New Delhi, October 19
The central government on Wednesday asked the Haryana government to take steps to ensure that the strike at the Manesar plant of Maruti Suzuki India ends soon and ruled out making a direct intervention.

"The state government has the jurisdiction. They have to act, not the central government," Labour Minister Mallikarju Kharge told reporters, a day after negotiations between workers and the company’s management broke down.

Replying to questions on the central government's role in ending the strike at the plant of the country's largest car maker that entered into 13th day today, the Minister said the responsibility to implement the labour laws rests with the state government.

"Labour department, according to Constitution, is in the concurrent list...which means both the Centre and state governments can enact laws. Whatever law we enact, even their implementation is done by the state government," he said on the sidelines of a function here.

The workers have been on strike, demanding reinstatement of about 1,200 casual workers. They are also demanding that the 44 permanent workers, who were suspended after a settlement agreement signed on October 1 to end a 33-day-long standoff, are taken back.

Workers at Suzuki Powertrain India Ltd and Suzuki Motorcycle India Pvt Ltd have also gone on strike in support of their colleagues at Maruti Suzuki 's Manesar unit. — PTI

New Delhi, October 19
Tata Teleservices Ltd, an arm of the Tata group, on Wednesday unveiled an integrated, technology agnostic business approach where it said all Tata Indicom customers will be migrated to its Tata Docomo brand from Thursday.

According to the new strategy Tata Indicom’s CDMA, GSM, 3G and Photon platforms will now be available under the unified brand Tata Docomo, which makes an entry into the CDMA space with this move, senior company officials said here.

Tata Teleservices has adopted a future-facing strategic approach to ring in the next growth wave in the company, officials said while adding it will now leverage its wide range of products and services and reach out to customers with one common brand, Tata Docomo. The officials said Tata Tele planned significant investments to upgrade its CDMA network to widen its existing footprint.

The company also unveiled the Photon Max on Tata Docomo, the latest addition to its Photon family of high-speed mobile broadband access products on the CDMA platform, which works on the REV.B platform and offers “extremely fast surfing speeds’’.

“This marks the company’s evolution from being just an access provider to a multiplatform telecom applications and solutions organization, with one single brand, Tata Docomo”, Deepak Gulati, executive president, mobility business, Tata Teleservices, said. 

New Delhi, October 19
Even as public sector telecom utility Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd restored connectivity at all its points of interconnection (POI) in the Punjab circle, it took similar action of disconnecting private operators in the Maharashtra and Goa circles.

BSNL while connecting the private operator’s subscribers in Punjab yesterday disconnected their subscribers in Maharashtra as a result of the outstanding dues of these operators towards the state-run operator.

The disconnection in Maharashtra has come despite orders by the Telecom Disputes Settlement & Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) instructing BSNL to act otherwise, private operator’s umbrella body COAI said.

On Tuesday BSNL restored partial interconnectivity in Punjab following the directive of the telecom sector regulatorthe Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), which instructed BSNL to immediately restore connectivity to private operators at all POIs in the Punjab circle.

BSNL has been asked to restore connectivity at all POI’s in Punjab circle and report compliance by Friday. This has been done to ensure compliance of terms and conditions of basic telephone and unified access service licences, which emphasize effective interconnection between service providers and protection of consumer interest.

While welcoming the TRAI directive in Punjab, COAI criticized the BSNL for taking action to disconnect private operator’s subscribers in Maharashtra and Goa circles. “BSNL has once again defied the ruling of the appellate tribunal and disconnected PoIs of the private operators in the Maharashtra and Goa circle on Friday, October 14, claiming nonpayment of intracircle carriage charges,” COAI said.

The private operators led by the COAI have been approaching and urging BSNL to restore connectivity at all points of interconnection. However, BSNL has taken a view that the TDSAT ruling was applicable only to Tata Teleservices and Reliance Communications, the two appellants before the tribunal.

The association, on the other hand is of the view that the order was applicable to all the private operators.

Subscribers of private operators in Haryana and Punjab circles had been facing problems of connectivity.

