BSNL rocks the waves
New Delhi: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. has announced a 15-25 per cent cut in both ISD and inter-circle STD tariffs effective April 10. Domestic bandwidth prices from non-commercial users have also been slashed by 60 per cent.Announcing the revised tariffs BSNL has pointed out that the new ISD rates are possible because of the lower settlement rates offered by Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd, while the STD drop is on account of the new interconnection usage charge regime introduced by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

While the reduction in tariffs would result in a loss of Rs 300-350 crore BSNL hopes that it will be compensated through a surge in traffic.BSNL has also announced that non-commercial users of high bandwidth (2Mbps & above) would now enjoy 60 per cent discount on TRAI standard tariff 1999. For example 2Mbps circuit, which now cost Rs 22 lakh, will be available at Rs 8.8 lakh. A further benefit is extended to these users in the reduction of local lead charges as local lead is now charged from SDCC (short distance charging centre) to SDCC instead of earlier LDCC (long distance charging centre) to LDCC. The discount is effective from April 1. The benefit does not apply to licensed telecom service providers.BSNL expects a net profit for 2003-04 to double to about Rs 3,000 crore, while revenues were likely to increase to Rs 29,000 crore.
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P&G announces 16 pc price cut on Pantene shampoos
New Delhi: Procter and Gamble (P&G) India has announced that it has slashed the prices of its popular Pantene range of shampoos by 16 per cent. The new prices are Rs 51 for a 100-ml pack and Rs 98 for a 200-ml one. P&G officials said that the price reduction was carried out after research showed that affordability was a key deterrent as far as purchase for Pantene was concerned. P&G India also said that they have passed on the benefit of duty cuts and internal cost savings to consumers. The prices for the sachets, however, remain unchanged at Rs 3.
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Tata Tea launches Select Finest Assam in UAE
Kochi: Tata Tea has launched its `Select Finest Assam' in the UAE and other West Asian and North African (WANA) countries.
The product has been introduced in these markets after extensive research on quality and preference of customers, including Arabs as well as others. It is available both in tea bags and packets. With this launch, Tata Tea will have a significant presence in 47 countries worldwide.

Tata Tea owns 55 tea estates in India, with an area of 26,500 hectares under tea cultivation and produces around 60 million kg of black tea and two million kg of instant tea annually.Tata Tea with its subsidiary company Tetley Group Ltd, UK, has a global branded business amounting to $620 million. The combined sales of the group would represent the second-largest branded tea portfolio in the world.
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Reliance strikes gas again in the K-G basin
Mumbai: Reliance Industries Ltd and its partner Niko Resources have made two new gas discoveries at the D-6 deepwater block in the Krishna-Godavari basin in the Bay of Bengal. According to a press release gas was found in the K-1 and K-2 wells drilled in the 1.9 million acre D-6 Block.Reliance Industries has 90 per cent stake in the D-6 block while Niko Resources has the remaining 10 per cent. The K-2 well, located east of the Dhirubhai field, flowed gas at a constrained rate of about 30 million cubic feet per day during testing. The K-1 well has also encountered gas although the company has not given details.The two partners had earlier in the year 2002 announced a large gas find of 14 trillion cubic feet in the same block.
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Orchid's BLX-1002 clears clinical trials in Europe
Chennai: Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Ltd has said that an anti-diabetic molecule that its US joint venture Bexel Pharmaceuticals Inc has been working on has cleared clinical trials for toxicity and safety levels in Europe.In a press release, the company has expressed confidence that the molecule, BLX-1002, would be licensed to manufacturers after more advanced stages of clinical trials in May.BLX-1002 is a orally active small molecule and toxicity and safety studies during Phase 1(a) trials have shown that BLX-1002 is a highly safe diabetic compound.
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Tata Steel's town workers are now part of JUSCO
Kolkata: According to a MoU signed between Tata Steel and Tata Workers Union on March 31, the employees of the Town Division of Tata Steel have been transferred to the newly formed Jamshedpur Utilities & Services Company (JUSCO).JUSCO has been formed with the objective to provide services in the area of housekeeping and hospitality, town planning and engineering among others in Jamshedpur.
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Philips India to sell HTP unit
Bangalore: Philips India proposes to sell one of its units, High Tech Plastics (HTP). The HTP unit, near Pune, made products with applications in the automotive, electronics and electrical goods areas and contributed less than 3 per cent to the company's overall turnover.The company has also undertaken revamping operations to strengthen its core areas of lighting, domestic appliances and consumer electronics. It will also leverage an increased demand for its medical electronics.
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Maruti sales up 30 per cent in '03-'04
New Delhi: Car market leader Maruti Udyog Ltd has announced a 30 per cent rise in volume sales to 472,122 units in 2003-04 from 362,242 units in the previous year. This is the highest-ever sale for the company ever since it began operations 20 years ago.
The annual sales figure also includes the export of 51,175 units, which also is the highest-ever since its exports began in 1988.
Sales of the company's bread-and-butter model, the Maruti 800, grew by 16.9 per cent to 167,561 units in the year.
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Hero Honda sales cross two-million mark in a year
New Delhi: Hero Honda has announced that it has achieved a new sales record of over two million motorcycles in a single year (2003-04). The company sold 20,70,157 motorcycles during the year, a jump of 23 per cent over previous year sales of 16,77,537 motorcycles. The company has further said that its market share has improved by three per cent to 47 per cent in 2003-04.

