The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Satyam scam: Raju, 5 others surrender Tribune News Service Hyderabad, November 10 After a short-lived reprieve, multi-crore Satyam accounting scam prime accused B Ramalinga Raju surrendered before a trial court here and was sent back to jail. Along with Raju, his brother and former managing director of Satyam, B Rama Raju and four other accused in the Rs 14,000 crore fraud surrendered before a designated CBI court following the Supreme Court cancelling their bails granted earlier by Andhra Pradesh High Court and directed them to surrender by November 10. Raju had moved the apex court seeking additional time for surrender, citing poor health. However, the court rejected his request. The police trooped in as soon as the accused surrendered and shifted all of them to Chanchalguda Central Jail where Raju and his co-accused were lodged earlier before being granted conditional bail by High Court on August 18. The others who surrendered along with Raju are his brother B Rama Raju, former Satyam chief financial officer Vadlamani Srinivas and three other employees -- G Ramakrishna, Venkatapathi Raju and Srisailam. All of them will be required to be present during the trial involving examination of the first batch of six witnesses, which began on November 8 and is expected to end on November 15, as per the directions of the designated court. The CBI Special Public Prosecutor K Surender said that Raju and others surrendered at 4 pm and were immediately taken to jail. Asked if Raju would again try to get himself admitted to hospital on health grounds, he said “That is an issue to be sorted out by the jail authorities.” Raju, 56, stunned the corporate world on January 7 last year when he confessed to fudging the accounts and inflating profits of the IT company he had founded two decades ago. He is facing charges including conspiracy, cheating and forgery. He managed to evade interrogation by the CBI for 20 months by getting himself admitted to the Nizam’s Institute for Medical Sciences (NIMS) for treatment of Hepatitis-C. What remains to be seen is whether the defense counsel will be successful in getting Raju admitted back to NIMS. Doctors at the institute have consistently maintained that he needs regular monitoring besides administration of drugs to control his infection. Raju made an appearance in the court in the morning but left the court premises after a while. He again appeared before the magistrate along with his counsel in the evening and informed that he and other accused were surrendering.
	Easy Bill to expand network Sanjeev Sharma Tribune News Service New Delhi, November 10 The Hero group company, Easy Bill, which is into bill payments and ticketing is scaling up operations to expand to 20,000 outlets in the next 2 years in the top 200 cities of the country. Post the division of the family business of the Munjal family, which owns various businesses under the Hero brand, Easy Bill is now part of the BMMunjal group. Part of the third generation of the family and BM Munjal’s grandson, Rahul Munjal, CEO & MD of Easy Bill, told The Tribune that the company is expanding in the top 200 cities with a target of 20,000 outlets. He said the company would consider an initial public offer (IPO) but at a later stage in the next few years. He said India is a cash economy and the credit card penetration is only 4 per cent so transaction services in cash will be a growth area. Easy Bill, like other Hero group companies, is in the business of catering to the masses, he said. He said that 20-25 per cent of the company outlets are in the northern region. Munjal said in Punjab, the company services are doing well, for instance in Ludhiana, it covers almost 25 per cent of the electricity bill payments to the Punjab State Electricity Board. He said the revenue model is such that in some cases the company charges the biller only while in others, the customer also has to pay nominal charges for the transaction. Easy Bill has focused on grocery stores, chemists, PCOs for its network which also adds footfalls for the stores. The company is into bill collection, prepaid, ticketing and has 6,000 outlets in 70 cities. It has identified ticketing as a major growth area. Easy Bill has been providing bill payment services to the customers since last seven years. Easy Bill’s business model blends together traditional retailer network with the state-of-the-art technology, to offer consumers convenience in financial transactions. Over the years, the company has started several services such as bill collections, prepaid, e-governance, ticketing and payments for internet companies. It helps the customer in paying bills such as electricity, mobile, telephone, general Insurance & credit cards, with minimal service charge or no extra charge, under one roof. Easy Bill has now launched the Instant brand. Under Instant, it is offering the customer a bouquet of services apart from bill payments such as air, train, bus ticketing, pre-paid mobile recharge & others.
