SPECIAL COVERAGE
CHANDIGARH

LUDHIANA

DELHI



THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS
50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS
B U S I N E S S

Gas Row
Cross-examine Deora, Oil Secy, says RNRL

New Delhi, November 26
Alleging a nexus between the Centre and Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries (RIL) on the gas price issue, Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL) headed by Anil Ambani today sought to cross-examine Petroleum Minister Murli Deora and Petroleum Secretary RS Pandey.

Opel to cut 9,500 jobs
Berlin, November 26
The US automaker General Motors has confirmed it will retain all four plants of its European subsidiary Opel in Germany but will cut 9,500 jobs in Europe as part of restructuring to make the company profitable again.

No ombudsman for telecom sector: Minister
New Delhi, November 26
The setting up of an ombudsman to redress complaints of poor mobile telephony services like call drops was ruled out by the government today on the plea that the state-run BSNL/MTNL were taking effective steps to upgrade technology.

No special favour to Satyam, says Khurshid
New Delhi, November 26
The government today said it has shown "no favour" to Mahindra Satyam by extending the deadline for restating of accounts by six months to June 2010.



EARLIER STORIES




Employees of German industrial group Siemens are reflected in the company logo in Berlin. On Thursday several thousand employees went on protest against the company's job policy in the German capital
Employees of German industrial group Siemens are reflected in the company logo in Berlin. On Thursday several thousand employees went on protest against the company's job policy in the German capital. — Reuters

Food inflation jumps to 15.58 pc
New Delhi, November 26
Food inflation shot up to 15.58 per cent for the second week of November on the back of potato prices, which have more than doubled in the past one year. Other essential items like pulses and onion rose by more than 25 per cent in the wholesale market, government data on inflation for week ended November 14 showed.

Leyland launches loyalty programme
Ludhiana, November 26
Hinduja Group flagship Ashok Leyland is expanding its marketing infrastructure in Punjab, said Vinod K Dasari, director of the company.
A bank staff checks US dollars at a bank in Hanoi on Wednesday. Vietnam announced on Wednesday it would devalue the dong by over 5 per cent, raise interest rates and request big exporters sell foreign exchange to the central bank in a dramatic bid to underpin the beleaguered dong currency.
A bank staff checks US dollars at a bank in Hanoi on Wednesday. Vietnam announced on Wednesday it would devalue the dong by over 5 per cent, raise interest rates and request big exporters sell foreign exchange to the central bank in a dramatic bid to underpin the beleaguered dong currency. — Reuters

Log into Nordic countries, Nasscom tells IT cos
Bangalore, November 26
“Localise to succeed” is Nasscom’s prescription to Indian IT companies interested in doing business in the Nordic countries (Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Iceland).

Acer in expansion mode
Chandigarh, November 26
By opting for a multi-brand strategy, Acer India has managed to double its market share in the desktop as well as notebook segment in the past six months. As against a market share of 5.5 per cent in the first quarter of this fiscal, the company has now managed to get 10 per cent of the pie.

Airtel adds 1.5 m DTH users in Apr-Oct
Chandigarh, November 26
Bharti Airtel, which entered the DTH space last year, yesterday said it has added 1.5 million customers between April and October this year, with 60 per cent of its subscribers from the rural region. Addressing mediapersons here, Ajai Puri, director and CEO-DTH, Bharti Airtel, said a total of 5.5-6 million new DTH subscribers have been added between April and October. 





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Gas Row
Cross-examine Deora, Oil Secy, says RNRL
R Sedhuraman
Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, November 26
Alleging a nexus between the Centre and Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries (RIL) on the gas price issue, Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL) headed by Anil Ambani today sought to cross-examine Petroleum Minister Murli Deora and Petroleum Secretary RS Pandey.

Senior counsel Ram Jethmalani made the plea before a special Bench, headed by Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan, hearing the gas dispute case, primarily between the companies of the Ambani brothers.

Jethmalani made the demand when the government and RIL opposed RNRL's October 19 letter seeking certain documents from the Ministry of Power relating to gas supply and pricing. He said these documents would prove that government approval was not necessary for deciding the price of the gas to be supplied from the KG Basin.