The company had launched five models last year including the entry-level CD-Dawn; Splendor Plus and Passion Plus with enhanced styling; premium sports bike, Karizma; and the restyled Ambition 135.The company has also increased its exports by 72 per cent in the year, selling 39,255 bikes.
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Tata Steel output is over 4 million tonnes
Mumbai: Tata Steel has said that it has produced 4.09 million tonnes of saleable steel in 2003-2004, up by 3.8 per cent from the previous fiscal's figure. An official statement said that the company achieved a record production of 4.22 million tonnes of crude steel, three per cent higher than the previous best of 4.1 million tonnes achieved during the last fiscal. According to it, Tata Steel also sold more steel in 2003-2004 than in any previous year.
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HPC and HNL post Rs 870 crore combined turnover
Kolkata: The combined sales turnover of HPC and its wholly-owned subsidiary — Hindustan Newsprint Ltd (HNL) has moved to the level of Rs 870 crore on an all-time high production of 3,22,570 tonnes. This is the second year in succession in which HPC has crossed a combined installed capacity of 3,00,000 tonnes.HPC operates three large integrated paper mills — two in Assam and one in Kerala through its wholly-owned subsidiary — HNL.
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Bajaj Auto sales up 26 per cent
Mumbai: Bajaj Auto Ltd (BAL) has said that its total sale of two and three wheelers in March, rose by 26 per cent to 138,801 units as compared to the previous corresponding 110,224 units.Sale of two wheelers for the period increased by 26.2 per cent to 118,662 units, including a 27.4 per cent rise in the sale of motorcycles, which went up to 94,322 units.Three wheeler sales registered a gain of 24.6 per cent to 20,139 units (16,157 units). Exports shot up by 89 per cent to 13,625 units (7209 units), it said.BAL's total two and three wheeler sales for 2003-2004 have increased by 5.2 per cent to 15,17,413 units, with exports up 65.5 per cent at 156,008 units.
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BEML posts increased sales turnover
Bangalore: Public sector Bharat Earth Movers Ltd has posted sales turnover of Rs 1,770.61 crore for the year ended March 31, taking it up by 5.7 per cent over sales figures for the year 2002-03. Profit before tax is Rs 52.5 crore, up from Rs 38 crore for the previous fiscal.On the export front, BEML said it has doubled its achievement from Rs 21.45 crore last fiscal to the latest Rs 54 crore.

