MSEB cancels PPA with DPC
Mumbai—The Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) while cancelling the power purchase agreement, PPA, with the Dabhol Power Company and has slapped a legal notice on it.

MSEB will file a case with the state electricity regulatory commission on Friday.
In a retaliatory move to DPC's May 19 preliminary termination notice, MSEB has now questioned the legal validity of the entire power purchase agreement, PPA, state government sources said.
The legal notice for cancellation of the PPA comes in the wake of DPC's failure to achieve 100 per cent peak load capacity in 180 minutes from a cold start. In its PPA the Dabhol Power Company claimed to be able to achieve 100 percent peak capacity within 180 minutes of a cold start.
In recent times though in several letters to MSEB and the state government, DPC has admitted that the multinational cannot "ramp up" generation as it is a base-load power station and not a peak one.
Sources said such a confession amounts to material misrepresentation of facts, which in this case has been knowingly committed by DPC.
On May 19, DPC had issued a PTN to MSEB, saying that after months of working with the loss-making board, the state government and the centre to find solutions, "it was apparent that the first two parties are unwilling to honour their off-take commitments for the entire 2,184-mw power station".
Meanwhile, MSEB says it would soon slap another Rs 400-crore penalty on DPC for the US energy major's failure to generate power on February 12 and March 13 as per MSEB's demand in stipulated time of three hours, sources said.
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MERC takes MSEB to task
Mumbai--The Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) has taken the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) to task for not having provided documents related to the Dabhol Power Company (DPC) to Prayas, an NGO, despite being ordered to do so in January.

P Subrahmanyam, chairman of MERC, said, "In the wake of the January order by the commission and in the light of the Right of Information Act passed by the Maharashtra legislature, all documents apart from those listed by the government have to be made available to the public. Even the Electricity Regulatory Commission Act states that the such commissions (like MERC) will act in a transparent manner. Hence we said that all the documents should be provided to Prayas."

Further the commission rapped MSEB for not being able to explain, with legal opinion, how it could withhold the documents despite the MERC ruling and has given the board a month to provide all documents to Prayas as well as itself, related to the DPC project.
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Reliance Info issues deep discount bonds to RIL
Mumbai—In what constitutes the first round of financing by Reliance Industries of the massive Rs 25,000-crore Reliance Infocom venture, the latter has issued Rs 16,000 crore deep discount bonds to Reliance Industries, RIL.

RIL has picked up 6.40 lakh deep discount bonds of Reliance Infocom with a maturity value of Rs 1,00,000 each. The interest income on the bonds will work out to just under 14 per cent per annum and will be redeemed after the expiry of five years from the date of allotment.
Reliance Infocom is spearheading Reliance's entry into information technology, broadband services and telecom.
The Reliance Infocom venture is slated to be implemented over four years. The project is being financed on a debt:equity ratio of 2:1.
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Colour-Chem net slips 58 percent in 2001
Mumbai—Colour-Chem has shown a drop of 57.55 per cent in net profit at Rs 8.97 crore for fiscal year ended March 31, 2001, against Rs 21.15 crore in the previous year.

The total income for the period stood at Rs 330.15 crore as against Rs 313.93 crore in 1999-2000,
The board of directors has recommended a 40 per cent dividend for the year 2000-01, the company said in a release.
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Lucent chooses Asia Cybernet for wireless applications
New Delhi—Lecent Technologies has chosen a Delhi-based company - Asia Cybernet - to develop mobile Internet applications for service providers in the Asia-Pacific region.
As part of this alliance, Asia Cybernet will create customised local content and identify applications which will be marketed by Lucent.
Under the agreement ACL can test its applications at Lucent’s technical labs located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
This development comes as a boon for ACL, which, in the wake of the tech meltdown, has been seeking fund managers in vain.
The company received $2 million in venture funding from Hong Kong-based Vertical Asia, which holds a 49 per cent stake in the company.
Vertical Asia owns 13 vertical portals of diverse range in China and the US.
Asia CyberNet has developed a wireless instant messenger which is both Web and wireless application protocol-enabled and a wireless e-mail application -- both of which work across any device, network or protocol.
Lucent considered a number of other application providers, such as Unimobile, ITfinity and CellNext in India, before picking on ACL.
Nokia is also studying ACL’s applications and could enter into a similar deal.
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Dell slashes prices
Austin—The tech meltdown in the US may benefit someone after all. Dell Computer has declared a price war in a bid to increase market share. The president of the company James Vanderslice said the company might even make an acquisition with its huge cash reserves.
Vanderslice, in a press briefing at company offices here, said Dell, already the world's No 1 computer-maker, intended to take advantage of tumbling component prices in a slow economy to get a bigger bite of the computer market and knock out some of the competition.
He said component prices, pressured by falling demand, were dropping by about 1 per cent a week, putting Dell and its direct sales model in the catbird seat as it in a position to pass falling prices along to customers within three days, versus as much as 60 days for competitors, because it keeps virtually no inventory, Vanderslice said.
Compaq Computer has traditionally been the world's top server-maker, but Dell claimed earlier this month it had taken the lead in the US market on a units-shipped basis.
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Firestone; pariah for car makers?
Detroit—After Ford Motor decided to unilaterally replace 13 million Firestone Wilderness AT tires, General Motors, the world's largest automaker, said it also plans to stop using Firestone tires on certain models this summer and instead go with other brands made by Bridgestone/Firestone's parent company.
Officials at General Motors said it had been contemplating such an action for some time and the timing was entirely coincidental.
Another car maker Nissan Motor also said it will drop Firestones from its retooled Altima sedan, though the automaker said the move was made because its new mid-sized car needs tires not available from Bridgestone/Firestone, the embattled division of Tokyo-based Bridgestone.
GM spokesman Terry Rhadigan said that this was by no means knee-jerk reaction it was simply that the company listened to its customers were concerned about Firestone.
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Sony, Discovery and Aaj Tak may get into alliance
New Delhi—Sony Entertainment Television, Discovery and Aaj Tak may be planning an alliance. If the grand alliance plan succeeds, these three channels could cover a huge 25-30 million out of a total of 35 million cable & satellite homes in the country.
Kunal Daspupta, CEO, Sony confirmed that the company was interested in the alliance and such a tie-up was in the making but it was now up to Discovery and Aaj Tak join this bouquet.

