HP, Intel, MS to form pact to target e-gov in Apac
Bangalore: Three technology majors — Hewlett Packard, Intel and Microsoft — plan to launch the ‘Keystone Alliance’ to target the e-governance sector in the Asia-Pacific region. These companies already collaborate under this alliance in the financial services space. The portfolio of Keystone e-government solutions will include applications for government portals, IT infrastructure, security, education (e-learning), training and procurement. Keystone is a collaborative technology, sales and marketing campaign between these companies as well as some systems integrators and independent software vendors. The alliance members will collaborate to provide the government with solutions that offer faster deployment and functionality on industry standard platforms. It will also aid some companies by collaborating with solution providers to tune, optimise and scale applications for HP servers powered by the Intel Xeon family of processors and Intel Itanium 2 processors on Microsoft .net environment.
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AirTel, Hutch offer C2C STD at 50p for Rs 50
New Delhi:Now you can make cellular-to-cellular STD calls at just 50 paise per minute for the first 100 minutes. Both Bharti and Hutchison have offered the reduced STD prices that can be availed by paying a monthly charge of Rs 50. In effect, this means a saving of Rs 99, if you commit to 100 minutes of cellular-to-cellular STD calls. In the earlier tariff plans, cellular subscribers had to pay Rs 1.99 for making cellular to-cellular STD calls. This is only 10 paise more than the 40 paise per minute being charged by Reliance for STD calls on limited mobility network, although GSM cellular operators have riders attached to the offer — at an extra payment of Rs 50 and only for the first 100 minutes of calling.
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FACT resumes operations
Kochi:After a nearly 100-day shut down, Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore (FACT) has resumed operations, following its settling its row with Kochi Refineries Ltd (KRL) over raw material supply on credit. FACT officials said operations resumed on May 22 and the PSU’s products were on their way to the market. However, there have been certain hiccups in raw material supply owing to labour problems at the transporting point. The management had earlier decided to permanently shut down its urea plant whose operations in the wake of the new urea pricing policy would be unviable. All plants at the Udyogamandal division had resumed operations.
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VSNL net profit drops 44.6 per cent
Mumbai: Tata-owned Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited has posted a sharp 44.57 per cent fall in its net profit for the financial year-ended March 31, 2003 (FY03) as compared to the net profit for the year-ended March 31, 2002 (FY02). The company’s net profit for FY03 stands at Rs 780.1 crore as compared to the FY02 figure of Rs 1,407.4 crore. Total income for the said period has also fallen by 32.11 per cent to Rs 7,089 crore. This is against Rs 4,812.5 crore registered for FY02. For the fourth quarter-ended March 31, 2003, VSNL’s net profit has declined to Rs 191.1 crore from Rs 316.3 crore for the same period of the previous financial year implying a fall of 39.58 per cent. Total income for the fourth quarter of FY03 has fallen to Rs 1,038.3 crore as compared to Rs 1,776.1 crore for the fourth quarter of FY02.
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FTV plans new pay channel
Mumbai: French television channel Fashion TV said it will develop another channel on a pay basis called FashionX TV for the conditional access system (CAS) regime. Fashion TV said it will have more "exclusive and glamorous content" in this pay channel.

However, it will continue to offer a `light' version of Fashion TV on the non-encrypted basis to all subscribers while the original version will be offer on pay per view basis. Fashion TV, which was a pay channel, has become free-to-air. The channel unencrypted its signal on AsiaSat 2 satellite. The channel said it has instructed its signal on Pamansat 10 to be stopped. "Currently, the only signal available in India for FTV is on Asiasat 2 and eutelsat hotbird 13 degrees," FTV said. The channel said its agreement with Modi Entertainment Network has been terminated over legal differences.
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Dishnet ties up with Tata TeleServices
Mumbai: Basic services provider Tata TeleServices Ltd (TTSL) and broadband ISP operator DishnetDSL have formed a strategic alliance to offer broadband services through the use of TTSL's wireline network. The service will cost Rs 995 per month and will not involve telephone dial-up charges. DishnetDSL will have exclusive rights to provide high speed DSL services on the basic services network of TTSL, said V Srinivasan, CEO, DishnetDSL. TTSL would get a 25 per cent share of the revenues from Dishnet customers, said officials. The agreement covers the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Delhi. DSL is a technology which delivers broadband Internet access through the telephone wire without keeping telephones busy. The tie-up would work out attractive to the customers of Tata Indicom, TTSL's basic services brand.
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Zicom launches biometric readers
New Delhi: To cater to the rising need for higher levels of security in organisations, Zicom Security Systems Ltd on Thursday launched biometric readers in the country. Billed as the "most secure" and effective method of authenticating an individual, Biometrics involves verification of a person's behavioural and physical characteristics. Biometric readers are fast becoming a standard solution for a variety of applications to prevent unauthorised access to office premises or computer networks, Zicom president, Rajiv Basrur, said.
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Mirc announces 1:1 bonus
Mumbai: Mirc Electronics Ltd has announced a maiden bonus issue in the ratio of 1:1 and recommended a dividend of 100 per cent on expanded equity capital. The Mumbai-based company, which makes the Onida brand of televisions, said that net profit was up by 77.5 per cent for the year ended March 31, 2003. The bonus issue is the first since the company went public in 1992, according to a news release. The company's net sales were up by 27.5 per cent, at Rs 981.68 crore, compared to Rs 769.7 crore in the previous fiscal. Its net profit was up by 77.5 per cent, at Rs 60.44 crore, compared to Rs 34.05 crore the previous fiscal.
