per cent. Think-tank NCAER had said economic growth of the country would be at 7.8 per cent. Meanwhile, the research arm of the leading economic magazine Economist, Economist Intelligence Unit, has estimated India’s economic growth even lesser at 7.5 per cent this fiscal. — PTI
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Oil rises above $117
Singapore, August 27 Light, sweet crude for October delivery was up 90 cents at $117.17 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by mid afternoon in Singapore. The contract rose $1.16 overnight to settle at $116.27 a barrel.— AP |
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New Delhi, August 27 Speaking on the ongoing “dharna” by the Trinamool Congress in Singur against land transfer, Ambani in a statement here said such attempts to slow down projects will be “counter-productive for the country’s economic growth, its global image as well as our ability to attract investments from across the world.” He said: “The Indian industry and political leadership in the country need to work together to deliver on the aspirations of the millions of Indians in urban and rural areas.” Ambani stated that the Nano project was a unique and innovative initiative, which will establish India’s position as a small car hub. The Indian industry must be encouraged to make such large investments in order to build the country’s competitiveness as well as support job creations. — UNI
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Rlys Insurance Scheme
New Delhi, August 27 With a large number of private players coming into the insurance sector over the past few years after it was opened up by the government, the Railways this year has decided to invite larger number of bids rather than keeping the process restricted to a select group. It began inviting private parties to provide insurance cover about three years ago in keeping with its mandate. This year’s tenders will be opened on September 1 with reports suggesting that invitations have been sent to about 20 companies this time. The insurance cover will be from September 20, 2008, to September 19, 2009. The passenger insurance scheme of the Railways covers passengers against death or injury resulting from rail accidents or untoward incidents as per the Railway Act, 1989.
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Shortage of Labour
Ludhiana, August 27 Currently facing a shortage of 20 to 40 per cent, units, specifically in the engineering segment, are trying to get works like painting, galvanising and nut fitting from other enterprises. Some units have also started procuring various components used in their products from outside factories. The move, however, is not able to bring desired results as outsourcing of works that they were already doing is proving 10-15 per cent costlier. However, manufacturers say they are left with no other option in the current scenario. The problem of labour shortage that has intensified this year had industrialists making efforts in varied directions to deal with the situation. From roping in the untapped segments like women labourers to attempts at luring workers by offering them more incentives, industry has been trying continuously to find a way out. “Inspite of all these efforts, the initiatives have not helped tackle the situation completely. We are still facing labour shortage. Now, we are shifting works that involve more labourers to other factories. It is costlier and we are not really satisfied with the results but for the time being, there is no other way out. We are now planning to find a long-term solution to this problem,” Charanjit Singh Vishwakarma, owner of Vishwakarma Industries and president of United Cycle and Parts Manufacturers Association, said. Industrial units here have been heavily relying on migrant workforce from states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. More than 80 per cent workers in most factories are migrant labourers. The shortage has also affected production of many small and medium units by 15-25 per cent this time.
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Thomas Cook to raise Rs 200 cr
Mumbai, August 27 “The rights issue will help us restructure our capital structure to prepare us for the next stage of growth,” Thomas Cook (India) managing director Madhavab Menon said. —
PTI |
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‘Indian firms must gear up to tackle climate change’
New Delhi, August 27 Released today, the report - Climate change: The impact and opportunities for Indian industry - suggests that even though currently it was low, pressure from stakeholders for Indian companies to be more environmentally responsible was likely to increase in the future. This in turn would compel delivery by firms across all industries on a triple bottom line of economics, social and environmental performance. KPMG executive director Arvind Mahajan says: “Indian companies should take proactive measures to ensure adequate risk appraisal and management as well as leverage opportunities arising out of climate change. They need to do proper due diligence for clean development mechanism (CDM) projects to assess the quantum of carbon credits expected to be generated”. Besides, Indian businesses also need to consider tax and regulatory issues and devise strategies to help ensure that they can maximise the benefit from the CDM process. The KPMG-CII report suggests that individual businesses need to develop structured approach comprising eight components. These include:
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Videocon, BPCL buy stake in Mozambique oil block Pizza Hut expansion plans Google launches Map Maker GEI Industrial Systems SBoP hikes interest rates
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