Discovery Channel also confirmed Sony had approached it for creating a bundled channel bouquet and that the proposal was attractive but did not confirm whether such a tie-up had not been put into place as yet saying that the channel was open for talks with all major channels.
However, Amitabh Srivastav, head of distribution, Aaj Tak, neither confirmed nor denied such a develpoment.
G Krishnan, executive director, Aaj Tak was not available for comment as he is currently out of the country.
Industry observers and sources from the cable distribution business term the tie-up plans as a sigificant development. Sources said that this alliance is a clear indicator that the stand-alone channels want a larger pie in the cable TV arena.
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Another open offer comes from Royal Philips
Mumbai—Royal Philips Electronics NV, Netherlands, parent company of Punjab Anand Lamps (PALI) is making an open offer to purchase the balance 17.37 per cent outstanding equity shares of PALI from the existing shareholders to increase its stake beyond 90 per cent and subsequently delist the company.
The open offer is scheduled to commence from June 29, ‘01 and will close on July 28, ‘01. The open offer is being managed by DSP Merrill Lynch.
Currently, Dutch company holds a 51 per cent stake in PALI, while Philips India holds another 23.5 per cent.

PALI supplies lighting products to Philips India.
The stock price of PALI jumped to Rs 92.4 on Thursday from Rs 86.1 the previous day after the announcement. The stock had been moving in the region of Rs 80-Rs 94 last month.
The company recorded a turnover of Rs 132.72 crore for the year ended December ‘00 against Rs 103.39 crore last year while the net profit was placed at Rs 14.53 crore against Rs 11.83 crore in the previous year.
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Reliance hikes term contract for crude from Venezuelan co
Mumbai—Reliance Petroleum is increasing its term contract for Venezuelan crude oil from the existing 26 m barrels a year to 36 m barrels. The crude will be sourced from the Venezuelan national oil company Petroleos de Venezuela.
The two companies are also planning a joint venture for a bunkering in the Middle East to cater to the shipping traffic in the region.
The 27-mt Reliance refinery at Jamnagar sources nearly 70 per cent of its crude oil through long-term agreements. Among the company’s major suppliers are the National Iranian Oil Co, Kuwait Petroleum, and Saudi Aramco.
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New ‘C’ class model launched by Mercedes-Benz
Kolkata—Mercedes-Benz India has launched its new 'C' class model segment in India targeting the price-sensitive group and young customers.
Sanjiv Sahajwala, general manager, MBIL, said at the launch here on Wednesday said that MBIL now had a "highly attractive product portfolio of S, E and C class and can offer the widest choice to its customers in the luxury segments between Rs 20 and Rs 60 lakh.
The new C class comes with C-180 petrol version and C-200 diesel version.

The ex-show room price of the 'C' class for the introductory model C-180 classic line would be Rs 20,80,920. The diesel version is priced at Rs 23,93,798.
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Unviable gas project leads to a Rs 25 crore loss for Oil India
New Delhi-- Oil India has suffered a loss of Rs 25.79 crore in the setting up of a project for exploration of gas reserves in Rajasthan.