A better positioning of models resulted in "above average" operating profit margins, Gulu Mirchandani, chairman, Mirc Electronics, was quoted as saying.
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Serum Institute to launch DPT, Hepatitis B vaccines by year-end
Mumbai: The Pune-based vaccine firm, Serum Institute of India, is to launch a quadruple vaccine Diphtheria, Tetanus and whole-cell Pertussis vaccine (DTP) and Hepatitis B by December, 2003. According to Dr Subodh Bharadwaj, medical director, Serum Institute of India Ltd, the company is currently conducting clinical trials for the combination vaccine in Delhi and Mumbai. "We plan to register and seek the approval from the DCGI (Drug Controller General of India) for the combination vaccine by December,'' he said. The vaccine is expected to hit the shelves in a month or two from the date of approval.
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HPL, GAIL kick off product sharing pact — First consignment despatched
Kolkata: The strategic alliance between GAIL and Haldia Petrchemicals Ltd was kicked off on Thursday with the despatch of the first consignment of polypropylene (PP) from Haldia to GAIL customers in the north. A company release said that under this agreement inked on the last day of 2002, after long negotiations in New Delhi, the two petrochemical companies entered into a pact for sale of 35,000 tonnes per annum of PP by HPL to GAIL and an equal amount of purchase of pentane from GAIL. There would also be a product swap of 40,000 tonnes per annum of polyethylene manufactured by the two companies. Starting from today HPL would send 3,000 tonnes of PP to GAIL's customers every month.
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L&T net rises to Rs 433 cr
Mumbai: Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has registered a 25 per cent increase in the net profit at Rs 433.10 crore for the financial year-ended March 31, 2003 as against Rs 346.80 crore in the previous year. The performance for the year has been aided by a strong performance in the last quarter which saw the company register a net profit of Rs 265.63 crore as also a significant saving in interest costs. Gross sales and service for the year amounted to Rs 9,870 crore, representing a 21 per cent increase over the comparable period last year. The board has recommended a dividend of Rs 7.50 per equity share amounting to Rs 186.80 crore.
For the fourth quarter, L&T’s net profit has vaulted by 42 per cent to Rs 265.63 crore as against Rs 186.76 crore in the corresponding quarter in fiscal 2001-02. Interest cost to the company amounted to Rs 177 crore, as against Rs 316 crore for 2001-02.
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Arvind Mills net rises to Rs 129 crore
Ahmedabad: The Ahmedabad-based Arvind Mills has posted impressive results for the year- ended March 2003 with net profits of Rs 129 crore against a net profit of Rs 20 crore in the 2002 fiscal. Sales for the year too stood at Rs 1,479 crore compared to Rs 699 crore last year, representing an annualised growth of 6 per cent. As per a company release, export sales accounted for 50 per cent of total sales in 2003. Meanwhile, for the fourth quarter-ended March 2003, net profit rose 280 per cent from Rs 10 crore to Rs 38 crore. Net sales, at Rs 391 crore, rose by 15 per cent during the same period. Company officials attributed the increase in volumes of the shirting business and higher realisation on denim due to improved product-mix. The company has continued its efforts to accelerate product differentiation, which has paid rich dividends this year. Led by an almost 800 basis point improvement in operating margins which stood at 28 per cent as compared to the previous year’s figure of 20 per cent, operating profit rose by almost 50 per cent to Rs 418 crore compared to Rs 139 crore for the six month period of the 2002 fiscal. Also, input cost of the major raw materials namely cotton and naphtha remained under control during the current year
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Nicholas Piramal, FHLR end agreement in mutual consent
Mumbai: Nicholas Piramal India Ltd (NPIL) has discontinued the Frame Cooperation Agreement with F Hoffmann La Roche (FHLR) effective January 2003 with mutual consent. The agreement entered in 1993 for a period of 10 years was to end in November 2003 as per the agreement. The discontinuation of the agreement has enabled the company to commence export of vitamin A in the last quarter of 2002-03. NPIL had stabilised the manufacturing process of vitamin A enabling it to undertake its production, a NPIL spokesperson said. The company exported Rs 1.44 crore of vitamin A in the last quarter of 2002-03. The rest of the products under the agreement have been left untouched as the same continue to be under patent, he added. Moreover, the conclusion of this agreement enables NPIL greater flexibility to seek out licensing for new post-1995 patented products from research-based global companies.
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Tisco net jumps to Rs 1,012 cr
Mumbai: Tata Iron and Steel Company Ltd (Tisco) has breached the Rs 1,000 crore net profit mark in the fiscal-ended March 31, 2003. The company has earned a net profit of Rs 1,012.31 crore for the fiscal, a 394 per cent jump compared to its net profit of Rs 204.90 crore in the previous fiscal. Tata Steel managing director B Muthuraman has attributed the company’s performance to better product-mix and marketing which has insulated Tata Steel from the commodity cycle to a greater extent. The company’s board has for the fiscal 2002-03 recommended a dividend of Rs 8 on each share of Rs 10 as against dividend of Rs 4 per share in the previous fiscal. Tata Steel vice-president (finance) RC Nandrajog said that the total cash outflow on account of dividend will be Rs 335 crore which includes dividend tax.
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