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Post office goes online
Debt-ridden RCom gets lease of life
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Mobile Number Portability
Oil firms urged to cut profit margins
Domestic car sales up 22.63% in February
Dutch paint major plans plant in Gwalior
AI earns Rs 36 crore a day, spends Rs 57 crore
Loop willing to auction its 2G licence
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New Delhi, March 9 “A user can use his debit or credit card to send eMO or iMO online. This will enable one to send money to person at home anywhere in the country,” said Radhika Doraiswamy, secretary, Department of Post, during the launch. Through this portal, DoP will also sell products, handicrafts and other products made by small-scale industries. “Earlier consumers used to go to service providers but now services providers are going to consumers. This is the future of the 21st century. We have now taken post offices to every citizen of the country through internet,” Kapil Sibal, the union minister for communications and information technology (MoCIT) said at the event. “This portal will also be e-commerce portal for the Department of Post. Products of small-scale sector and handicrafts will also be sold through this portal,” Sibal added. The content of the portal is in English. Sachin Pilot, state MoCIT asked DoP to develop this content in other local languages to expand reach of the portal. “This initiative will make every netbook, computer a post office. I will urge Department of Post to make this site accessible in various languages,” Pilot said. The next version of the portal is expected to be launched in Bangla and Kannada language. This is the first phase of services that have been launched. DoP has plans to bring other services also online in next phase of e-post office project, informed Doraiswamy. — PTI
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Debt-ridden RCom gets lease of life
New Delhi, March 9 RCom has also signed an additional agreement for credit worth Rs 2,700 crore with the CDB, for financing imports and domestic expenditure of telecom equipment from Chinese vendors, namely Huawei and ZTE. The aggregate financing of Rs 8,700 crore ($1.93 billon) has a maturity period of 10 years, which would contribute significantly to the company’s debt maturity profile, apart from substantial savings in interest costs. Facing a $7 billion debt ahead of major bond redemption next year, the RCom shares rose 9 per cent on the news of CDB underwriting some part of the debt. Around 34.42 million shares changed hands today on a combined basis, as against an average of 17.63 million shares traded daily in the past two weeks. Shares in the country’s second largest mobile operator, controlled by Anil Ambani, dropped to a record low last week leaving the company valued at $4.3 billion. According to company officials, the CDB has fully underwritten the facility and will be funded by a syndicate of Chinese banks/financial institutions including CDB. This represents the fist and largest ever syndicated loan for refinancing spectrum fees, the company said in a filing to the stock exchanges. The company has already received the RBI approval for the facilities, the statement said. The company has seen six straight quarters of falling profits due to a tough telecoms market, which has squeezed margins. RCom also failed attempts to raise cash, which eroded the investor confidence in the company. |
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Mobile Number Portability
According to the figures released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), 38.33 lakh subscribers have sought to change their service provider ever since the mobile number portability (MNP) service was launched all over the country on January 20 last. While Gujarat reported the highest number of customers willing to change their service providers through MNP service, around 3.2 lakh requests pertained to Haryana where MNP was initially launched from November 25 last year. In MNP Zone-1 (northern and western India), maximum number of requests have been received in Gujarat (3.65 lakh), followed by Rajasthan with 3.14 lakh requests, according to a statement issued by TRAI. In MNP Zone-2 (southern and eastern India), maximum number of requests have been received in Karnataka (3.18 lakh), followed by Tamil Nadu service area (2.76 lakh). Telecom service providers in Jammu and Kashmir circle received only 1,291 requests for service provider change. TRAI is constantly monitoring the implementation of the MNP in the country and has observed that the primary reasons for rejection of port requests were incorrect unique porting code, non-completion of 90 days, existing contractual obligations and outstanding dues. In view of the large number of rejections and complaints, TRAI is in the process of verifying the correctness of port rejections done by service providers on sample basis. |
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Oil firms urged to cut profit margins
Jalandhar, March 9 “The stance of OMCs that they were suffering losses by selling petrol, diesel and kerosene at present prices was false since the former are yet to pass on the profits from lubricants and other products to the consumers which are still being sold at prices when worldwide crude prices were touching $140 a barrel, say retailers. Several oil retailers, speaking on the condition of anonymity, also questioned the wisdom of opening hundreds of new outlets across the country if the companies were suffering losses. In fact, the oil companies were competing with each other and driving up prices in the market while reporting to the same ministry, they pointed out. Interestingly, oil companies spend lakhs to organise an ‘Oil Conservation Week’ in the country every year but issue show-cause notices to dealers who do not meet the company-fixed sale targets, they revealed. Recently, the BPCL announced 70 per cent dividend to their shareholders while another oil company gave a dividend of 52 per cent. But the OMCs were silent on profits (in terms of actual price rollbacks) passed on to their consumers, they added. The OMCs also profit from the sale of the so-called branded fuels, whose special features are yet unproved, and are out of the ambit of government pricing. Citing an instance of the violation of norms, they said the IOC has installed more than three outlets on a stretch of 5 km near Nasrala in Hoshiarpur district. These are in violation of the volume distance norms (distance between two outlets and sale outputs necessitating more pumps in an area), which were earlier followed to avoid unhealthy competition, they revealed. Basically, the three OMCs are out to grab the maximum market share individually without considering the economics of their existing dealers, they alleged. |
