Data Access starts British operation
London: New Delhi-based telecom firm Data Access has announced the opening of a UK operation as part of its plan to triple long-distance revenues over the next two years. Data Access, a joint venture between Hong Kong fixed-line phone giant PCCW and India's SPA Enterprises, said so much global voice traffic passed through London that it needed an expanded British presence to meet an annual target of 6 billion minutes by 2005.

Data Access currently earns $250 million in revenues by selling 2 billion minutes, with three-quarters of that coming from its Indian network and compared to an overall long distance market of around 130 billion minutes per year. Data Access managing director Siddhartha Ray said a worldwide glut in telecom capacity, resulting from the industry's boom and bust in recent years, was at the heart of his strategy. Having entered the long-distance market just over a year ago, Data Access has leveraged its presence in the high-priced and growing Indian telecom market to expand its global reach by cutting arbitrage deals with other international carriers.
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Nilekani: Time is up for large-sized outsourcing deals
Bangalore: Infosys Technologies, India's No 1 listed software services exporter, has said that the market has ripened for large deals such as its recent $50-million order from Australia's Telstra Corp, according to newspaper reports. Managing director Nandan Nilekani said outsourcing had become a strategic habit with big clients. "I think offshoring and outsourcing are very much on the mainstream agenda of most of the world's largest corporations, and they are seeing this not just as a cost play but as a way to improve quality and productivity."

Last week Infosys won a $50-million five-year service contract from Telstra, one of its large existing clients. The Telstra deal softened scepticism among analysts, who have been watching Infosys since its rivals Wipro and Tata Consultancy Services last year jointly won a deal from Lehman Brothers to manage computer networks.
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Steel firms cut down exports to China
Mumbai: Steel majors like Tata Steel, Essar Steel, Ispat Industries, Jindal Iron & Steel (Jisco) and Jindal Vijaynagar Steel (JVSL) have cut down on their exports to China. This follows the recent alerts from the Chinese government. India has overstepped its export limit of 3 per cent as specified by the World Trade Organisation and has reached 6 per cent till date. With the firming of prices in the US and European markets recently, domestic manufacturers are shifting focus to these regions.

Tata Steel is reducing their exports of galvanised products to China by 50 per cent in the next quarter. "Our company had exported about 18,000 tonne of galvanised products to China from July to September this year and we are looking at supplying around 9,000 tonne in the next quarter," H M Nerurkar, vice president, flat products, Tata Steel, was quoted as saying.
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ABP group, Star group in JV
New Delhi: The Aveek Sarkar-promoted ABP group and the Rupert Murdoch-promoted Star group have announced the formation of a joint venture, Media Content and Communications Services India (MCCS), for broadcasting Star News. An agreement to this effect was signed between the parties here. Under the agreement, in compliance with the revised government guidelines, ABP will take a 74-per cent stake and Star a 26 per cent stake, in the augmented paid-up equity share capital of MCCS.

The board of directors of MCCS is being reconstituted with Ravina Raj Kohli as president of Star News while Sanjay Pugalia continues as news director of the channel. MCCS will now file a revised application with the government for uplinking Star News from India. The ABP group is believed to have paid around Rs 80 crore for the 74 per cent stake in MCCS. Though both the companies did not mention about the financial details of the deal, industry sources were quoted as saying that the payout will be staggered over a three-to-five-year period and paid from internal accruals of the ABP group. MCCS will oversee all editorial, marketing, content, technical and uplinking services.
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AV Birla group eyes R&D
Mumbai: The Aditya Birla group is planning new strategies to focus on corporate R&D, including basic science, to provide group companies an edge to face global competition. Dr Hameed Bhombal, senior president and chief technology officer of Birla Management Corporation, was quoted as saying: "The group is in the process of setting up new R&D capabilities and facilities using basic research. The first meeting in this regard was held recently."

Although the group has in-house R&D in some of the business segments, the new strategies will be evolved to address the future needs of group companies, he said.
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Shell says SC ruling on HPCL-BPCL is a setback
New Delhi: Royal Dutch Shell global managing director Malcolm Brinded said the Supreme Court ruling that halted the privatisation of HPCL and BPCL was a major setback. "But we will be patient in pursuing our retail plans. The stay on the decision to privatise HPCL and BPCL by the court is a setback as we had many plans on mind."

"It is a setback — a bigger one for India in the sense that we are looking to a better presence in the country and were examining all details very closely," he said. Shell, along with BP, Petronas, KPC, Aramco, Reliance and Essar Oil, was in the race for the government stake in HPCL. The company had to abort the due-diligence process after the SC ruling.
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