New Delhi, October 18
Qualcomm, the US-based wireless telecommunications research & development company, as well as the largest fabless chip supplier in the world, which had won the auction for providing broadband services in four service areas last year, may finally be granted a licence paving the way for it to launch its services in India.

Senior officials of the department of telecommunications here said the licence would be given to a Qualcomm unit that would be the nominee for all the four zones the company won spectrum for.

The firm’s application for the licence was rejected initially as the ministry had cited Qualcomm had missed the deadline for applying for the Internet service providers' licence as one of the reasons for rejecting the application.

The ministry had also said Qualcomm, which is based in San Diego, California, applied for four separate licences, whereas it should have applied for just one.

Qualcomm had last year paid Rs 4,900 crore for wireless spectrum it won in four of the country’s 22 telecoms zones in the broadband wireless access (BWA) auction conducted by the government. The company needs to get the Internet service provider's licence to launch broadband services.

The US-based chipmaker had earlier approached the Telecom Disputes Settlement & Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) after DoT sent a letter rejecting the company's application for getting wireless broadband service permits, which had then stayed the decision to reject the licence application.

Giving relief to the company, the tribunal's chairman, Justice SB Sinha, passed an interim order that restricted DoT from forfeiting Qualcomm's bid amount and giving broadband wireless access airwaves meant for Qualcomm to any other operator till further orders.

The tribunal also asked the department of telecommunications to reply to the company's petition within two weeks and the next hearing is scheduled for Thursday.

In its petition to the tribunal, Qualcomm said it feared DoT may revoke its licence and allot BWA spectrum to another operator.

Senior advocate CA Sundaram, appearing for Qualcomm, said the company bid for four circles and hence made four nominees according to the terms and conditions of the notice inviting applications or NIA. 

New Delhi, October 18
The country’s fourth largest IT services company HCL Technologies, has posted a 50 per cent increase in its net profit for the first quarter ended September 30, 2011, at Rs 497 crore over the same period last year. The company’s net profit stood at Rs. 331.1 crore in the July-September quarter of 2010, HCL Tech said in a statement Tuesday.

During the period HCL Tech’s revenues rose 25.4 per cent year-on-year to Rs 4,651.3 crore. However, on a sequential basis, the company’s net profit dipped by 2.7 per cent during the reporting quarter. Its net profit stood at Rs. 510.5 crore in Q4, FY 2011. Revenues rose 8.2 per cent on a sequential basis.

Commenting on the results, HCL Technologies vice-chairman & CEO Vineet Nayar said: “We’ve doubled our quarterly revenues in just three years to record a billion dollar quarter despite the tough economic environment.”

HCL Tech signed 12 transformational deals this quarter including multimillion dollar engagements with the EMI Group, Norfolk Southern and a leading life sciences organization.

The company has also announced a 'milestone share programme' for all its employees to mark the billion dollar quarter of July-Sept 2011. Under this programme, all employees who are on the company’s rolls as on October 14, will receive a minimum amount equivalent of 5 shares and a maximum amount equivalent of 10 shares based on years of tenure at HCL. The amount they will receive will be based on the closing price of the company’s shares on the NSE on October 17. The firm has budgeted Rs 25 crore for this initiative.

Nair said, “This ‘Milestone Share Programme’ is a small token of appreciation of our employees who are the reasons for all our success”.

“While the currency markets continue to be volatile, HCL Tech follows a layered hedging programme to cover its foreign currency exposure,” HCL Tech CFO Anil Chanana said.

During the quarter, the company added 9,311 (gross) and 3,474 (net) employees, taking its total headcount to 80,520 by the end of Sept 30, 2011.

Beijing, October 18
China's GDP expanded 9.1 per cent year-on-year in the third quarter of the year, the slowest pace since the third quarter of 2009. The growth rate was down from 9.5 per cent in the second quarter of this year and 9.7 per cent in the first quarter, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Tuesday.

The country's economy expanded 2.3 per cent in the July-September period on a quarterly basis, NBS spokesperson Sheng Laiyun said at a press conference.

According to preliminary statistics, the country's GDP reached 32.07 trillion yuan ($5.01 trillion) in the first nine months, up 9.4 per cent year-on-year, Xinhua quoted Sheng as saying.

He noted the country's economic performance was "generally good" and had developed according to the macro-economic regulation in the first nine months.

Despite the challenges and uncertainties both at home and abroad, there was a great chance that China's economy would maintain its stable and relatively fast growth in the coming period, boosted by a strong growth momentum, Sheng said. He said there was an obvious trend that the country's economic development was shifting from a stimulus policy-driven growth to a self-initiated mode.

Industrial value-added output rose 13.8 per cent year-on-year in September, up from the 13.5 per cent annual growth in August. Fixed asset investment rose 24.9 per cent year-on-year in the first nine months, compared with a 25-per cent gain in the January-August period.

In September, the country's retail sales grew 17.7 per cent from a year earlier after a 17-per cent increase in August. — IANS

New York, October 18
Goldman Sachs Group Inc posted a wider-than-expected loss of $428 million for the third quarter, only its second quarterly loss as a public company, hurt by sharp declines in the value of investment securities and customer trading assets.

Chief executive Lloyd Blankfein cited difficult market conditions and a lack of confidence among investors and corporate clients for the poor results. "Our results were significantly impacted by the environment and we were disappointed to record a loss in the quarter," he said.

