NOW to offer international calls
New Delhi: Internet service provider (ISP) Data Access has joined hands with US-based Internet phone firm ITXC to enter ISD market. The firm would operate International Long Distance (ILD) services under the NOW brand.

Under the tie-up, Data Access will route international voice traffic over ITXCs Internet-based voice network to 150 countries.

The service would be launched on 1 April when VSNLs monopoly on the long distance market comes to an end.
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BSNL to start cell services in Bangalore
Bangalore: Bharat Sanchar Nigam will launch its cellular services in the city by August-September this year.

BSNL is in the process of erecting signal receiving towers to launch the cellular services and its customers will have the advantage of having roaming facility across the country.
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UTI initiates restructuring of US-64
Mumbai: UTI has initiated restructuring programme of the US-64 scheme by selling equity in a few select companies as well as making an exit from 72 companies where it had a debt exposure.

The UTI reforms committee, which met for the first time on 4 February, has taken up the issue of structural changes required for the trust.
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Bajaj Auto, ICICI ink pact
Mumbai: Bajaj Auto Ltd has tied up with ICICI Ltd to offer loans for two wheeler customers.

ICICI, as a preferred financier, would operate through the company's dealership network in 110 cities in the first phase.

The reach of ICICI finance would cover 140 cities in the second phase and would be further expanded to cover a substantial part of the dealer network in the current year.
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Steep rally in IBP shares at NSE
Mumbai: IBP shares rallied sharply on the National Stock Exchange here following government's decision to sell its stake in IBP to Indian Oil Corporation.

IBP shares shot up by 14.04 per cent to Rs 818.35 from Tuesday's close of Rs 717.60. Other firm security was BPCL which rallied by 5.63 per cent to 258.00 from 244.25.

However, Reliance Petro, Reliance, Him Fut, Global Tele and VSNL met with selling and closed weak.
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BSNL to launch mobile service in Rajasthan
Jaipur: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd will launch its mobile telephone service in Rajasthan in April 2002.

BSNL and Ericsson Communication Pvt Ltd have signed a memorandum of understanding to provide 50,000 lines connecting 29 district headquarters of the state during the first phase at a cost of Rs 65 crores.

In the initial phase the service would start in Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur and places where no mobile operator existed so far. All remaining districts excluding Jalore, Baran and Karoli would be provided cellular services by October.
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Govt to divest BPCL, HPCL by November
New Delhi: The government will divest its equity in Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and Bharat Petroleum Corporation during the next financial year.

Details of the proposal are yet to be worked out IOC has been kept out of the privatisation of the two oil PSUs to ensure competition between public and private sector.
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SBCH net profit up 13%
New Delhi: SmithKline Beecham Consumer Healthcare Ltd reported a 13.1 per cent growth in its net profit for 2001 at Rs 126.63 crore compared to the corresponding period a year ago.

Declaring its financial results, SBCH said in a statement that its turnover increased to 12.7 per cent at Rs 967.58 crore during the period under review.

Profit after tax stood at Rs 126.63 crore, an increase of 13.1 per cent as compared to the previous year, after providing for an amount of Rs 3.4 crore for deferred taxation during the current year.

The company attributed its increase in turnover to a combination of volume growth, a series of value engineering initiatives and effective management of costs and expenses and favourable agricultural commodity prices during the year under review.
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Siemens, Polycon forge alliance
Mumbai: Siemens Ltd and Polycon Inc have forged an alliance to offer advanced Internet protocol-ready audio and video conferencing solutions in India.

Indian enterprises in all corporate and government sectors recognise the advantages of audio and video conferencing as a huge travel-cost saver and collaboration and productivity enhancer, Siemens executive vice-president Peter Gartenberg told newspersons.

In India, where travel was relatively expensive and network costs have fallen dramatically, return on investment on a video conference was rapidly achieved, he claimed.
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BPCL's petro card to touch 8 lakh
Tiruchirappalli: The customer base of BPCL's multi-purpose petro card is projected to touch eight lakh mark by March this year.

At present, the card had a customer base of five lakh in 22 cities across the country.

Petrocard would be launched in Mysore and Vishakapatinam before the end of next month.

The company would open seven value added petrol outlets called "Errand malls" or "In and Out shops" with facilities like cyber cafe, fast food counters and ATM in Bangalore, eight in Hyderabad and six in Coimbatore within a month. Seven such malls are already functioning in Chennai.
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BPL upgraded to trading house status
Bangalore: BPL has been upgraded from an Export House to a Trading House with effect from January this year, based on its good performance over the past three years.

All the criteria specified by the Commerce Ministry have been successfully fulfilled, a BPL statement said here.

BPLis among the largest exporters of consumer electronics and home appliances in the past few years.

In tune with its globalisation agenda, BPL has recently formed a new company BPL Eurotrade Ltd, headquartered in London, which will handle the entire international procurement and marketing business of BPL.

BPL is also in the process of acquiring an independent CTV manufacturing facility in Europe.
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Toyota to recall around 70,000 vehicles
Tokyo: Japan's Toyota Motor willrecall 57,947 vehicles at home and around 12,000 in Australia and Taiwan due to seatbelt problems.

Eleven models of passenger cars and sports utility vehicles were affected by the recall, prompted by a fault in the seat-belt system, which meant on occasion it would not work properly.
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Whirlpool enters AC market with eight models
New Delhi: Whirlpool of India (WIL) has expanded its product range in the domestic market with the launch of airconditioners..