RNRL has approached the apex court seeking implementation of the Bombay High Court judgment. The HC has asked RIL to sell gas to RNRL at $2.34 a unit, while RIL wants $4.2 a unit, the rate fixed by the government.

"The government is bound to produce these documents," Jethmalani said adding these related to the minutes of the meeting of the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) held on August 28, 2007. The documents referred to the presentation made by the Petroleum Ministry to the EGoM on August 27, 2007.

RIL counsel Harish Salve, however, contended that RNRL could not rely on these documents.

Jethmalani said he would take two more days to conclude his arguments. The special Bench, which included Justices B Sudershan Reddy and P Sathasivam, today asked the government to file its affidavit without any delay.

RNRL counsel said RIL hurriedly convened a Board meeting of RNRL on January 11, 2006, and approved gas supply agreements worth Rs 1 lakh crore in five minutes flat. The notice for the meeting had been sent only the previous day and the draft of the agreements were provided to Anil Ambani group (ADAG) at midnight, just hours before the meeting.

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Opel to cut 9,500 jobs

Berlin, November 26
The US automaker General Motors has confirmed it will retain all four plants of its European subsidiary Opel in Germany but will cut 9,500 jobs in Europe as part of restructuring to make the company profitable again.

The head of GM's European operations Nick Reilly yesterday assured state premier of Thuringia in eastern Germany Christine Lieberknecht that Opel's Eisenach plant in the state will remain open.

Eisenach is an highly efficient plant and "we want to keep it as an important resource for Opel," Reilly said after talks with Lieberknecht at Opel's main German plant in Ruesselsheim, near Frankfurt.

Reilly had confirmed earlier that the Ruesselsheim plant as well as two other German sites in Bochum in the state of North Rhine Westphalia and in Kaiserslautern in the state of Rhineland Palatinate will also be kept. — PTI

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No ombudsman for telecom sector: Minister
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 26
The setting up of an ombudsman to redress complaints of poor mobile telephony services like call drops was ruled out by the government today on the plea that the state-run BSNL/MTNL were taking effective steps to upgrade technology.

The reaction from the government came as Minister of State for Telecom Sachin Pilot gave a reply to the supplementaries during question hour in the Rajya Sabha.

He said while the telecom revolution has led to India having one of the world's cheapest call rates, it has also led to congestion in network leading to call drops. “BSNL and MTNL are taking effective steps like upgrading technology and putting in more efforts to improve quality.”

When asked whether government will set up an independent ombudsman to address complaints like call drops, he said, “the direct answer to his question is no".

Pilot said teledensity has increased from 9 per cent in 2005 to 44 per cent now. In metros like Delhi and Mumbai, it is more than 100 per cent but is just 16-18 per cent in the rural areas.

State-run BSNL will set up 10,000 towers by March 2010 and 15,000 towers by March 2011 to improve mobile telephony services.

Telecom Minister A Raja said the per-second metering of call, recently introduced by major mobile operators, is to ensure that consumers are not made to pay for full one-minute when the call may not have lasted more than a few seconds because of call drop.

He said he was "not bothered" about companies' losing revenue in the per-second billing as long as consumers were benefiting from it.

The government was providing a level-playing field to public and private telecom operators, he added.

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No special favour to Satyam, says Khurshid

New Delhi, November 26
The government today said it has shown "no favour" to Mahindra Satyam by extending the deadline for restating of accounts by six months to June 2010.

"No special favour is being shown to anyone. I think the best that can be done for the stakeholders is being done by them (Mahindra Satyam). Whatever assistance they have asked, we have given," Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said when asked whether the move has impacted stakeholders.

The Company Law Board earlier this year, extended the deadline for filing of restated accounts from December 2009 to June 30, 2010.

The CLB had earlier set December 2009 as the deadline for the IT firm to restate accounts. As the process is complex and tedious, this has been extended by six months to get the right picture of its financial health and performance. — PTI 

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Food inflation jumps to 15.58 pc

New Delhi, November 26
Food inflation shot up to 15.58 per cent for the second week of November on the back of potato prices, which have more than doubled in the past one year. Other essential items like pulses and onion rose by more than 25 per cent in the wholesale market, government data on inflation for week ended November 14 showed.

