DoT gives basic telephony license to Batata for 7 states
New Delhi— Birla-AT&T-Tata, Batata, has received the letters of intent from the DoT for operating basic telecom services in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Delhi, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
However, the company has not yet decided whether it would acquire licences for all the seven states.
Basic telecom operators are allowed to offer limited, which has made basic telecom services lucrative for the operators.
However, the recent suggestion made by the interministerial group on telecom and IT (GOT IT) headed by the Union finance minister, that the telecom regulatory authority of India rework the interconnect agreement between the basic telecom operators and national long distance service providers and hinted at a revenue share of 5:95 between the two. If Trai reiterates GOT-IT’s recommendations, basic service projects will no longer be lucrative.
Batata is one of the largest cellular service providers in the country. It is operating services in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh. It has applied for basic telecom licences in all these three states. "It makes sense for Batata to provide basic telecom services in these states as it can use a substantial part of the cellular network for basic telecom services," said an industry observer.
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NTT DoCoMo launches world’s first 3G mobile service in Tokyo
Tokyo—The first super-fast next generation wireless service in the world began in Japan today although only with a limited rollout of 3,300 handsets by the nation’s top mobile carrier NTT DoCoMo in the Tokyo area.
The launch of the video-phone, has been delayed for up to a month on account of software glitches and the only models available were an upgraded, speedier version of NTT DoCoMo’s current Net-linking i-mode phones and a computercard model for data transmission.
NTT DoCoMo is hoping 3G phones will become portable wireless computers of the future for cybersurfing, corporate data transmission and electronic commerce.
The recent launch on Wednesday is a test-run to collect feedback on how the phones work, which will allow the company to sift out the problems. The handsets are free. Users have to pay only transmission fees of between 100 yen (80 cents) and 150 yen ($1.25) for three minutes — about 1.8 times the charge for imode phones. The 1,200 video-phones — which allow callers to see each other’s faces on the phone screens — will be gradually handed out over the next month, NTT DoCoMo said.