	SBI Life unveils SMS-based customer care Tribune News Service Jammu, November 10 Setting a new benchmark in customer service excellence, SBI Life Insurance has introduced an initiative called ‘SMS SOLVE” for prompt grievance redressal. According to a statement issued here, it is the first-of-its-kind initiative in the insurance industry. The service allows customers to have their grievances resolved in a simpler, paperless and faster manner. The service has been rolled out nationally. The initiative was inaugurated by J Harinaryan, IRDA Chairman, at a function in Hyderabad today. M.N. Rao, MD and CEO, SBI Life Insurance, said, “The introduction of this initiative is a reflection of our commitment towards constantly enhancing our customer service capabilities so as to provide our customers constant reassurance and convenience. We will continue to leverage technology to be able to establish deeper connect with our customers.” An innovative SMS-based service, SMS SOLVE provides customers the ease of accessing SBI Life 24X7. Customers are able to register their grievances about SBI Life’s service by merely sending SMS ‘SOLVE’ to 56161. The message along with customers’ mobile number, date and time of message is automatically registered at the central server of SBI Life’s central processing centre. A special customer service team from the V Care cell, exclusively trained and dedicated for the SMS SOLVE service, calls the customer, take note of his grievances and address it. After the complaint is resolved, the service personnel updates the status on a specially designed internal portal.
	ArcelorMittal blames Orissa govt for delays New Delhi, November 10 Facing fear of cancellation of coal block due to development delays, a consortium of six corporate houses led by ArcelorMittal has blamed Orissa government for not granting regulatory clearance needed for mining. In fact, the consortium sought the Centre's intervention to expedite the multi-million dollar mining project. In a recent letter to the Coal Ministry, the Rampia Coal Mine and Energy Private Ltd (RCMEPL) said it was unable to conduct drilling and other activities in the block as the state government is yet to grant the required regulatory clearances for development process of the coal block allocated in 2008. — PTI
	PowerGrid to expand telecom biz Tribune News Service Chandigarh, November 10 PowerGrid Corporation is all set to expand its telecom business in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, by leasing out its transmission towers so that telecom towers can be mounted on them. Talking to mediapersons here today, RN Nayak, Director (Operations), PowerGrid Corporation, said this business vertical will boost its bottomline without the corporation having to make any new investment. “We have found that 10-15 per cent of our transmission towers (out of 1,00,000 towers across the country) can be used for setting up telecom towers, after a study was conducted by KPMG. We have already carried out a pilot project in Gangtok, and are now all set to start this initiative across North India,” he said. Nayak said they have already floated tenders, inviting the telecom tower infrastructure providers and telecom companies for this new biz. “We have invited tenders for about 1,500 towers set up in these states and the last date for submission tenders is in December,” he said. The idea is to leverage those transmission towers, set up in remote and rural areas, to provide telecommunication services in these areas by co-locating wireless antennas on its tower infrastructure. It may be noted that PowerGrid is already leasing bandwidth on its network to over 70 customers, including Bharti Airtel, BSNL, Dishnet Wireless and Tata Communications. The utility earns two per cent of its total revenue from telecom business, said Nayak. He also said PowerGrid will be laying transmission lines for Punjab’s Transmission Utility TRANSCO which will involve capital expenditure of Rs 1,300 crore and is expected to be completed by 2012.