After a gap of five years, it has also bagged an order for 200 rail coaches from the Indian Railways' and rolled out 35 during 2003-04.During the year, BEML opened a new line of business when it delivered 336 special MBWT wagons for transporting tanks to the armed forces. It has also secured orders for earthmoving equipment from coal companies.
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Ford India annual sales up 40 per cent
Chennai: Ford India has said that it has sold over 3,200 cars in March, its highest ever monthly sales. The figure was almost double the sales in March 2003, according to the company.
According to a Ford India press release, the company sold over 21,700 cars in the domestic market in 2003-04 compared to 15,300 last year. This is an over 40 per cent increase.Exports during March were 2,642 against 2,594 for the same month last year. Ford India exports completely knocked down kits of the Ikon to South Africa, Mexico and Brazil.
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TVS Motor sales up 2.5 per cent
Chennai: TVS Motor Company has ended 2003-04 with a growth of 2.5 per cent in sales, a press release from the company says. In the previous year, the company had sold 11,19,355 two-wheelers.There was a 24 per cent increase in scooterette sales, which went up to 1.89 lakh units last year, from 1.52 lakh units in the year before (2002-03). In 2003-04, TVS Motor exported 28,043 units, nearly three times as many as it did in the previous year.The company's latest product offering, the TVS Centra, has sold more than 30,000 units within 70 days of its launch, according to a company press release.
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HAL has record turnover for the year
Bangalore: Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) has closed the year ended March 31, 2004, with a provisional turnover of Rs 3,690 crore, it's highest so far. Its provisional profit stands at Rs 445 crore, compared to the net profit of Rs 451 crore for the fiscal 2002-03.According to a release, its total exports, at Rs 215 crore, is an improvement of 107 per cent over last year's Rs 103 crore.

The defence PSU sold two of its premier products — two Advanced Light Helicopters (ALH) and one Dornier Do 228 — to friendly countries, thereby putting the indigenously developed ALH into the global market.During the year, the company supplied 13 ALHs, eight twin-seater Jaguars and 28 upgraded MiG-21 Bis aircraft to its customers — including the IAF and Coast Guard.
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Tata Telecom and Avaya launch SIP solutions
New Delhi: Tata Telecom and Avaya Inc, a global provider of communications networks, today introduced new software applications and phones that provide greater control over the growing number of communication devices.The new converged communications solutions are based on SIP (Session Initiation Protocol), which enable integration of Internet applications, such as instant messaging, with voice and telephone features such as conferencing, voice mail and click-to-dial capabilities.
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Apple's unveils Xserve RAID
New Delhi: Apple has unveiled a new storage system, Xserve RAID, that delivers a 3.5 terabyte capacity. According to company officials the product offers the lowest cost per terabyte and better performance.The company has also announced that shipments of the Xserve G5 servers had commenced. The new series, launched earlier this year, is claimed to be the most suitable server for Unix-based applications.
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Now Ganesha Speaks on your mobile
Pune: Cellular service provider Idea has announced a service wherein Bejan Daruwalla and his team will be available live for its subscribers under a new service, Ganesha Speaks. Subscribers can dial 181 to go live with an astrologer and pay at the rate of Rs 6.99 per minute.Daruwalla has floated a private limited company, Ganesha Speaks, for the venture. Backing him are a team of trained astrologers hand-picked for the project.
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Alcatel testing lab at SlashSupport facility
Chennai: Alcatel, a global major in communication networking, has invested $2 million (about Rs 9 crore) to set up a simulation and testing lab at the Slash Support facility in Chennai.According to the company, the lab will simulate an array of possible problem scenarios at Alcatel's customer locations, and enable effective technology support solutions. This is the Alcatel's first investment for technology support in India.

In the expanded relationship, Slash Support's engineers will provide technology support for Alcatel's large networking products for their customers across 80 countries in Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the US.Slash Support, a Cybernet Software Systems Group and provider of technology support, will support over 1,000 installations of Alcatel worldwide. The cost reduction to Alcatel through outsourcing technology support could be about 30 per cent. Slash Support plans to hire over 1,200 employees in 2004 for its technology support facility in Chennai.
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