BSNL floats global tender for latest hi-speed broadband technology
New Delhi: Netizens will soon be able to access broadband connections at speeds greater than one gigabit per second as Bharat Sanchar Nigam has floated a global tender for supply of the latest in broadband technology — Gigabit-capable Passive Optical Network (GPON).

GPON is an optical fibre cable access technology for delivering high-capacity broadband service, which not only gives carriers plenty of capacity to deploy IP video services, but also leaves room for services such as high definition television.

The technology promises to offer 100 times more speed. BSNL, initially, plans to roll out one lakh lines. BSNL's move has taken market watchers by surprise as it was not expected to get into this technology since its network is copper based and GPON is based on optic fibre cables.

Experts were expecting private operators such as Reliance Infocomm and Bharti to be the first movers in this space. Worldwide the deployment of this technology is at its initial stages.
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Shell not to sell Hazira LNG terminal
New Delhi: Royal Dutch/Shell has denied reports in the media that that its US$600mn Hazira liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal in Gujarat will be sold off. Marc den Hartog the company's India director for gas and power said the company had no plans to sell off the plant that was fully operational. He said, "The LNG terminal is, and remains, a viable investment for Shell and while we welcome equity participation based on value addition, we are not interested in a sell-out."

Shell, which began operating India's second LNG terminal in April 2005, has till now imported only three cargoes of LNG, as it was unable to find customers willing to pay the market price of US$8-9 per million British thermal unit (mBtu). The market price was roughly double the cost at which Petronet LNG, India's largest LNG importer, was selling re-gasified LNG from its Dahej terminal in Gujarat.
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CESC wants to hike average power tariff by 3.80 pc
Kolkata: CESC, the RPG Group power utility company is seeking a hike of 3.8 per cent in average power tariff in 2006-07 over 2005-06. The company is projecting revenue for the next financial year at the revised tariff at Rs2,400.09 crore. The company had submitted its proposal before the West Bengal Electricity Regulatory Commission to consider the proposal to increase the tariff by average of 14 paise per unit to Rs3.95 from current level of Rs3.81.

In 2004-05 CESC earned a profit before tax of Rs160 crore and paid a dividend after a gap of seven years.
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Man Industries gets Rs.163 crore order from GAIL
Chennai: Man Industries (India), the flagship company of the Man Group, UK has received an order worth Rs163 crore from GAIL for supplying 'saw pipes' for its Rs403 crore DUPL Project. Man Industry is expecting another major order from GAIL for the same project, the company said.

With the present order, Man Industry has a total outstanding order book position of Rs1,050 crore. Man Industries is a leading manufacturer of large-diameter saw-line pipes for high and medium pressure applications such as oil and gas, petrochemical and water transportation, anti-corrosion coating systems and aluminium extrusion products.
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ABB India receives order from ONGC
Mumbai: Power and automation company, ABB has received a turnkey order worth Rs430 crore to provide an enterprise wide supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system for ONGC's production and drilling facilities.

The company said that the project entails site survey, system design, engineering, supply, installation and commissioning of an integrated three-tier SCADA system and is inclusive of a six-year post warranty annual maintenance services contract.

This system will enable ONGC to integrate its basins, plants, forward base and other assets to the corporate data centre, facilitating 'anytime-anywhere' access to data and real-time performance management.
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Zenith Birla to issue fresh equity to raise Rs.125 crore
Mumbai: Yash Birla group company, Zenith Birla India, plans to issue fresh equity to raise up to Rs125 crore. Zenith is a multifunctional organisation with a turnover of US$100mn per year, manufacturing a wide range of products like steel pipes, dyestuff inter-mediates, synthetic textile yarns and steel cutting tools.
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TurboTech gets investment from World Bank arm
Bangalore: Bangalore-based TurboTech Precision Engineering, which designs and manufactures micro-turbines, employing aerospace design techniques has received an equity investment of Rs2.7 crore from the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank. The investment will enhance the production and services capabilities of TurboTech.

IFC officials said that TurboTech has developed a new technology that addresses the currently underserved market for small-scale co-generation applications.

The Industrial Development of Bank of India holds a 23 per cent stake in Turbo Tech, while Turbocam India, a subsidiary of the privately held US engineering company Turbocam, 10 per cent. The promoters' family own 58 per cent.
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Jagson Airlines to start national operations
New Delhi: Jagson Airlines has announced the acquisition of 19 Airbus aircraft, and also the launch of its national operations by April. At present the airline operates 12-seater flights to Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Rajasthan. The airline said it would acquire A-321s.