"Food inflation is incredibly high...The drought has aggravated the situation and I expect the wholesale price-based inflation to rise to around 7 per cent by March next year," said HDFC Bank economist Jyotinder Kaur.

With inflationary pressure building up, the RBI in its next policy review may take steps to check easy money. "It is likely that RBI in its January policy might go for monetary tightening measures and raise Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) or policy rates," Kaur said.

According to the inflation data, potato prices rose by 111 per cent, pulses by 35 per cent and onion by 27 per cent in the one-year period ending November 14.

Staple items like wheat and rice rose by 12 per cent each during the period. Vegetables, too, continued to stalk consumers registering a 12 per cent rise during the same period.— PTI

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Leyland launches loyalty programme
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, November 26
Hinduja Group flagship Ashok Leyland is expanding its marketing infrastructure in Punjab, said Vinod K Dasari, director of the company.

Launching 3116 H, a multi-axle truck, here today, Dasari also announced the launch of "Sahayog", a loyalty programme exclusively for Punjab. Under this programme, customers will be offered various benefits, including extended warranty package at a subsidised price. The drivers of customers will be trained and presented Personal Accident Cover (PAC) for a period of one year from the date of purchase of vehicle. The company will also conduct free service camps every month at all major hubs in the state, offering free vehicle check-up and on-the-spot minor repairs.

Dasari told The Tribune that northern region was leading in the revival of commercial vehicle market. Volumes in recent months had surpassed the sales in the corresponding months of a healthy 2007-08.

He emphasised the company's focus on the development of network in northern markets. In Punjab, the company was currently present at nine locations. The service network was set to grow further with new dealerships at Chandigarh, Bathinda and Moga and six new authorised service centres in the state slated to commence operations in the current fiscal year.

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Log into Nordic countries, Nasscom tells IT cos
Shubhadeep Choudhury
Tribune News Service

Bangalore, November 26
“Localise to succeed” is Nasscom’s prescription to Indian IT companies interested in doing business in the Nordic countries (Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Iceland).

Nasscom and PricewaterhouseCoopers yesterday released a report titled “Opportunities for Indian IT industry: Nordic countries”. The report said although the Nordic market is relatively less sensitive to working with foreign service providers as compared with other European markets, Indian companies must establish a local entity either independently or in partnership. “Indian companies should be mindful of the need to localise their front-end sales teams,” said the report.

The report also advised the Indian IT sector to go for “big ticket acquisition to establish themselves” in the Nordic region. The Nordic IT services market comprises a large number of international and regional service providers. This is in consolidation phase and has seen several takeovers and mergers. Though Indian vendors have also been active in this scenario, the transaction size has been small. Indian vendors should look at big-ticket acquisitions as a viable strategy to establish themselves in this market. Such transactions will provide Indian companies with requisite scale in this market and give access to specific customer accounts, the report says.

This is the third report in a series focusing on specific countries and regions which are new markets, competitive destinations and potential partners for India.

Ameet Nivsarkar, vice-president, Nasscom, said, “Indian IT-BPO companies are fast diversifying into new territories and opening up further opportunities for growth. The Nordic region with very high ICT adoption, besides R&D investments offers an untapped opportunity for Indian IT companies and another potential entry point to Europe.”

According to the report, manufacturing, telecom, public sector, banking and financial services offer opportunities to the Indian IT companies for business. The report says engineering services and remote infrastructure management (RIM) are quick win opportunities for Indian companies. These services leverage technical expertise of Indian companies and compatible with respect to Nordic requirements of technical innovation and talent shortage. 

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Acer in expansion mode
Ruchika M. Khanna
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 26
By opting for a multi-brand strategy, Acer India has managed to double its market share in the desktop as well as notebook segment in the past six months. As against a market share of 5.5 per cent in the first quarter of this fiscal, the company has now managed to get 10 per cent of the pie.

Talking to TNS here today, S Rajendran, chief marketing officer, Acer India, said the growth has been phenomenal in the notebook segment, where the company has grown from 8.9 per cent in the first quarter to 15.2 per cent now. “Our aim is to be the global leader in the notebook segment by 2011. We already have a 40 per cent of the market share in notebooks. By adopting a multi-brand strategy and increasing our market presence, we will be able to become a top player in the country,” he said.

