Bangalore, January 20
Intact margins and higher business volumes helped Wipro October-December quarter net profit jump 21 per cent to Rs 1,217 crore. The quarter under review also saw the company’s headcount in IT services business cross the one-lakh employee mark. Revenues of the firm in the quarter rose 5 per cent year-on-year to Rs 6,966 crore.

“We have seen a positive demand environment which has driven broad-based sequential growth across all our verticals, service lines and geographies”, NYSE-listed firm chairman Azim Premji told reporters. “In 2010, we expect the IT budget to be flat to marginally positive”.

“The growth has been volume-led and our growth in volume over the previous quarter has been 4.7 per cent,” he said.

Wipro CFO Suresh Senapaty said: “We have maintained margins despite a decrease in our rate realisation and a strong appreciation of the rupee. Our order booking has been good and BFSI (Banking, Financial Services and Insurance) has bounced back strongly”.

Premji neither confirmed nor denied reports about Wipro’s plans for a $1billion-sponsored American Depository Receipts, as also acquisition plans.

“The answer is no comments”, he said, and pointed out if he had responded either way (yes or no), it amounts to giving “privileged information” which is generally not known to the public. “We cannot answer like that. We are in a complete box vis-a-vis regulations of the stock exchange”.

Wipro’s IT revenues for the third quarter of 2009-10 stood at Rs 5,164 crore, a year-on-year growth of two per cent and sequential growth of 3.4 per cent.

Profit before interest and tax (PBIT) for IT services was Rs 1,227 crore, a 17 per cent year-on-year growth. IT services business accounted for 74 per cent of the total revenue and 90 per cent of the PBIT for the December quarter.

Wipro’s IT services business had a net addition of 4,855 employees in the third quarter, taking the total in the division to 1,02,746 employees as of December 31, 2009.

For the quarter ending March 31, 2010, Wipro expects revenues from its IT services business to be in the range of $1,161 million to $1,183 million.

Pratik Kumar, executive vice-president, Human Resources, Wipro Ltd, said the company had been visiting campuses since last month, but added that it had not set any hiring targets. — PTI

New Delhi, January 20
The rising input costs have forced the country’s second largest car manufacturer, Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL), to hike prices of its cars by up to Rs 9,000. The company will increase the prices across all models between 1 per cent and 1.5 per cent, HMIL director sales and marketing Arvind Saxena said.

"The maximum hike, however, will be up to Rs 9,000 and it will be effective from February 1," he said. The step had been necessitated due to the rising input costs, specially that of commodities like steel, he added.

HMIL sells hatchbacks Santro, i10, i20 and sedans Accent, Verna and Sonata Embera, in the Indian market.

The company's move to increase prices comes on the heels of car market leader Maruti Suzuki India hiking prices of a majority of its models by up to 1.9 per cent last week. Some of the other car manufacturers have also announced that they will be hiking the prices of their cars in this year due to the increase in the input costs.

New Delhi: Honda's Jazz is being sold at discounts of up to Rs 40,000 with attractive interest rates on loans as dealers look to clear stocks of the 2009 model. The Jazz, coming at a price range of Rs 6.98 lakh to Rs 7.33 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi), had witnessed stock pile-up last month with retail sales not picking up. 

According to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, Honda Siel Cars India (HSCI) had produced 1,066 units of Jazz in December, 2009, while selling only 269 units. Many dealers of HSCI have started offering special incentives, including discounts of up to Rs 40,000 and lower interest rates of up to 5.8 per cent since the beginning of this month. The company, however, said the discounts were an initiative by the dealers and it had no plans to cut the price of the car. — PTI 

New Delhi, January 20
Taking a cue from the allegations of a scam in the allocation of 2G spectrum, the government is unlikely to allow any merger or acquisitions among the third generation or 3G operators.

The move is also being made to ensure competition among the operators of the 3G services which firstly are likely to target the high-end users and secondly also bring in cheaper services, especially for data transfer and internet services.

"There will be no merger and acquisition guidelines for 3G (services) as to ensure competition among the 3G operators. An internal note circulated by the Department of Telecom (DoT) said, "The NIA (Notice Inviting Application) will prohibit merger of successful bidders in the current auction".

The note is a compilation of replies to the prospective 3G bidders' query on these issues.

If these rules come to play post-3G auction, then an existing telecom player, who win 3G licences, will not be able to merge with any other telecom operator.

