New Delhi, February 10
The Vijay Mallya-promoted Kingfisher Airlines today said it had got the regulatory approval for operating on seven new international routes, taking the number of overseas destinations it operates to 14 from the current seven.

The Directorate-General of Civil Aviation has given its approval to the airline to operate services on the New Delhi-London-New Delhi, New Delhi-Hong Kong-New Delhi, New Delhi-Bangkok-New Delhi, New Delhi-Dubai-New Delhi, Mumbai-Colombo-Mumbai, Mumbai-Bangkok-Mumbai and Mumbai-Dubai-Mumbai sectors.

The New Delhi-London and New Delhi-Hong Kong routes would be operated "soon", the airline said in a statement.

"Kingfisher Airlines will soon be commencing flights from New Delhi to London's Heathrow Airport along with six other new international routes. The launch of these new flights will further enhance our international route network" Kingfisher Airlines chairman Vijay Mallya said in the release.

"We may even look at inducting new aircraft sooner than planned so that we are fully geared to capitalise on the upturn. We are actively pursuing various options for fund-raising and our plans are on track," Mallya added.

The airline will be inducting Airbus A330s on the New Delhi-London-New Delhi and New Delhi-Hong Kong-New Delhi routes, while the other five new routes will be operated with Airbus A320s, the statement added. The loss-making Kingfisher Airlines currently operates on seven international routes, Mumbai-London-Mumbai, Mumbai-Singapore-Mumbai, Mumbai-Hong Kong-Mumbai, Bangalore-Dubai-Bangalore, Chennai-Colombo-Chennai, Kolkata-Bangkok-Kolkata and Kolkata-Dhaka-Kolkata.

The approval came at a time when the air traffic is on the rise registering a growth of 8 per cent in 2009 over 2008. — PTI

New Delhi, February 10
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) today sought views from the industry and other stakeholders on the fourth generation technology that offers broadband services much faster than the existing technologies or even the expected third generation 3G services.

With the technology for the 4G telephony almost ready to be put to use, TRAI has come out with a pre-consultation paper which also gives telecom operators, specially private operators, an option to wait for the 4G technology without squabbling for the 3G spectrum.

The move could also pour water on the efforts of the government to secure more than Rs 25,000 crore from the auction of the scarce 3G spectrum. The paper comes at a time when the government is still to work out details for the auctioning of the spectrum for the 3G mobile services.

While there are still differences prevailing over the auction of the 3G spectrum, the consultation for the 4G has been started by TRAI as this technology would be available for use over the next couple of months. Some of the other countries are due to launch this service in the next month or two, while it is already available in Japan.

Incidentally, some of the private telecom firms have already expressed their desire to wait for 4G technology rather than go for 3G embroiled in controversy.

The 4G technology, known as the ultra-broadband, offers download at faster speed and high definition video on demand, among other services.

In a statement, TRAI said: “In order to facilitate introduction of 4G mobile broadband services, the authority has decided to deliberate various connected issues such as allocation and pricing of spectrum for such services and issues related to licensing.”

The objective at this stage is to prepare a consultation paper for wider deliberation, so as to result in recommendations enabling the government to take appropriate decision or for appropriate regulations by the authority, it added.

It has sought views at the pre-consultation stage, from all stakeholders by March 15, 2010, on any aspect of 4G, which they feel would be relevant to policy making or regulations.

Tokyo/Detroit, February 10
Honda Motor Co said it would recall another 4,40,000 cars around the world for faulty airbags as rival Toyota Motor Corp faced further probes over its largest-ever safety crisis. Honda, Japan’s No.2 automaker, has now recalled close to 9,50,000 vehicles for airbag problems linked to one fatality and a total of 11 injuries in the United States.

While auto recalls are not uncommon and Honda’s is not huge, it comes at a sensitive time for an industry struggling to draw customers back to showrooms after a brutal downturn.

Toyota, the world’s largest car maker, is facing a storm of criticism over safety issues and its response to them. In the latest of a string of product problems for Toyota, US regulators said they were reviewing dozens of complaints about potential steering problems in newer Toyota Corollas. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said it was discussing the matter with Toyota to see if a formal investigation was warranted, a standard procedure when reviewing complaints.

Toyota expanded its recall on Tuesday, including more than 4,00,000 of its latest version Prius and other new hybrid models due to braking problems. It also recalled more than 7,300 late model Camrys in the US for a separate braking problem. That comes on top of 8.1 million vehicles recalled since September for problems with slipping floor mats and sticking accelerator pedals that have been linked to crashes that killed at least 19 persons.

In a bid to stop the crisis hurting US-Japanese relations, Japan’s Transport Minister Seiji Maehara met US ambassador John Roos on Wednesday. “I believe we should not let this problem hurt the bilateral relationship and free and fair market activities,” Maehara told reporters after the meeting.

Roos added, “I emphasised to him that this is a safety issue and I very much appreciate how the minister, the ministry as well as Toyota are on the top of this issue.” — Reuters

Mumbai, February 10
NIIT Technologies today said it had bagged a Rs 228 crore contract from the Border Security Force for providing software solutions.

The company said the Border Security Force (BSF) had approved placement of the contract for the Rs 228-crore Intranet Praharl Project to NIIT Technologies.

The project would help to connect all frontiers and battalions of the BSF across the country. Currently, the BSF has over 157 battalions, with another 27 battalions in 9 sectors and 3 more frontiers to be raised in a phased manner.

Under the project, NIIT Technologies would set up infrastructure, network and applications to facilitate operations management, integrated financial activities and human resources management for the force.