This was revealed by the Comptroller and Auditor General, CAG, of India.

The CAG’s office in its latest report has stated that the company invested Rs 96.29 crore for exploiting discovered gas reserves in Rajasthan without adequately ascertaining the viability of the investment and without informing the board of directors/government of India about its full implications.
The project earned a small revenue of Rs 20.66 crore as against the cost of production of Rs 46.45 crore, thus, causing a loss of Rs 25.79 crore to the company.
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Global Weighing launching products in India
Bangalore—Part of the DM 700-million Sartorius Group of Germany Global Weighing India is planning to launch industrial weighing products in Indian.
Klaus Thornagel, marketing director, Global Weighing (industrial weighing) said the company will initially launch ultra-flat pan cake technology (container) weighing and weighbridge load cells weighing machines for any environmental conditions.
Ultra-flat pan cake solution, a container to weigh 100-tonne capacity for level by weight, would be targeted at the food pharma industries, he added.
On the other hand, weighbridge load cells will be tailored to truck scale solutions with standard tools on board weighing.
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ANZ looks for local ally to form subsidiary
New Delhi-- After the government rejected its proposal to set up an investment banking subsidiary by vesting 25 per cent stake with an employees’ trust, the Australia & New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ), Australia.

Sources in the group said that a resident partner would be finalised within a month and a fresh application submitted to the government subsequently.

He said that some Indian companies are interested in picking up a 25 per cent stake in the new arm, ANZ Capital Ltd.

The FIPB for the second time last Thursday rejected ANZ’s proposal for setting up a subsidiary in which 25 per cent equity would be held by an employees welfare trust .

The first application to this effect was rejected in April this year. The FIPB advised the company that it may instead offer 25 per cent to the employees as employees stock options. However, the company stuck to its original plan.

The proposal was rejected since investment by resident employees’ welfare trust is not deemed as resident equity participation under the existing non-banking finance companies (NBFC) guidelines.
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Wipro Infotech moves to success fee-driven model
Bangalore-- Wipro Infotech, the domestic software services and solutions arm of Wipro Ltd., is transforming itself to be among the few Indian software companies to offer a success fee driven business model.

In a success fee model, pricing for a project is calculated on the value generated for the customer instead of the effort-based pricing normally done by the Indian software companies.

In a fixed price fixed time model, the value created for the customer is more than actually charged, but in a success fee model the software company fixes a price on the value created for the customer and adds a premium on the time factor, which is considerably reduced said Dr Anurag Srivastava, group general manager, Knowledge MGMT Group, Wipro Infotech.

The time factor is reduced because the software company typically delves into its repository of experience of implementing similar projects earlier.

For a success fee model to work in an organisation, a sound knowledge management practice needs to be in place which captures the experience and competency of the employees and makes it available across the organisation for others.
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Tech meltdown sees employees exodus from Satyam Infoway
Mumbai--Satyam Infoway (Sify), has seen an exodus of employees in the last three months as thirty three employees have left it in the period.

With the company about to conduct a performance appraisal of its employees this month the number may rise.

The outgoing personnel include 9 general managers, of which two headed the finance and the marketing departments.

Seven employees from the erstwhile Indiaworld Communications which merged with Satyam Infoway have also quit. Satyam Infoway has a stake of 24.5 per cent in Indiaworld Communications.

Satyam Infoway has also slashed its annual budget downwards from around Rs 3 crore in the previous year.

Senior officials say under Rs 10 lakh has been allocated for the next couple of months and also said the company would be now be mainly concentrating on channel alliances with other portals.
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LG, Samsung in race for cricket sponsorship
New Delhi-- Indian cricket sponsorship rights have become hot property. A number of players are now in the fray to pick up the rights.

In the first innings are consumer electronics companies like LG Electronics and Samsung India.

Pepsi and Britannia are also among the key contenders.

When contacted, Britannia however maintained that it was not interested in cricket team sponsorship.

A Samsung official admitted that IMG, which bagged the contract for sponsorship of the Indian cricket team, has been in touch with the company but no decision has been taken as yet.

LG’s deputy general manager, Vijay Narayanan, said that the company is keen to sponsor the cricket team and LG is negotiating the deal as associating the brand with the Indian cricket team has immense possibilities for the company.

IMG expects to sell the rights at the rate of Rs 60 lakh per Test and Rs 50 lakh per One-Day Test.

To sponsor the team for the next three years beginning July, a company or brand will need to shell out between Rs 70-80 crore.

The benefits for the Indian cricket team sponsor include: the company\brand logo on the left chest pocket of all the players as well as on uniforms for practice sessions, travel bags etc.

Among other benefits, the sponsor could use between 3 and 6 members of the team to advertise the sponsorship of the team.
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