Shares of the largest US investment bank by assets were down 2 per cent in premarket trading.

Goldman's loss-driver was its Investing & Lending division, which holds stocks, bonds, loans and private equity assets as long-term investments. The division reported negative revenue of $2.48 billion as the value of those assets dropped sharply. Goldman's stock investment in Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd alone generated more than $1 billion of paper losses.

Goldman was also hurt by big declines in bond trading and investment banking revenue. Its fixed income, currency and commodities client trading business reported $1.73 billion in revenue, a 36 per cent decline from a year earlier. Investment banking revenue dropped 33 per cent to $781 million.

Overall, Goldman's net revenue totaled $3.6 billion, down 60 per cent from a year earlier and down 51 per cent from the 2011 2nd quarter. — Reuters

New Delhi, October 18
The government is hopeful that 5 per cent disinvestment in blue-chip oil company ONGC will be completed by December, although it has advised SAIL to put on hold its share sale for the time being.

"All preparations have been completed and the (ONGC) issue is likely to be completed by the third quarter of 2011," according to a status report prepared by the department of disinvestment in the finance ministry.

The government plans to sell 5 per cent, or 427.77 million shares, through the follow-on public offer (FPO). After the FPO, its stake in ONGC will come down to 69.14 per cent from 74.14 per cent.

Although the government had planned to raise Rs 40,000 crore from disinvestment in the current fiscal, it has not been able to make much headway because of uncertain market conditions. So far, it has raised only Rs 1,144 crore from stake sale in Power Finance Corp (PFC).

Volatile stock market conditions is forcing the government to delay stake sale in public sector units. Global equity markets have been on a downside on fears of a slow recovery in the Eurozone economies as well as the debt crisis in the United States.

Referring to the planned share sale offer of steel maharatna SAIL, the status report said the issue would hit the streets only when market conditions improves.

Through the share sale, the government plans to divest its 5 per cent stake in SAIL, while the company would issue fresh equity of the same proportion under the FPO.

"Timelines for opening the issue would be decided in due course based on improvement in market conditions and advice of BRLMs. At current price it may not be advisable to go for the FPO now," the status report said. — PTI

Mumbai, October 18
Buyers of gold jewellery will have much to choose from during the forthcoming festival season. With prices of the yellow metal slipping from its earlier highs this year, jewellery stores are coming up with various schemes to lure customers.

State-owned Minerals & Metal Trading Corp (MMTC), the country's biggest importer of gold accounting for over one quarter of imports, has kicked off its 'Festival of Gold' in New Delhi, marking the beginning of the trade's marketing efforts for the season.

"After a slow start demand is firming up as the festival season draws near," says Suresh Hundia of the Bombay Bullion Association. "Demand is good in both urban and rural areas this year after a good kharif (autumn harvest) crop," he added.

Naturally jewellers big and small are waiting to score. "There is perennial demand for gold in India. Even with high interest rates and poor business sentiment, people are now purchasing gold jewellery though the quantity may be small," says Maganlal Zaveri, who owns a jewellery store at Mumbai's Opera House, a major centre of the country's jewellery trade.

Titan, the jewellery and watch company of the diversified Tata group, has extended its promotional offer whereby those buying high-value jewellery get up to 20 per cent discount. "The offer has been extended till the end of the festival season and the response is good," said the manager of the biggest Titan showroom in the country located at Versova in suburban Mumbai.

The firm has also introduced the Taj Collection of watches made of gold to coincide with the festive season. These are exquisitely designed pieces of jewellery encrusted with precious stones costing over Rs 1 lakh.

Smaller jewellers are looking at other options to woo buyers. A number of stores in Mumbai have slashed "making charges" which account for 5 to 7 per cent of the jewellery item's price in order to boost sales.

These efforts are expected to take gold sales in India to a record high this year. The World Gold Council which tracks the sale of the precious metal worldwide says India is likely to import more than 1,000 tonnes of the precious metal this year. Last year India imported 958 tonnes of gold.

New Delhi, October 18
The country’s largest telecom operator, Bharti Airtel, has been directed to deposit Rs 25 crore penalty with the department of telecom (DoT) in the matter of alleged violation of licence terms and conditions by the private operator for issuing bulk mobile connections.

The directions came from telecom tribunal TDSAT in an interim order Tuesday. It asked Bharti Airtel to pay 50 per cent of the Rs 50 crore penalty imposed by the telecom ministry in the matter.

Passing the interim order TDSAT said it would be in the interest of justice to direct the company to pay the sum, but underlined it would not prejudice the hearing of a plea filed by Bharti Airtel against imposition of the penalty.

On September 19 DoT had imposed a penalty on the telecom operator after it found that the company had issued 1,847 bulk mobile connections to Falcon Business Resource Pvt Ltd and 741 to Galaxy Rent, violating the terms and conditions of its licence agreement. The penalty was, however, stayed by TDSAT on October 5 till its further order on the plea of Airtel.

DoT had submitted before the tribunal that by issuing SIM cards to the firms, which later transferred them to NRIs and foreigners, Airtel breached the security conditions of the licences. It also submitted that in Airtel doing so the government suffered a loss in adjusted gross revenue (AGR).

However, the charge was opposed by Airtel and it pointed out that the right AGR was paid by the company to the government.