NIIT Technologies would set up the entire infrastructure for the project which includes establishment of a central data centre and 10 mini data centres among others.

“Our rich experience of engaging with and implementing turn-key assignments for paramilitary organisations will add value to our engagement with BSF,” NIIT Technologies CEO Arvind Thakur said.

Shares of NIIT Technologies were trading at Rs 170.05, up 7.52 per cent on the BSE. — PTI

London, February 10
ArcelorMittal today reported a net income of $1.07 billion for the three- month period ended December 31, 2009, on the back of improvement in demand and several cost cutting measures.

In the year-ago period, the firm had a net loss of $2.63 billion, ArcelorMittal said in a statement. Looking ahead, ArcelorMittal expects the year to continue to be a challenging year.

The company's sales declined to $18.64 billion in the October-December quarter of 2009 from $22.08 billion in the same quarter last fiscal. The steel behemoth's sales stood at $16.2 billion in the third quarter of 2009.

The company's chief executive Lakshmi Mittal said 2010 would continue to be challenging, although capital expenditure would rise.— PTI 

New Delhi: ArcelorMittal will hike its stake in Uttam Galva to 33.7 per cent following a 4.9 per cent promoter stake transfer by the end of this month.

"Pursuant to the successful competition of the open offer, ArcelorMittal now holds 28.8 per cent stake in Uttam Galva. Besides, pursuant to change in the equity structure, the promoters' stake sale will come down to 4.9 per cent from the earlier 5.6 per cent," Uttam Galva finance director Ankit Miglani said.

"We think the promoter stake sale will be completed by the month-end. The stake has been sold at the open offer price of Rs 120 a share," he added.

Last October ArcelorMittal had entered into an agreement to purchase a 5.6 per cent stake in Uttam Galva and two months later launched the open offer to buy an additional 29 per cent stake at Rs 120 a share.

"The open offer was originally for 29 per cent. Following conversion of certain convertible bonds, the underlying equity structure of the company has been changed. So, the open offer has become 28.8 per cent and we are selling 4.9 per cent through a share purchase agreement," Miglani said.

Following the news, Uttam Galva shares surged 16.5 per cent today to Rs 123.50 intra-day. It later settled with a gain of 6.32 per cent at Rs 112.70 on the BSE. — PTI 

New Delhi, February 10
Larsen and Toubro is likely to start its general insurance business in the first quarter of the next fiscal and has got preliminary approval from IRDA.

Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) member R Kannan said the insurance watchdog had given its initial R1 approval to L&T and the company would take at least three to four months to start the venture. “At its board meeting, IRDA has given R1 approval to L&T for its general insurance venture,” Kanan said.

According to L&T senior vice-president (financial services) N Sivaraman, the venture would be operational in the first half of the next fiscal subject to regulatory approval. The proposed insurance firm would begin operations with paid-up capital between Rs 110 crore and 120 crore, he said, adding, "We expect that the share capital to go up to Rs 500 crore in the next 5 years depending on business growth.”

L&T has already put in place top management for the proposed venture. Joydeep Roy will head L&T General Insurance Company. R1 is the preliminary approval given by IRDA, wherein the regulator evaluates the promoters. There are three stages of approval required for getting a licence for an insurance company.

In the second stage (R2), IRDA looks into the business model of the company and in the third (R3), at the formation of the company. There are currently 22 non-life insurance players, including four public sector companies, in the country.

Besides, IRDA gave R2 approval to health insurance company Max Bupa Health Insurance, Kannan added. Max Bupa is a joint venture between Max India and the UK-based Bupa Group. Max Bupa is likely to start operations from next month after getting the R3 approval. The company had received initial approval in November last year.

It will be the third company to provide only health insurance after Star Health-Allied Insurance and Apollo Munich Health Insurance. — PTI

New Delhi, February 10
India will become the world's second largest steel producer by 2012, more than doubling its capacity of 57 million tonnes as part of push being given to assist overall infrastructure development, Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh has said.

"I have set a target of 124 million tonnes by 2012. Yes, we will become the world's second largest steel producer. But more importantly, India has a vast capacity to consume that kind of output. It is necessary for our infrastructure development," the minister said.

"Here, I am only talking about the capacity expansion of the existing steel companies. If I also take greenfield projects into account, we have expression of interest for projects worth over $80 billion," Singh told IANS in an interview. At present, China is the largest steel maker in the world with a capacity of over 600 million tonnes, followed by Japan and South Korea. India ranks fourth.

A five-term Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh, veteran Congress leader said Steel Authority of India (SAIL) alone had targeted to virtually double its capacity to nearly 30 million tonnes.

"These expansion projects will sail through. Both at Bokaro and Bhilai, the company has enough land to take up the projects," said Singh.

The minister said another company under his ministry's administrative control -- National Mineral Development Corp (NMDC) -- will also go for divestment quite soon and 8.3 per cent shares would be on offer.

"We propose to raise Rs.13,000 crore from this NMDC equity sale. But all of it will go to the government," he said, adding that there were 11 public sector undertakings within the administrative control of the steel ministry.

He said he was keen that some large projects of global companies also go on stream soon, including the $12 billion integrated steel unit of South Korea's Posco in Orissa and two similar ones of ArcelorMital in Orissa and Chattisgarh.

"There are some genuine issues - the acquisition of land, and that, too, tribal land, allocation of mines and rehabilitation of people. But these are being sorted out. The companies have my assurance that the government will be an active facilitator." — IANS