San Francisco, October 19
Apple Inc stunned Wall Street by reporting results that missed expectations for the first time in years, blaming rumors of the new iPhone for hurting demand in the September quarter. Tim Cook, Apple's new CEO fielded questions on Apple's cash pile of over $81 billion, saying the money provided flexibility for acquisitions and investing in the supply chain. Shares of Apple fell 7% in extended trading on Tuesday, wiping some $27 billion off the value of the world's largest technology company.

It was Apple's first quarterly earnings under CEO Tim Cook, who took over from Steve Jobs in August at a critical juncture.— Reuters

Chandigarh, October 19
With an objective of honing entrepreneurial skills among women of the northern region, global investment bank Goldman Sachs is now offering scholarships to budding women entrepreneurs from this region. The US based investment bank has tied up with the Indian School of Business (ISB) to train 100 women in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.

The programme is being launched in the region now, though it has been functional in other parts of the country for the past three years. As many as 350 entrepreneurs have already received classroom training and mentoring support as part of this programme in parts of South India.

Talking to The Tribune here on Wednesday, Geetha Krishnan, head of the programme at ISB, Hyderabad, said the institute was specifically looking at women running small and medium enterprises for offering this scholarship.

“This programme, called 10,000 Women, was launched in year 2008 by Goldman Sachs along with the the Indian School of Business in order to provide management and business skills to women in underdeveloped regions across the world. As part of this global initiative it was decided that a thousand women would be trained across India under this programme to enable them to only improve their economic conditions but bring about social change by hiring more women to work for them,” he said.

Krishnan said ISB was looking at women whose annual turnover falls within the bracket of Rs 5 lakh to Rs 75 lakh. “We’re seeking the help of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), some venture capitalists and industry bodies to identify candidates. The selected candidates will be put through a three-month training module that will include three weeks of classroom training to help them understand and use management tools for profit making and business expansion. Besides, these candidates will also be provided with initial mentoring support, in the cities where they are running their businesses,” he added.

Krishnan said the programme would soon be launched in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, where ISB would identify and train women entrepreneurs. 

New Delhi, October 19
Drug maker Lupin today said it has received final approval from the United States health regulator to market a generic version of UCB's Keppra Oral Solution, an anti-epilepsy drug, in the American market.

The company’s subsidiary, Lupin Pharmaceuticals Inc, has received final approval for its Levetiracetam Oral Solution in strength of 100mg/ml from US Food & Drug Administration (FDA), Lupin said in a statement. Commercial shipment of the product shall commence shortly," it added.

According to IMS Health sales data for the twelve months ended June 2011, Keppra Oral Solution 100 mg/mL had annual sales of nearly $63 million in the US market.

Last month the firm had received the FDA's nod to sell a generic version of UCB's Keppra XR tablets. — PTI

Srinagar, October 19
The Reserve Bank of India has granted a licence to Jammu & Kashmir State Cooperative Bank to conduct business activities in any part of the country, an official spokesperson of the state government said on Wednesday.

Minister of State for Cooperatives, Finance & Planning Manohar Lal Sharma announced the grant of licence by the RBI at a high-level meeting of bank officers here yesterday, according to the spokesperson.

"It’s a matter of pride for the state to get the (RBI) licence for a public sector bank," Sharma said, expressing hope that the bank will be able to expand its activities into other parts of the country besides Jammu & Kashmir. — PTI

New York City, October 19
Bank of America, he biggest US bank in terms of deposits, said it swung back into profit in the third quarter, following a series of losses, as it sold off non-core assets and built up its balance sheet.

Bank of America reported net income of $6.2 billion for the July-September period, compared with a net loss of $7.3 billion in the year-ago period. Earnings per share totaled 56 cents for the third quarter, more than double the 20 cents expected by analysts.

Revenue rose 6% from the year-ago period, to $28.7 billion, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank said in a quarterly earnings statement.

BankAm noted several factors for the improvement in the quarter, including a $4.5 billion pretax positive adjustment on structured liabilities and a pretax gain of $3.6 billion from the sale of shares of China Construction Bank. — AFP