NTT DoCoMo has not yet announced prices for the 3G phones, but they are expected to be higher than current phones.
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Prasar Bharti invites fresh bids for 7-10 pm slot
New Delhi—Prasar Bharti has invited fresh bids for not only the 7-10 pm slot (occupied by Nine Gold until December) but also for the 10-12:30 midnight prime slot that follows.
This comes in the wake of Kerry Packer’s Nine Gold Broadcasting rejecting Prasar Bharati’s offer to extend its contract with DD-Metro by 18 months,
Doordarshan sources on Wednesday said that while a single bidder can corner all the three hours of prime-time or bid on an hourly basis, no bidder would be allowed to combine programme time on both the prime time slots to capture three hours cumulatively.
The above stipulation —not spelt out in the press advertisements on Wednesday - makes it clear that there would be a battle for the prime slot of 7-10 pm.
DD sources pointed out that following Nine Gold Broadcasting’s insistence that an extension be given for 5-10 years, the Prasar Bharati board had decided to call for re-bidding. It was decided that the floor price for the 7-10 pm slot should remain at Rs 97.5 crore.
The floor price for the 10-11 pm slot has been fixed at Rs 17.50 crore, but there is no floor price on the 11 to 12 midnight slot and the 12 to 12:30 am slot.
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Coke to takeover water business of Thermax Culligan
New Delhi—Coca-Cola is taking over the Pune-based 20-litre packs water business of Thermax Culligan Water Technologies, TCWTL, a 50:50 joint venture between Thermax India and Culligan of US formed four years ago.
However Coke does not intend to buy the brand Good Water, instead Thermax Culligan will withdraw the 20-litre packs brand from the market, which will give Coca-Cola’s bottled water brand, Kinley, the advantage of using the 40,000 -litre per day capacity plant of TCWTL at Taloja near Mumbai.
Under the arrangement, Good Water’s institutional business will be transferred to Kinley, which translates into 1,600 bulk customers of TCWTL in Mumbai and Pune. Good Water has 25 per cent market share in the 20-litre category which includes large business houses and institutions.Coke refused to name the exact figures involved in the deal.
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AIG invests $20m in Zip Telecom
Mumbai--AIG Asian Opportunity Fund General Partners, a private equity arm of the American International Group, AIG, has invested $20 million (approximately Rs 94 crore) in Zip Global Network, the Mauritius-based parent company of payphone operator Zip Telecom.
Of the $20m, Zip Global will invest $17m in Zip Telecom, while the remaining $3m would be invested in other operations. Zip Global has an 88 per cent stake in Zip Telecom. Zip Telecom manages around 13,000 payphones in India on behalf of various basic operators such as Hughes Tele.com, Bharti and state owned telcos MTNL and BSNL.
The current investment is the second round of funding for Zip Telecom. In February 2000 the company had received its first round funding of $10.5m. This included $3.5m from another AIG affiliate, AIG-India Sectoral Equity Trust (AIG-ISET).
According to sources, the $20m equity infusion by AIG amounts to a purchase of an 18 per cent equity stake in Zip Global, which would mean that the company is being valued at around $110m (Rs 517 crore).
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Govt appoints PwC, Wipro Infotech, TCS as auditors
New Delhi-- Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro Infotech, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Arthur Andersen, Mahindra British Telecom, Ernst & Young, KPMG, Deloitte Haskins and S R Batliboi are amongst 16 players appointed by the government as auditors for digital certifying authorities.
Kailash Nath Gupta, controller of certifying authority, CCA, confirmed this.
He said CCA recently appointed the 16 auditors from a list of 200 applicants, adding they would certify the infrastructure status of the prospective CAS in terms of hardware, software, manpower and maintenance capabilities.
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JK looks for strategic tie-ups with foreign firms for pharma arm
New Delhi—The JK Group is talking to foreign pharma majors for a strategic tie-up in the group’s penicillin G manufacturing venture — JK Pharmaceuticals.
Among the pharma majors with whom the Singhanias are negotiating for the proposed partnership in JK Pharma is a US a Portugal-based pharma company.
While admitting the company’s plans for a strategic tie-up in JK Pharmaceuticals, JK company officials refused to disclose the equity stake the JK group was willing to offload in the pharma venture to the strategic partner and any other information.
Currently the Sighanias hold close to 40 per cent stake in JK Pharmaceuticals, while the remaining holding is with the financial institutions and public.
The FIs’ holding in the company has recently gone up following their going in for conversion of their debentures into equity in the company recently as part of a debt restructuring of the company.
For the year ended September 30, 2000, JK Pharma made a loss of Rs 23.1 crore on a total turnover of Rs 72.9 crore. Though pen-G prices started improving of late, the company is still reeling under pressure.
It made a loss of Rs 3.94 crore on a turnover of Rs 15.7 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2001.
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Now Allen Solly womenswear from Indian Rayon
Mumbai-- Indian Rayon is launching its womenswear product-line under the flagship brand name of Allen Solly. The company is gearing up to test-market the brand at a few exclusive and multi-brand oultlets in Bangalore, Karnataka within a few days.
Since western clothes are gradually gaining popularity among young women, Indian Rayon will target the age group between 18 and 24. The new brands will be priced in the range of Rs 700-1,000.
Indian Rayon is the third organised player to enter the womenswear market. The market, with a size of Rs 150 crore (excluding jeans), is dominated by regional brands like A&D, Gurlz and Vizaree. Pantaloon and Indus League are the other established players in the market.
While most established players in India are yet to enter the segment in a big way, most global brands have womneswear brands under their product portfolios.
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Ranbaxy scouts for international research ties
New Delhi—The Rs 1,800-crore Ranbaxy Laboratories is eyeing international research collaborations to further intensify new drug discoveries and drug delivery system researches. This comes soon after Ranbaxy entered into collaborative research projects, the most recent one being in UK with the University of Strathclyde and another with a drug delivery company. The company said more such international collaborations were on the anvil.
As a part of its research and development programme, Ranbaxy has already undertaken five collaborative projects with various national research laboratories in the country.
Said DS Brar managing director and chief operating officer, Ranbaxy Labs, in the company annual report, the company is focussed towards building further expertise and enhancing capabilities in development research to increase abbreviated new drug application filings that would put it on par with the largest generic companies in the US.
Ranbaxy, which is planning to up its research spend from current 4.2 per cent of its sales turnover to six per cent of the targeting sales of $1 billion by 2004 is in the process of setting up an R&D centre in the US, the company said.
In bid to foray into biotech and herbal medicines segment, the pharma major will soon kickstart biotech and phytomedicines research.
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Infosys plans to go in for performance driven salary packages
Bangalore-- Infosys Technologies is planning to put changes in compensation norms for its top management and it is planned that salary packages would be tied to the performance of the company.

Infosys chief financial officer TV Mohandas Pai said that this year, Infosys would look at directly linking compensation of middle and top management to the performance of the company but did not respond to queries regarding salary reductions for Infosys management employees because of the profit warning and global infotech slowdown.

With Infosys itself lowering revenue projections for the current fiscal to around 30 per cent, compensation norms would need to be reworked with changes in percentage of guaranteed compensation.

It is expected that the number of Esops granted to top management also may see changes. The software giant has already set a trend by giving as much as 95 per cent of total compensation package for each of its senior management staff via stock grants a trend in vogue in Silicon Valley, California, US.
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Glaxo launches smoking cessation treatment
Mumbai—Glaxo (India) launched Zyban, its oral smoking cessation treatment in India on Wednesday.

