Hughes-Tata proposed JV called off
New Delhi: Hughes Network Systems (HNS) and Tata Industries Ltd (TIL) have called off their proposed joint venture for providing basic telephone services in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.

Hughes and the Tatas had signed a memorandum of understanding to explore a combination of their services in the circles. While Hughes operates basic telephony services in Maharashtra telecom circle, the Tata Tele Services operates in the Andhra Pradesh circle.
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Moser Baer net profit grows 62%
New Delhi: Compact disc maker Moser Baer has posted a 62 per cent increase in net profit for the quarter ending December 2001. The profit stood at Rs 60 crore compared to Rs 37 crore in the same quarter a year ago.

Total income has also increased from Rs 92.47 crore in the previous quarter to Rs 170.37 crore in the reporting quarter, a jump of nearly 84 per cent.
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BoB may take over Banares State Bank
New Delhi: The Government has decided to reverse its earlier decision to wind up the Banares State Bank following Bank of Baroda (BoB) expressing its interest to take over the bank.
The government has asked the Reserve Bank of India to speed up the BoB's proposal to take over the ailing Banares State Bank.
Government had earlier decided to wind up the Banares State bank.
Banares State Bank has a total staff strength of 1,400 and has around 105 branches across the country.
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GAZ De France buys 10% equity in Petronet
Doha: Gaz De France has picked up 10 per cent equity in Petronet LNG, a joint venture of India's Oil PSUs.
Petronet recently sold 10 per cent stake to Gaz De France, which is providing technical advice to the Indian entity for setting up LNG import facilities at Dahej and Kochi at an investment of about Rs 5,000 crore.
GDF's project director Jacues Gautier has been taken on the board of Petronet as a director.
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Govt may offload Maruti stake to Suzuki
New Delhi: The government has decided to approach Suzuki to pick up the Rs 400 crore rights issue of the Maruti Udyog Limited. This follows reluctance shown by leading financial institutions to pick up the government's renounced part of the rights issue.
The government and Suzuki have together appointed three independent valuers-SB Billimoria, Ernst & Young and KPMG-to facilitate government's plan to dilute its holding in Maruti by 24 per cent. The proceeds from the Rs 400 crore rights issue will be used for financing the country's largest car maker's expansion programme.
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Kirloskars to exit from JV with Toyota
New Delhi: The Bangalore-based Kirloskar group has decided against infusing fresh equity into its automotive joint venture with Toyota, leading to its near exit from the venture.

The companys stake has already been reduced to slightly over 11 per cent from the original level of 26 per cent. With Toyota wanting to infuse more funds for its expansion plans, the Kirloskars stake is likely to be further reduced.

Toyota-Kirloskar was set up as a 74-26 joint venture with Toyota controlling the majority stake.
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Skumars.com shelves VSAT plan
New Delhi: Skumars.com's plan of connecting franchisees across the country through a VSAT network has been shelved, as the company has decided to use fibre optic lines being laid by telecom service providers.

Skumars.com has offered its franchisees the option of choosing the fibre optics mode and get a part-refund of the money advanced towards VSAT equipment.

The franchisees were promised a refund of Rs 64,000 after deducting some money for terrestrial connections out of the Rs 1 lakh-odd they had paid for the VSAT connection.
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Bharti joins STD price war
New Delhi: Bharti group, the private basic telecom service provider in Haryana, too has announced a cut in STD rates.
According to the new rates, STD between 50 to 200 km would cost now Rs 2.40 a minute as against Rs 4.80 earlier during the peak hours and Rs 1.20 during the off-peak hours.

For the second distance slab of 200-500 km, the new rate would be Rs 4.80 per minute compared to Rs 11.60 earlier during the peak hours of 9 am to 8 pm while during off-peak hours (8 pm to 9 am) the per minute cost has come down to Rs 2.40 from Rs 3.
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Ford hikes Ikon prices
New Delhi: Ford India has hiked prices across all the versions of its popular Ikon. The hike ranges from Rs 4,000-22,000. The company cited added features to justify the price hike.
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Yamaha plans Rs 350 cr investment
New Delhi: Yamaha Motor India Pvt Ltd (YMIL) plans to invest Rs 350 crore in the Indian operations via a preferential issue and would launch two new motorcycles in 2002.
One-third of this investment would be utilised to conduct research and development from India.
The fund would be raised through a preferential issue at a coupon rate of 14 per cent, with a six-year redemption. The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) has already approved this investment by Yamaha.
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Hero Honda becomes world leader
New Delhi: Hero Honda has become the worlds largest two-wheeler company when it sold 1.30 million motor cycles in calender year 2001.

Hero Honda has targeted to achieve a turnover of $1 billion and sell 1.65 million motorcycles during 2002-03. The company is in the process of raising its installed capacity from 1.5 million units to 2 million units.

The company is in the process of conducting a feasibility study for setting up a greenfield motor cycle manufacturing capacity to take the total installed capacity beyond two million.

The company, at present, has two manufacturing units in Haryana.
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Bajaj Tempo to launch Bagira & Gurkha
New Delhi: Bajaj Tempo plans to launch deluxe utility vehicles named Bagira and Gurkha within the next six months.

The company also plans to launch a light goods carrier Cargo, three light commercial vehicles and two three-wheelers by the end of this calender year.