Incidentally, there has been a major row in the 2G spectrum allocation, specially after two of the start-up companies sold off their stakes at huge profits to aspirant foreign telecom operators.

There have been allegations of 2G spectrum being allocated at much lower price than the market price resulting in the loss to the government exchequer and leading to even a CBI inquiry.

So the government is wanting to play it safe in the 3G auction and devising ways to ensure that there are no allegations of any sort.

The internal DoT note also states that the new 3G entrants, who will be able to secure 2G licences after paying the due amount as per the policy, will get the spectrum only along with those 2G licensees, who have been on the waiting list. They cannot aspire to get the 2G spectrum earlier on the basis of their successful bid in 3G.

As per the current 3G guidelines, new entrants that successfully bid for 3G frequencies will also be eligible for 2G spectrum, used by the current mobile service providers in the country.

New Delhi, January 20
The residence and office of an employee and an auditor of a Chennai-based firm were searched by the CBI in connection with alleged irregularities in ‘2G’ spectrum allocation that deprived the exchequer of thousands of crores of rupees in revenue.

A CBI spokesman said the residence of an employee M Kevin and the office of the firm’s auditor V Ganapathy were searched by the agency, which registered a case on October 21 last against unknown DoT officials and private entities under the charge of criminal conspiracy and corruption under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

According to information, Kevin is the business adviser of the Chennai-based Green House Promoter while Ganapathy audits the firm’s accounts. The company said it had no role to play and would not like to comment on the case as it was a private affair of the two individuals.

In October, 2009, the CBI had carried out searches in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Gurgaon, Mohali and Noida on telecom firms besides the Department of Telecom (DoT) in connection with the allocation of spectrum (air-waves) for second generation (2G) mobile telephone services. It has been alleged that there had been serious irregularities in the award of Unified Access Services Licences to private companies.

Chandigarh, January 20
In order to promote the hotel industry in India, the Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Association of India (FHRAI) is now advocating the setting up of a Tourism Development Board. Besides, providing a single window clearance for all new hotel projects across the country, this board will also create a land bank for hotels.

Talking to TNS here today, Rajindera Kumar, president of the association and director of The Ambassador Hotel, New Delhi, said that the Tourism Advisory Council had already accepted the proposal to set up Tourism Development Board. “This proposal now has to be given a final nod by the Empowered Group of Ministers in its next meeting scheduled for February,” he said.

Kumar said that with the coming up of this board, all proposals for getting clearances for setting up a new hotel would be dealt with expeditiously. “This board will be headed by the Secretary, Tourism, and will also work for creating a land bank, so that land can be provided at reasonable rates for setting up new hotel projects,” he added.

Talking about the shortage of hotel rooms for the forthcoming Commonwealth Games, the FHRAI president said that India was likely to face a shortage of 15,000 hotel rooms for the coming Commonwealth Games at New Delhi.

BRIEFLY

Bharti Walmart opens centre in Sirhind
Chandigarh: Bharti Walmart on Wednesday opened its first Agricultural Co-operative Centre in Sirhind. The centre aims to build a robust aggregating, handling, packaging and delivering system of fresh produce to Best Price and Bharti Retail’s Easyday stores. — TNS

Grande MK II in J&K
Jammu: Tata Motors today launched Grande MK II, an upgraded version of its Premium Sumo, in the domestic market here. The vehicle having the lowest turning circle radius of 5.25 metre in its category was launched by senior officials of the company. The vehicle will be available in three variants Gx, Ex and Lx, the company officials said.— TNS

Dollar dearer
Mumbai: The US dollar ended dearer against rupee at Rs 45.93/94 per dollar but the pound sterling turned lower at Rs 74.70/72 per pound at the close of the Forex Market here today. — PTI

Lupin facility
New Delhi: Lupin Ltd today said it had addressed all concerns related to its manufacturing facility at Mandideep in Madhya Pradesh raised by the US Food and Drug Administration. — PTI

Free local calls at night by RCom 
NEW DELHI: Reliance Communications on Wednesday launched two night calling packs for its GSM and CDMA users, offering free local calls between 11 pm to 6 am. The Lite-Nite Pack, priced at Rs 29, offers free calling benefits to any local Reliance mobile phone between 11 pm to 6 am, while the Bright-Nite Pack, priced at Rs 59, offers free local as well as STD calling to other Reliance users, RCom said in a statement. — PTI