The launch comes on the eve of World Health Organisation’s no-tobacco day on May 31.
Zyban (bupropion hydrochloride), available in a 150 mg sustained release tablet, will cost the smoker Rs 5,000 for a seven-week treatment course, with two dosages a day.

The company expects to target 50,000 patients in its first year and would try to reach a figure of 3 lakh in two to three years, according to senior company officials at Glaxo (India).
Zyban will initially be imported and would attract an import duty of 65 per cent to 70 per cent. The company may eventually consider manufacturing the product locally, if its makes economic sense, company officials said.
The effectiveness of Zyban as an aid to smoking cessation has been confirmed in a number of clinical trials. The product is a novel oral prescription medicine that, unlike other therapies available for smoking cessation, does not contain nicotine, a Glaxo release said.
The success rate in Zyban’s clinical studies is reported to be over 30 per cent, which is the highest (till date) for any smoking cessation treatment by the US FDA.
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GlaxoSmithKline to focus on vaccines, antibiotics
Mumbai-- GlaxoSmithKline India, GSK, has worked out a strategy to focus on the areas of vaccines, antibiotics, respiratory and dermatology in the coming year.

A senior company official confirmed this saying that vaccines are a tremendous opportunity area and the company intended to focus on profitable and newer products as well sell one or two brands during the year.

GSK, with a product portfolio of almost 200 brands, sold five last year.

GSK has been reticent in introducing new products due to the lack of intellectual property rights in the country.
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HDFC in talks with foreign firms for non-life JV…banks for distribution
Kolkata—HDFC, which is planning to enter the field on non-life insurance, is negotiating with three overseas insurance companies to enter into a JV in this segment.

Deepak M Satwalekar, managing director, HDFC Standard Life, said the company expects to finalize the deal in a couple of months.

HDFC's non-life venture will be a separate company where the foreign partner is expected to take 26 per cent of the equity unlike HDFC Standard Life where, Standard Life was allowed take an 18 per cent stake in the life insurance company by IRDA, since it already had a 10 per cent stake in HDFC.

Sources from HDFC said the new venture would focus primarily on personal lines of non-life products.

Most non-life insurance companies primarily focus on large corporate insurance where, they cover mainly manufacturing facilities and offices.

The void lies in the consumer durable insurance, household fire and natural calamities insurance sector.

HDFC Standard Life is also in talks with three public sector banks (PSBs) Indian Bank,(Southern region) Punjab & Sind Bank (Northern region) and UCO Bank (Eastern region)to enhance its reach in the country.

These alliances will sell new products of the company, like the planned range of pension products, by July this year. Plans are also to launch group products including annuity, group annuity and pension products.

HDFC Standard will use three channels of distribution. While its agents will bring in the bulk of the policies, the company has also tied up with a few non-bank corporate agents.

Internet will provide a few value added services along with the ability to purchase policies from its site but the company does not see Internet as a major distribution channel.
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ITC net profit rises 27 percent
Kolkata-- ITC has declared a net profit of Rs 1,006 crore for 2000-01, an increase of 27 per cent from the previous year’s profit of Rs 792 crore beating analysts’ forecasts of a Rs 975 crore net profit.
ITC said pre-tax profit grew by 30 per cent to Rs 1,600.35 crore from Rs 1,226.95 crore the previous year. Gross income increased by nine per cent to Rs 8,816.11 crore from Rs 8,069.37 crore in the previous year. Earnings per share are at Rs 41, against Rs 32.29 last year. On the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the ITC scrip closed at Rs 780, up marginally from Rs 778 on Tuesday.
The board has recommended a 100 per cent dividend (Rs 10 for each equity share) against 75 per cent in the previous year. Total payout towards dividend and dividend tax will be Rs 270.45 crore, against Rs 224.55 crore last time. ITC has a paid-up equity of Rs 245.41 crore.
Sources in the company said that improvement in productivity and cost management added to the upswing in profitability.
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Duphar Interfran-Duphar Pharma demerger stayed
Mumbai—The Supreme Court has granted stay to the scheme of demerger proposed by Duphar Interfran Ltd (DIL) and Duphar Pharma India Ltd (DPIL), that would see majority control in the pharma division going to its foreign collaborator Solvay BV of Belgium, after the division has been demerged into a separate company. The Supreme Court issued the stay following a special leave petition filed by Dr Renuka Datla of Hyderabad.
Dr Datla contends that Mr Vasanth Kumar and Solvay violated the contractual obligations under agreements dated February 15, 1963 and February 7, 1986 according to which, Mr Vasanth Kumar of DIL was obliged to offer his shares in DPIL to Dr Renuka Datla and Dr Vijay Kumar (husband of Dr Renuka Datla and Vasanth’s elder brother) of Biological E Ltd, Hyderabad.