Whirlpool has invested around Rs 350 crore to set up the line for air conditioners at its existing plant in Pune to take up manufacture of air conditioners in India. The plant will have a capacity of 50,000 air conditioners per annum.

Whirlpool has introduced eight models of air conditioners in one tonne, 1.5 tonne and two tonne capacities.
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LG Electronics sales up 6%
New Delhi:  LG Electronics India has reported a 16 per cent growth in turnover to Rs 2,216 crore for the year ended December 2001 and is targeting a turnover of Rs 2,700 crore in 2002.

During the year, LG Electronics achieved a double digit growth in CTV, refrigerator, air conditioners and microwave segment. CTV segment topped the list with a growth of 27 per cent, where the company has grabbed a market share of 12 per cent and sold 6.5 lakh CTVs last year. During the year, LG Electronics achieved a growth of 18 per cent in air conditioners segment to reach the number one slot with a market share of 26 per cent.
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Kinetic to export GF series bikes
Hyderabad: Kinetic Engineering Ltd has executed a letter of intent with the $4-billion Hyosung Motors of Korea for exporting the GF series bike range.

The two-wheeler major with a 20 per cent market share has bucked the general slowdown in the auto industry and increased its scooter sales by about 18 per cent this year. This was significant considering the fact that industry-wide, scooter sales were down by about 32 per cent.
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Opto plans pvt placement
Bangalore: Opto Circuits Ltd plans to place a part of its equity with some of its overseas clients to part-fund its proposed acquisition of an US healthcare firm.

The deal was likely to be for Rs 40 crore. The buy-out was likely to be part-funded by internal accruals too. The target is a diagnostic products firm with a revenue of $18 million. Last year, Opto Circuits acquired 60 per cent equity stake in Advanced Micronic Devices Ltd (AMDL).

Opto Circuits tapped the capital market last year through an IPO of 27.20 lakh equity shares at a price of Rs 50 per share.
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Hughes Tele to seek ILD licence
New Delhi: Hughes Tele.com (India) Ltd is likely to pick up a licence for international long-distance (ILD) services.

The company is currently concentrating on expanding its broadband network in Mumbai and other cities of Maharashtra. It is also looking at the possibility of venturing into ILD and basic services in other circles across the country.

The company has a licence to offer basic services only in the Maharashtra circle. Since the collapse of the merger talks with Tata Teleservices, the company is accelerating the expansion of the basic network on its own.
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ICICI gets 5.73 pc stake in George Williamson
Kolkata: The B.M. Khaitan group has transferred 5.73 per cent of its stake in George Williamson (Assam) Ltd to ICICI Ltd as an upfront fee payment for restructuring the debt of its flagship battery company, Eveready Industries India Ltd.

The transferred shares have been valued at Rs 80 per share.

Khaitans still have around 8 to 9 per cent stake in George Williamson.
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TVS Motor sales up 12 pc in Jan
New Delhi: TVS Motor Co Ltd has sold 80,297 two-wheelers in January, marking a 12-per cent year-on-year growth over 71,533 units sold in the same month a year earlier.

The company, which recently parted ways with Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp, said it sold 46,196 motorcycles in January.

This is 48 per cent higher than 31,148 motorcycles sold in the previous corresponding period.

Scooter sales declined by 5 per cent to 9,896 units.
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Siemens, Polycom join hands
Bangalore: Siemens Ltd and Polycom Inc have joined hands for the convergence of interactive voice, video and data communications in order to provide premium quality IP-ready audio and video conferencing solutions over India's fast-emerging high-speed networks.

The partnership was the latest in a series of business expansion initiatives that Siemens had launched in the past year to further its market dominance in the interactive convergence solutions market.
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Acer bags ISO certification
Bangalore: Acer India has been granted certification to meet ISO 9001 2000 standards for their manufacturing facility at Pondicherry.

The certification approves Acer India's quality management systems for design and development of products to meet international standards established by the International Organisation for Standardisation.
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Canbank Computer granted ISO 9001
Bangalore: Canbank Computer Services Ltd, a subsidiary of Canara Bank providing solutions for banking and finance sectors, has been awarded the revised ISO certification, ISO 9001:2000, by BVQI.

The certification was a significant milestone for the company as it guarantees customers a systematic adherence to process of software development with minimum risk of defects.
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Reliance increases stake in BSES to 31.54%
Mumbai: Reliance has continued to increase its stake in BSES, picking up 31.54 per cent of its stake by December end.

The Reliance Mutual Fund is believed to have picked up over 10 lakh shares of BSES on 5 February in a block deal.

For the third-quarter ended December 2001, BSES has posted a three per cent increase in sales to Rs 702.5 crore. This rise was on the back of a 23 per cent increase in sales of actual energy generated.

BSES is now targeting the privatisation of distribution circles in Delhi and Kanpur and states like Andhra Pradesh, Haryana and Karnataka by 2002. The company has also proposed to pursue transmission projects being offered on build, own and operate (BOO) basis.
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Bajaj Auto plans sports bike
Pune: Bajaj Auto will launch a sports bike on the platform of its 180-cc motorcycle, the Pulsar, by October. The face lift for the existing bike will be done by Glynn Kerr, the international bike designer.
The Pulsar sports will have a super sports bike look, a vehicle totally missing so far in Indian bikes.
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