Centre hikes DA
New Delhi: The government announced a Rs 1831.20 crore hike in dearness allowance for its existing and retired employees with effect from January and an enhanced pay packet for central government primary school teachers.

The package for 14 months begining January 2002 would include Rs 1355.20 crore through a four per cent hike in DA from 45 to 49 percent for existing employees besides additional dearness relief of Rs 476 crore for pensioners.

The school teachers employed by central governemnt in union territories and other autonomous bodies sponspored by the Centre would get the benefit of revision of the pay scale (senior and selection scale).
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ICICI chair at IIM-B
Bangalore: ICICI will institute a chair in "change management'' at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. Announcing this at the IIM-B convocation, ICICI MD and CEO K.V. Kamath said the new economy has handed the baton to us after almost 1,000 years and if we drop it now, it may be after 1,000 years before we get another opportunity.
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Mobile phone prices slashed
New Delhi: Mobile handset manufacturers Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Alcatel, Mitsubishi, Siemens, Sony Ericsson, Philips and Panasonic have slashed prices by 6.6 to 47 per cent.

Passing on the benefits of the abolition of 16 per cent countervailing duty to the consumers, market leader Nokia effected a price cut of between 8.8 per cent and 15.3 per cent while Motorola has slashed prices by 7.7 per cent to 17.6 per cent.

Samsung mobile handsets are now cheaper by around 6.6 -10.5 per cent; Alcatel by7.6 - 9. 5 per cent cut; Siemens 9.2 -11.9 per cent; Mitsubishi 9.9 - 47 per cent and Philips 12.7-16.5 per cent.

Sony Ericsson, has effected a price cut of between 7.1 per cent and 10.5 per cent on its handset models.
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NTPC to set up 1,000 mw power plant in Nagpur
New Delhi: National Thermal Power Corporation will set up a 1,000-mw project near Nagpur in Mahararashtra to cater to five states and two union territory as part of its efforts to add 20,000 mw capacity by 2012.

NTPC has sought clearance from state authorities and the Centre for the coal-fired project, likely to cost about Rs 4,000 crore.

NTPC has sought in-principle clearance for the project, to be set up in 1,700 acres of land in Nagpur district. Western Coalfields Ltd (WCL) has already confirmed the availability of the required 4.5 million tonnes of coal for the project.
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Aspirin-sized server invented
Washington: A non-resident Indian has invented a low-cost, aspirin-sized server, which would allow devices to be Internet-enabled on a mass scale.

Hariharasubrahmaniam Srikumar hit upon the idea of creating the smallest computer server while doing research for his Ph.D. Later a company, Ipsil was etablished to put the tiny server to work.

Set up by Velu Sinha a longtime friend of Shrikumar's, and Jim Kopetsky, Ipsil began filing for patents and creating a prototype of the server to work with a variety of products.

Sinha said Ipsil is targeting companies that will use the servers to remotely monitor products for needed adjustments or potential glitches. For example, the device could be attached to different parts of a car engine, so that if a problem is detected, the service station and owner would be notified and could prevent a breakdown.
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Business Ethics award for N. Ram
Chennai: XLRI Jamshedpur's J.R.D. Tata award for Business Ethics will be conferred on N. Ram, Editor of Business Line, Frontline and The Sportstar.

Ram, who has been in the media since 1966, has special journalistic interest in Indian politics, foreign and nuclear policy, external pressures on India's economic and political sovereignty, issues of corruption and abuse of power, the challenge of communalism and fundamentalism in India and the role of media in the society, among other subjects.

Ram has been conferred several other awards in the past, which include the Padma Bhushan (for journalism) in 1990, the Asian Investigative Journalist of the Year award from the Press Foundation of Asia (1990), the B.D. Goenka award for excellence in journalism (1989) and the National Citizen's award (1995).
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Nasscom signs MoU with German firm
New Delhi: Nasscom has signed a memorandum of understanding with German Association for Information Technology to explore opportunities for collaboration in infotech industry.

As part of the MoU, both the associations will work towards raising awareness in their respective governments about key issues including liberalisation of work permits, resolve dual payment of social security and joint projects for development of human resources, a Nasscom release said here.

The MoU will help boost trade between the two countries in information technology, telecom and entertainment segment and help Indian IT companies get a strong foothold in the German market.
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RBI cancels SJ Shares & Stock Brokers licence
New Delhi: Reserve Bank of India has cancelled the licence of Delhi-based money-changer SJ Shares & Stock Brokers.

The FFMC (full-fledged money changer) licence of SJ Shares & Stock Brokers, which was issued on 23 March 1999, and valid till 22 March 2002, has been cancelled, RBI said in a statement.
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