	Maruti regains 50% market share New Delhi, November 10 The country's biggest car maker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) has regained over 50 per cent market share in the passenger cars segment in October, after four consecutive months of remaining below the coveted mark. According to figures released by the Society of Indian Automobile manufacturers (SIAM), MSI sold 91,754 units of passenger cars out of a total market of 1,82,992 units, garnering 50.14 per cent market share. The company's sales have been boosted by its models like Alto, Wagon R, Estilo, Swift, Ritz and A-Star, which had a combined sales of 77,502 units in October. In October, MSI had sold a total of 1,18,908 units, including exports, which was its highest ever monthly sales, a robust 39.21 per cent jump over the year-ago period. The last time the company had commanded over half of the Indian car market was in May this year. — PTI
	Egg prices at all-time high, Rs 303 per 100 Amaninder Pal Tribune News Service Jalandhar, November 10 With an unprecedented increase in the input cost of various poultry items, the prices of eggs have hit an all-time high rate of Rs 303 per 100 eggs in the entire north India. Besides an increase in the demand as winters are at doorsteps, the poultry farmers are of the view that due to increased feeding, housing and vaccination costs, the wholesale prices of eggs will remain unusually above Rs 300 per 100 eggs, throughout this season. Although the prices had touched the Rs 300-mark during last year, but only for 2-3 days, and were again slashed down to Rs 260-280 per 100 eggs. However, contrary to the trends of previous years, this year, the prices are fluctuating around the Rs 300-mark, just at the beginning of the winter season. As a margin of 40-50 paisa per egg always exists in the wholesale and retail market, the retail prices would definitely remain more than Rs 3.5 per egg and Rs 4 per egg, if wholesale prices would cross Rs 350 per 100 eggs mark. Talking to TNS, Inderjit Singh Kang, President, Punjab Layer Poultry Farmers Association, said that in the past few years, the prices usually shuffled between Rs 260-280 per 100 eggs. However, due to unexpected increase in rearing cost of birds, we anticipate that the prices would remain above Rs 300 per 100 eggs. Dr. Mohan Lal Kansal, leading poultry farmer from Haryana, said per quintal cost of poultry feed had increased from Rs 400-500 to Rs 1,200 per quintal in the past few years. “Just a few years ago, only three vaccinations, which cost around Rs 4-5 per bird, were sufficient to protect the birds. However, now we need to treat the birds with 17 various vaccines, which now cost over Rs 35 per bird. Above all, cost of labour and housing has been doubled in the recent years. Therefore, rise in wholesale prices is justified,” said Dr Kansal, who is also a member of central government’s Meat and Poultry Processing Board.
	Auto sales continue their upward surge Tribune News Service New Delhi, November 10 Auto sales continued to break all records in the country for the fourth consecutive month in October, registering a total vehicle sales of 14,60,655 units, a whopping 10 per cent more than the sales registered a month ago in September. Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) said the sale in the automobiles jumped mainly on a solid festive demand and arrival of new models and strong economic fundamentals. The record figure in October was driven by best-ever monthly sales achieved in passenger cars, motorcycles and total two-wheeler segments. September had seen a sale of 13,29,086 units. The overall vehicles sold in the domestic market during October grew by 45.93 per cent from 10,00,953 units in the same month last year. “October demand was good due to the festive season. Basic fundamentals of the industry remain strong. Interest rates continue to be favourable despite a marginal increase and there is a strong availability of financing,” the SIAM Director-General Vishnu Mathur said. New model launches have also helped increasing the excitement in the market and creating demand, he added. According to statistics, car sales jumped by 37.99 per cent to 1,82,992 units in October compared with 1,32,615 units in the same month last year. Incidentally, October sales were also the best-ever monthly sales compared to the previous best of 1,69,082 units in September. Similarly, motorcycle sales last month stood at record 8,76,810 units, up 43.31 per cent from 6,11,828 units in the same month last year. The previous high of 7,78,352 units was achieved in September. Total two-wheeler sales achieved a record figure of 11,27,827 units in October, up 50.38 per cent, against 7,49,965 units in the same month last year. Sales of commercial vehicles jumped by 18.17 per cent to 50,835 units from 43,018 units. According to the SIAM data, scooters segment grew by over two-fold to 1,88,633 units during October as compared to 92,346 units in the same period last year. The growth was led by HMSI, with sales of 79,672 units, a jump of over two-fold from the year-ago period.