It may be noted that Acer Inc. had acquired US-based company, Gateway, and Packard Bell, a European company, two years ago. After this acquisition, the company launched two global PC brands in the Indian market early this year. The two brands — Gateway is targeted at the premium segment of the market and eMachines targeting the value customer. The two brands are being promoted at all Acer retail outlets, besides the Acer computers.

“In a market where consumer goods offer increasingly advanced and standard technologies, a new generation of users is changing consumer rules. A PC brand aimed at gaining share in today’s market must respond to end users’ requests. It is with this in mind that we decided to adopt a multi-brand strategy. Moreover, the industry was going in for consolidation and battling the global economic slowdown. But we decided to go strong since this fiscal and bulked up by offering more variety and thus offering better negotiating power to our customers,” said Rajendran.

He said they were now also in the expansion mode and were tying up with large format retailers as well as mom- and-pop stores to reach out to more people. “Earlier, we had a tie up with Chroma only. But now we are tying up with other large format stores like Reliance Retail, Jumbo, Staples and Hypercity to sell our computers. We are also tying up with 20 multi-brand stores in 10 cities, where Acer will have shop to retail its goods,” he added.

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Airtel adds 1.5 m DTH users in Apr-Oct

Chandigarh, November 26
Bharti Airtel, which entered the DTH space last year, yesterday said it has added 1.5 million customers between April and October this year, with 60 per cent of its subscribers from the rural region. Addressing mediapersons here, Ajai Puri, director and CEO-DTH, Bharti Airtel, said a total of 5.5-6 million new DTH subscribers have been added between April and October. 

“Every third DTH subscriber that is being added is now using our service,” he said, adding that they now command 30 per cent market share in the new customer segment, in north, west and east regions. — TNS

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BRIEFLY


A worker places ornaments onto a huge Christmas tree outside a shopping mall in Beijing on Thursday. China's economy could grow by over 10 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2009 spurred by massive investment and rising consumption, the state press said, citing a top government think tank
A worker places ornaments onto a huge Christmas tree outside a shopping mall in Beijing on Thursday. China's economy could grow by over 10 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2009 spurred by massive investment and rising consumption, the state press said, citing a top government think tank. — AFP

Rupee loses 24 paise
Mumbai:
The Indian Rupee on Thursday depreciated by 24 paise to close at 46.44/45 a dollar due to strong month-end dollar demand from oil refiners and a smart recovery in the US currency in overseas markets. A sharp fall in local stocks after a meltdown in Chinese markets also weighed on the rupee sentiment, analysts said. — PTI

Gold rises by Rs 170
New Delhi
:
Gold prices on Thursday jumped by Rs 170 to close at all-time record of over Rs 18,000-per 10 gram in the bullion market here on strong marriage season demand, positive global cues and a weaker dollar. Resuming its upward trend for the second day in a row, which saw the metal touching Rs 18,000 on Wednesday, both standard gold and ornaments shot up Rs 170 each to close at Rs 18,170 and Rs 18,020, respectively. — PTI

ONGC eyes Iranian gas field
New Delhi
: The ONGC is eyeing 20-25 per cent stake in a giant Iranian gas field even as it awaits Tehran's nod for its plan to develop a gas field it had discovered two years ago. ONGC Videsh, the overseas arm of ONGC, will discuss participation in the development of Phase-12 of the gigantic South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf when top officials of Iranian national oil firm visit the country next week, sources said. — PTI

Surya Roshni plan
Chandigarh
: Surya Roshni Ltd on Wednesday said it was aiming to achieve a turnover of Rs 10,000 crore by 2015, by diversifying into cement, steel and infrastructure sector. The company's CMD, Jaiprakash Agarwal, told reporters here that the company was looking to set up a cement unit in Gujarat and a steel unit in Chhattisgarh.— TNS

JSW Steel
Kolkata
: JSW Steel is in talks with Japanese firm JFE Holdings on equity sharing arrangement of JSW Bengal Steel, which is setting up a 10-million tonne steel plant in West Bengal. "Details about JFE's equity participation in JSW Bengal Steel were being worked out now," a source close to the development said. — PTI

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