It is the contention of Dr Datla and Dr Vijay Kumar that they are entitled for the first right of refusal from Mr Vasanth Kumar as against his shares in DPIL, before he transfers them to any other outsider.
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Piaggio Greaves increases focus on cargo segment in three-wheelers
Mumbai—Piaggio Greaves Vehicles Ltd (PGVL), a 51:49 joint venture between Italian auto major Piaggio and Greaves Ltd, is launching three-wheeler vehicles with larger payloads in the cargo segment. This is part of the company’s efforts to service the one tonne and below segment.
According to Ravi Chopra , PGVL managing director, very shortly the company will be launching the half-tonne payload three-wheeler followed by the three-fourth tonne and then one tonne four-wheeler.
He said that this was part of the company’s efforts to focus on the cargo segment where it was the market leader in India with a 45 per cent market share and the cargo segment is growing at a faster pace than the passenger vehicle segment for three-wheelers.

PGVL has plans for introducing LNG/CNG three-wheelers also at an appropriate time, depending on the available infrastructure, he added.
The company is in the process of increasing capacity at its Baramati plant, near Pune in Maharashtra. The capacity will be increased to 50,000 vehicles per annum in two years from 26,400 vehicles per annum now. The company had already invested Rs 65 crore on expansion and would put in incremental investment as and when required.
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Bharti group; consolidating
Mumbai—The Bharti Group is considering consolidating all its cellular ventures under one umbrella and brand name, Airtel. Though a timeframe has not been for this, analysts say it will be within the next six months, given the company’s proposed listing and the huge benefits that will accrue to the company due to consolidation.

This will help the group get a clearer structure and focus. The company also wants to increase its holdings in each of these ventures to 100 per cent, say senior officials of the company.
Bharati Group already has a 100 per cent holding in Bharati Telenet Ltd, one of the three cellular companies it operates in the country to provide cellular service. The Group operates mobile services in four circles through three different companies, namely Bharati Cellular (Delhi), Bharti Mobile (AP and Karnataka) and Bharti Telenet Ltd (Himachal Pradesh). In each of these entities, Bharti Televentures Ltd, the holding company, has holdings ranging form 53 per cent (BCL) to 100 per cent (BTNL). In BML it holds 74 per cent while Telia holds the rest. In BCL, BTVL and New York Life hold 44 per cent and 3 per cent respectively.
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Balco halfway through to complete energisation of frozen potlines
Mumbai—The energisation of frozen potlines of the aluminium smelters at Balco has reached the halfway mark according to officials at the company’s Korba plant.
But for the smelter to reach its rated capacity of 1 lakh tonne per annum it is estimated that it will take at least four months.

According to industry experts, the technology for reviving pots is not available in India, and that foreign expertise is required. The smelter has eight lines of 51 pots each, which totals to 408 pots. The tapping of metal has already begun, the official said.
The management of Balco has adopted a two-pronged approach including hiring of experts to bring plant operations back to normalcy and as part of the strategy, the company is also trying innovative ideas to speed up the process, though details are unknown.
Balco is the third largest producer of aluminium in the country and production here came to a halt due to a 67-day long labour agitation following the sale of 51 per cent stake in Balco by the government to Sterlite Industries.
Union called off the strike recently and resumed work on May 8.
According to industry observers the cost of bringing Balco back to full capacity will be around Rs 250 to Rs 300 crore.
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Syndicate Bank revamps operational structure
Mumbai—After its recent voluntary retirement scheme Syndicate Bank has revamped its four-tier operational structure and spruced it to a three-tier structure.

In addition the bank is also going in for Centralised Banking Solution (CBS) on the advice of its information technology consultants, KPMG. The earlier four-tier structure comprised of the central head-office, followed by the zonal-offices, regional-offices and branches. Under the new structure, regional offices have been eliminated in nearly 10 places including cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Thiruvantapuram, and Ahmedabad.

Said a senior manager at Syndicate Bank, it did not make sense to have a regional and zonal office in the same area, therefore, it was decided to eliminate regional offices in areas where zonal offices are present. This operational restructuring is a part of the bank’s overall gameplan.

Through this the bank wants to free employees and redeploy them which it believes will increase efficiency, improve service levels and hasten the decision making process. The bank is trying to leverage its 20 million-customer base for major retail initiatives. Out of the total 265 branches, around 45 will be dedicated only to corporate finance, while the others will concentrate on the retail segment.
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Gujarat Ambuja to enter health sector
Kolkata--Cement major Gujarat Ambuja Group, is making its entry into the health sector with the setting up of a mother-child speciality hospital here.
Harshavardhan Neotia, the director of Gujarat Ambuja Cements, said the mother-child care hospital in Kolkata should be open by August this year.
He however said that this did not mean that the group's future investments would be in the health sector and added that housing would continue to be a thrust sector for the group.

Expressing confidence about the growth prospects in the sector he said there is lot of scope as housing infrastructure is, "woefully inadequate" in the country.
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