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Domestic car sales up 22.63% in February
New Delhi, March 9 According to figures released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), February sales bettered the previous high of 1,84,332 units achieved in January this year. Total sales of vehicles across categories registered 21.32 per cent growth to 13,70,932 units in February, 2011, from 11,30,037 units in the same month last year, it added. The industry body, however, said car sales growth rates could moderate to around 14-16 per cent in the next fiscal, as the sector will have to overcome the challenges of high interest rates and rising commodity prices. Car sales growth in February was led by Maruti Suzuki India, which sold 87,851 units, up 19.01 per cent compared to the same month last year. Rival Hyundai Motor India Ltd's car sales were up by 4.84 per cent to 32,503 units, while Tata Motors saw a 18.67 per cent increase in sales to 27,272 units during the month. Meanwhile, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) has expressed concern over the new definition for completely knocked down (CKD) units of vehicles introduced in the Budget for 2011-12 and said it would not only significantly increase the cost for high-end players but also hamper the introduction of new products. The concern from SIAM comes just a day after German luxury car-maker Audi said if the new CKD norms were to be applied, it may have to alter its business strategy in India, including lying low in the Indian market. SIAM Director-General Vishnu Mathur while stating that there was a lack of clarity on the issue informed that the industry body had met Finance Ministry officials to resolve the issue. “The way we read the English language, we have to assemble engines, transmission and gear boxes locally. This is commercially unviable for very low volume products,” Mathur said. |
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Dutch paint major plans plant in Gwalior
Over the next four years, the company is also looking at increasing its sales turnover by almost six times, to Rs 6,200 crore. For this, the company is now formulating its organic growth plans and launching improved value added products, so as to have a consequent increase in its production capacity, which presently stands at 88 million litres per day. The company feels that strong economic growth leading to higher disposable incomes, and increased propensity to paint and use superior paints will be the growth drivers for them. The company has a 10 per cent market share in decorative paints segment, and has also launched automotive refinishing paints, which are being manufactured in their Mohali plant. Talking to The Tribune here today, Anuj Mishra, regional manufacturing manager (North), Akzo Nobel India, said there were ongoing plans to de-bottleneck capacities at their existing manufacturing plants at Mohali, Hyderabad and Navi Mumbai. “This will help us in utilising existing assets better. Besides, we have recently commissioned a new plant, manufacturing industrial coatings at Bangalore. We are also thinking of opening a new plant at Gwalior, which will be commissioned in the next two years,” he said. Mishra said as against a sales turnover of Rs 1,010 crore in 2009-10, the company had already reached a sales turnover of Rs 900 crore in the quarter ending December 2010. |
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AI earns Rs 36 crore a day, spends Rs 57 crore
New Delhi, March 9 “We are paying compulsory payment abroad of Rs 16 crore and committed payment here in India is Rs 20 crore. But the total expenditure comes to about Rs 57 crore,” Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi said in the Lok Sabha during the Question Hour. Air India is facing a major problem of payment overdues for aviation fuel to oil companies. The overdues to oil PSUs have soared to over Rs 2,280 crore as on February this year. “The government has infused Rs 1,200 crore, out of this, we have given Rs 475 crore to the oil companies. As it is, it is true that Rs 1,900 crore is still pending.” Besides, an amount of Rs 12.5 crore is being paid daily by Air India to oil companies on cash and carry basis.
— PTI |
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Loop willing to auction its 2G licence
New Delhi, March 9 Loop, one of the operators which have been named along with others in the entire case as it was awarded licence in 2008 by former Telecom Minister A Raja, made an offer to the two-judge bench comprising Justices GS Singhvi and A K Ganguly. Company counsel Ariama Sundaram submitted to the court that the government should auction Loop's licence/spectrum in an open and unrestricted auction. Their plea also proposes that in case the government receives a value which is higher than what has been paid by Loop, then the difference may be retained by the government and Rs 1,454 cr may be paid over to Loop. The proposal was made during the hearing of the PILs seeking cancellation of the 2G Spectrum.
— PTI |
HDFC mulls selling non-core investments worth Rs 4,000 cr Apparel exports up by 18.1 pc in Jan Peerless MF launches child plan Israel plans to boost exports to India
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New Delhi, March 9
Chandigarh, March 9
