Reliance Infocomm begins full roaming under new regime
New Delhi: Reliance Infocomm has started offering full roaming to its limited mobility (WLL) subscribers in most of its circles across the country marking the beginning of the unified access service licence regime. The company has become the first basic operator to put into operation its new licence, which has been introduced by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) despite opposition from the private cellular operators.

DoT has moved with unusual speed to allow WLL service providers to offer full mobility. An analysis of DoT's track record over the past four years shows that officials at Sanchar Bhavan have been burning the midnight oil to ensure a speedy transition to the new licence regime. The Department has taken 15 days to come out with detailed guidelines on the unified licence regime after it received the recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. As against this, most of the previous decisions of the Department concerning key telecom sectors have taken anywhere between 64 and 229 days, barring two exceptions.
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ABT to expand Maruti service network in Tamil Nadu
Coimbatore: ABT Ltd, belonging to the Sakthi Sugars group, is planning to pump in about Rs 12 crore in the next three years to enlarge its service network for Maruti vehicles in the State. The company, which is one of the largest sellers of Maruti vehicles in Tamil Nadu, plans to have one service station in every district headquarters in view of growing number of vehicles of the Maruti clan it is servicing, says M Manickam, director, ABT Ltd and managing director of Sakthi Sugars.

He says ABT is one of the single largest dealers for Maruti vehicles having outlets in Coimbatore, Chennai, Tiruchi and Madurai. The company was running fifteen service stations located closer to its four dealership outlets, to service the vehicles sold by the company. At present, ABT Ltd serviced about 10,000 vehicles a month. The company was now planning to double the number of service stations to thirty by 2006. Each service station may require an investment of about Rs 80 lakh, taking the total investment to about Rs 12 crore. It is also being planned to make them web-enabled so that the customers could log-in to have details of the service done etc.
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Hero Honda to launch new Ambition version
New Delhi: Hero Honda Motors plans to launch a new version of its 133 cc bike, Ambition, early next year in a bid to shore up sales, according to a top company official. "We are relaunching the Ambition early next year with new looks," Atul Sobti, senior vice-president (sales and marketing), said. Sales of the Ambition, which was launched in September last year, hovers around 7,000 units a month against the targeted 10,000 units.

In some months, sales even dropped to around 4,000 units. Priced at Rs 44,612 (ex-showroom Delhi), Ambition faces stiff competition from bikes such as Bajaj Pulsar, Kawasaki Wind 125 and TVS Victor. Sobti said that a customer survey carried out by Hero Honda found that the Ambition evoked "precious little'' word-of-mouth publicity as users could not relate to its looks. The round headlamp and the `regal crest' incorporating speedometer as well as the sharp design of the fuel tank have not gone down too well with many buyers, the survey revealed. "So, we are making some changes in these areas. We will also come out with new graphics for the Ambition."
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Century Textiles has major retail plans
Hyderabad: Century Textiles and Industries has plans for a major retail push that will see the setting up of about 50 retail outlets for both textiles and garments this fiscal and about 25 more next year. This will include the company's own branded theme stores Mangal Pradhan. Century plans to set up about 15 Mangal Pradhan outlets by the end of the fiscal.

The president of Century Textiles, R.K. Dalmia, while inaugurating a retail outlet to market its range of `Auro Apparels' and Cottons by Century in Hyderabad, said that the company had embarked on an initiative to establish its own outlets for readymade garments, made ups and fabrics. A total turnover of about Rs 500 crore from the textiles outfit, Century, earns about Rs 300 crore from exports. It plans to consolidate its domestic market, where it has solid brand equity. To begin with, Century has already launched cotton shirts, kurtas and T-shirts and it will later on add other products including trousers, accessories and women's wear.
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ONGC to start deepwater drilling on 30 November
Mumbai: Oil and Natural Gas Corporation will begin the deepwater drilling campaign on 30 November. Its drill ship Belford Dolphin arrived in Mumbai on Saturday. The fifth generation ultra deepwater drill ship rig is capable of drilling up to a depth of 3,000 metres. The rig is scheduled to spud its first well in the Gulf of Kutch in 1862-metre water depth, a news release said here.
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BEL eyes export target at Rs 500 crore by 2007
Bangalore: Bharat Electronics is working at an export target of Rs 500 crore and sales turnover of Rs 5,000 crore by the year 2006-07. As part of its globalisation strategy, BEL is pitching its export thrust at France, Sweden and other European nations, Africa, SAARC and the CIS nations where its current licensed MNC partners have a footprint. According to years-old licensing arrangements, a few companies from Israel and Sweden have had access to the Indian market. Now the time has come for them to reciprocate and give up some of their market to BEL, senior company officials said.

At an informal meeting with a small media group, Y Gopala Rao, who took over as CMD on October 1, said in the next three years, the 50-year-old defence electronics major would be looking to sell niche products offering total solutions in these markets. The export target would be 10 per cent of the total turnover it hopes to achieve during this period, he said.
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HMT, Swiss firm ink pact for automation solutions
Bangalore: HMT Machine Tools, a wholly owned subsidiary of HMT, has entered into a memorandum of understanding with Gudel AG, a Swiss company, for cooperation in the areas of robotics, factory automation and press automation.

The memorandum of understanding was signed by M S Zahed, chairman and managing director, HMT, and Rudolf Gudel, president and CEO, Gudel AG, recently.
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