The company is exploring the possibilities of launching its super premium vehicle Juggernaut as well.

The Bagira will be available in two variants, the deluxe and the base model. Both the models will have Euro 1 and Euro 11 versions. It will be a 2.4 litre turbo intercooled vehicle priced at around Rs 5 lakh.

The Gurkha is also a 2.4 litre utility vehicle priced at Rs 9.15 lakh.
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Fiat to introduce new Siena
New Delhi: Fiat India is planning to launch the 1.6 litre Siena with a new engine, gearbox and exterior in the first half of this year.

The company will use the gearbox of the Palio S-10, a limited series version bearing Sachin Tendulkars signature, which is more powerful than the existing Palio. The new Siena will be available in March.
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Tatas to come up with conductorless buses
New Delhi: Tata Engineering has readied conductorless transport buses with telematics solutions for fare collection, driver activity and in-vehicle communications.

These buses also provide engine monitoring and customised analysis and reporting.

These buses use onboard computers, smart card applications, global positioning systems, service providers application and a web-based interface for the customers.

A web-based interface with credit/debit card companies can be established for online financial transactions.

GPS based precise positioning allows real time tracking of city buses thus allowing for creating smart information kiosks.
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Hyundai plans Tuscany, Terracan
New Delhi: Hyundai Motor plans to introduce Tuscany, the five-door Accent and sports utility vehicle Terracan priced in the Rs 18-20 lakh range.

The company is also planning to increase prices of mid-size car Accent and luxury car Sonata by January-end.

Besides these three cars, the company is also conducting a study to gauge the response of the Matrix - a car bigger than the Santro.

Tuscany will be imported as a completely built unit, while the production strategy of Terracan is still being worked out. The five door Accent will be launched in 2003.
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Toyota launches Petrol Qualis
New Delhi: Toyota Kirloskar Motor has launched the petrol version of its multi-purpose vehicle 'Qualis' and is planning to import completely built units of land cruiser Prado and Camry in limited numbers into the country.
The petrol version of 'Qualis' has been priced at Rs 8.45 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).
The 'GST Super' will be fitted with a two-litre petrol engine.
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HFCL to make broadcasting equipment
New Delhi: Himachal Futuristic Communications Ltd (HFCL) has decided to manufacture smart amplifiers, television set-top boxes, cable modems and optical transmitters and receivers.

The commercial launch of these products is scheduled for the beginning of next financial year.

Amplifiers have been made smart by enabling them to be integrated into the cable network management system, which has been designed by the research & development team at HFCL. On the set top box (STB) front, three versions are planned - terrestrial, cable and satellite (for Direct-to-Home) broadcasting.

Demand for STBs is expected to receive a sharp boost in the near future, with the government planning to introduce a conditional access system that could make a STB in each cable home mandatory.
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TV18 net profit drops
New Delhi: TV18 has posted a 12.86 per cent dip in its net profit for the quarter ended December 2001, as compared with the corresponding quarter last year. Net profit, after providing for extraordinary items, was down to Rs 210.71 lakh from Rs 241.82 lakh in the corresponding quarter, a year ago. The companys revenue during the quarter also dipped by 10.65 per cent to Rs 798.74 lakh from Rs 893.97 lakh, during the same period last year.

For the nine months ended December 31, 2001, TV18 posted a net profit of Rs 400.83 lakh against a loss of Rs 30.77 lakh in the same period last year. Revenue during the nine months was down 13.66 per cent to Rs 22.40 crore from Rs 25.94 crore in the corresponding period a year ago.
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RPGs Health & Glow chain to come to Delhi
New Delhi: The RPG group has firmed up plans to launch its health and beauty retail stores chain Health and Glow (H&G) in Delhi.

The company is currently looking for a prime location in Delhi. The company is yet to finalise the format it will opt for H&G in Delhi.

The chain has 16 stores, operating in Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune.
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Hallmark in pact with MediaScope
Mumbai: Hallmark TV Channel has entered into a deal with MediaScope Associates for sales and advertising.

MediaScope Associates would develop advertising sales strategies in India and handle all local advertising deals.

The channel claims it has a reach of 18 million homes as compared to 13 million homes a year ago.
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Thapar picks up 15% in Feedback
New Delhi: Gautam Thapar has picked up a 15 per cent stake in Feedback Ventures Ltd, a leading infrastructure consultancy outfit, for an undisclosed sum.

Thapar made the investment through one of his private companies. As per the deal, he has the option to pick up another 5 per cent in Feedback Ventures. He has already joined the board of Feedback Ventures as a director.

The placement has been done through a fresh issue of shares.

This is the second time in the last few months that Feedback Ventures has placed equity with an investor.
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Wearit for women next month
Kolkata: Ritspin Synthetic (RSL), a joint venture company with Itochu of Japan, will shortly launch its branded fashionwear for women called 'Wearit'.

Ritspin is negotiating with established retail chains of the country to market its products.

The brand will be launched on 8 February in Mumbai to be later introduced in Delhi, Ahmedabad and Bangalore.

Retail chains are expected to provide dedicated shelf space to 'Wearit'. Ritspin, in turn, will give them high margin up to 100 per cent on the product sold.

Wearit will have varieties in casualwear, partywear, ethnicwear and officewear.

For manufacturing the product, RSL has tied up with two contract manufacturers in Ludhiana and Indore.
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