Jagson Airlines president and CEO, Uttam Kumar Bose said, "Six aircrafts would be leased to start up the flights with an initial investment of Rs 250 crore".
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GR Cables receives Rs.5.65 crore order from MTNL
Mumbai: GR Cables, a telecom and power cables manufacturer, has received a Rs5.65 crore order from Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) for supplying cables. The order for polythene-insulated jelly filled (PIJF) cables is to be completed in the next two quarters, the company informed the BSE.
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JB Chem in pact with Taro Pharma
Mumbai: JB Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals (JBCPL) has signed a pact with Nasdaq-listed Taro Pharmaceutical Industries and its affiliate New York-based Hawthorne, for joint development of several products for the US market.

The domestic pharma company did not disclose the details of the agreement.

JB Chemicals chairman and managing director, J B Mody said, "This relationship brings together the strengths of the two companies and accelerates JBCPL's ability to become a serious generic player in the US and other markets."
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Satyam gets into online medical solutions
Mumbai: Satyam Computer Services plans to provide online patient information management system to a non-profit organisation, Byrraju Foundation.

The solution, which is a web-enabled healthcare platform built on Oracle's Healthcare Transaction Base (Oracle-HTB), enables physicians to access the medical records of patients in remote villages and provide medical consultation, without the doctor having to physically travel to these villages.

The solution is initially being deployed in 150 villages where Byrraju is presently working. Oracle has provided the software free of cost to it.
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Government to collect Rs.1,400 crore from Maruti stake sale
New Delhi: The Central government is likely to get more than Rs1,400 crore from the sale of its eight per cent residual stake in Maruti Udyog.

"The empowered Group of Ministers has fixed the floor price at Rs620 a share. The last date for submission of bids is January 11," a senior finance ministry official said.

The bids would be opened on January 12.

The sale is open only for public sector financial institutions and as many as 36 of them have submitted their Expression of Interest (EoI).

"All eligible public sector banks and insurance companies apart from financial institutions like Exim Bank and Sidbi have submitted the Expression of Interest" officials added.

As the floor price has been kept at a substantial discount to the market price, the government expects aggressive bidding, as the offer gives the financial institutions a chance to acquire a substantial holding in a well performing company.

The government has reserved the right of not selling the entire eight per cent shares of Maruti if the bids are not to its liking, irrespective of whether they are above the floor price.
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GSM operators net huge subscribers in Dec.
New Delhi: GSM-based cellular operators have added 32 lakh subscribers in December 2005, the highest since the starting of the service. The fresh addition takes the total user base to 5.85 crore.

The addition in December is 38 per cent higher than the growth recorded in November, which month recorded 23 lakh subscribers, and is also 225 per cent higher than the subscriber base of the same period a year ago.

The addition of 32 lakh users is also double the average subscriber growth recorded in the previous 11 months of the calendar year 2005. The average user addition between January- November was 16 lakh users, industry association COAI said on Thursday in a statement.

Bharti Cellular added 9.2 lakh new users in December taking its total subscriber base to 1.63 crore and also capturing a market share of 27.91 per cent.

BSNL stood second to Bharti in total number of subscribers, but added the maximum number of subscribers (10 lakh) taking its user base to 1.43 crore. Hutch came in third at 1.14 crore users with the addition of 7.3 lakh subscribers.

While BSNL's market share was 24.44 per cent that of Hutch was 19.50 per cent.

Idea also added 2.6 lakh new users while its subscriber base touched 64 lakh and market share at 11.06 per cent.
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LogicaCMG wins telecom contract
Bangalore: LogicaCMG has won a contract from PT Natrindo Telpon Seluler (NTS), a 3G and GSM1800 operator in Indonesia, to provide telecom products and solutions to enhance mobile data and charging services of NTS' mobile networks. This is the largest contract won by the company from the Asia Pacific region. The company did not reveal the value of the deal.

The four-year contract requires designing, building and operating the Service Platform Network (SPN) as well as IT and Business Support Systems (BSS). LogicaCMG will also deliver Programme Management, System Integration and Managed Services.

The SPN portfolio includes LogicaCMG's IP-based next generation managing architecture and prepaid charging solution comprising short messaging service Centre (SMSC), multimedia messaging service centre (MMSCC), wireless service broker (WSB) and pre-delivery service agent (PSA).
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HP to offer MS based solutions
Bangalore: Hewlett-Packard has enhanced its enterprise portfolio with Microsoft-based solutions in order to offer Indian customers "greater flexibility, scalability and better performance than that available from competing systems".

The company will now deploy Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and Microsoft Biz Talk Server 2006 on HP's high-end 64-bit enterprise computing space, the company said.

"This new offering is expected to further consolidate HP's leadership position in large business transformation projects in the country," the company said.
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