AirTel launches service for hearing impaired
Pune: Mobile service provider AirTel has announced the 'Confidence Plan,' a unique service that will allow the hearing impaired in Maharashtra and Goa circles to communicate with each other through text messages or SMS. It plans to roll out the plan nationally in the near future.

The confidence plan was launched in Pune city by actor and film-maker, Amol Palekar, who was invited to simultaneously inaugurate 'Express Yourself', an exhibition of paintings by the hearing impaired, sponsored by AirTel.

The 'Confidence plan', offers subscribers a slew of benefits including two thousand free mobile-to-mobile messages within the local network along with the facility to send messages to local, national and international networks.

Users can also access all the SMS based value-added services of the company as part of the package, which has been priced at Rs.99 monthly rental and an activation charge of Rs.250. The company also simultaneously launched a variant of the package, which comes with a voice call facility with a call rate of Rs.3.50/minute. SMS costs after the first 2000 messages have been pegged at thirty paise each.
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Bajaj Auto to launch Discover
Mumbai: Bajaj Auto Ltd (BAL) would be launching its executive segment motorbike, Discover, in a week's time. The latest offering from the Bajaj Auto stable is expected to hit the roads in a few northern States in September, followed by an all-India launch that will be staggered over two-three months.

The launch of the 125 cc bike is expected to give a fillip to the company's performance in a segment where it will have to compete for road space with Hero Honda Splendour and TVS Victor. Discover will be priced in the Rs.40,000 — Rs.45,000 range.

The total sale of motorcycles from the Bajaj stable touched 1,06,745 in August, thus making it the third consecutive month in the 1,00,000 range.
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LG Care inaugurates corporate HQ in Chennai
Chennai: LG Care, a part of the Korean conglomerate LG Group, has opened its Rs.6-crore corporate headquarters here. The five floors cover an area of 20,000 sq ft, with recreational facilities and a cafeteria and will house all the company's corporate functions.

The company has just completed its national roll out and is present in about one lakh plus outlets. There are 400 distributors around India at present, and this would go up to 800 soon.
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BPCL to set up base oil production unit at Trombay
Mumbai: Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd is setting up a Rs.318-crore, 1,80,000-tonne unit for producing base oil, raw material for producing automotive and industrial lubricants, at its Trombay refinery.

The project, which is independent of BPCL's ongoing refinery modernisation plan, will help BPCL cut its dependence on imports and supplies from public sector competitors such as Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, the company said.

Increasing crude oil prices in the international market have led to a quantum jump in prices of base oil. Many international lubricant producers operating in India, including Castrol which normally imports base oil, prefer to buy it from Indian public sector companies when prices in the international market increase. As a result, if the ongoing trend of rising crude prices continues, base oil sales will mean additional revenues for BPCL.
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GMI close to completing Daewoo due diligence
New Delhi: General Motors India has said that it was on the verge of completing the due diligence process to acquire the car assembly unit of Daewoo Motors India and that the company would make a formal request to the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) to take over the unit.

According to industry sources, the diligence process, initially expected to be completed within three months, took about six months due to problems of valuation of the assets.

While GM is the only company in the fray for the acquisition of the assembly unit, it is learnt that companies that have evinced interest in Daewoo's engine, transmission and axle (ETA) unit at Daewoo's Surajpur facility, include Rico Auto in partnership with Hi-Tech Gears, Mahindra & Mahindra, and two firms based in Russia and Italy.

Meanwhile, in a development that may accelerate the sale of Daewoo's assets, the DRT is learnt to have passed a judgement on Tuesday stating that financial institutions (FIs) have precedence over Government claims on Daewoo Motors' assets. In other words, the FIs will hold the first charge on Daewoo Motors' assets for recovery of dues estimated at about Rs.1,500 crore.
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Raymond to set up greenfield plant in Thailand
Bangalore: Raymond Ltd plans to set up a greenfield worsted fabric plant in Thailand with an investment outlay of $30-40 million. The proposed plant in Thailand would have a capacity of about 10 million metres.

Raymond is also setting up a denim-wear plant in Bangalore, which will commence operations in January next year. The plant is being set up with an investment of Rs.40 crore. Raymond may also look at a separate plant for shirts in the near future, as the apparel export market looks promising in the wake of removal of quotas.
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GTN Textiles declares lockout as workers strike
Hyderabad: GTN Textiles Ltd has informed the bourses that the company's management has forced to declare lockout with effect from Tuesday as striking workmen at its yarn processing unit at Shadnagar, near here, turned violent.

The workmen, the management stated, were on an illegal strike from July 22. In view of the failure of the conciliation talks, the State Government had referred the matter to the Industrial Tribunal for adjudication. Meanwhile, the workmen turned violent on Tuesday.
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ONGC to develop SEZ in Kakinada
New Delhi: The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) will promote the development of a port-based special economic zone at Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh, along with Kakinada Seaports Ltd (KSPL) and Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Limited (IL&FS).

A memorandum of understanding for a working relationship between the three parties has been signed, an ONGC statement said.

The three companies will develop the SEZ under a private-public sector partnership model through a special purpose vehicle (SPV) in the State, named as the Kakinada Special Economic Zone. ONGC will hold more than 26 per cent equity in the new company and the total equity of State government public sector companies will not be more than 50 per cent. IL&FS and KSPL will contribute to the equity of the SPV as mutually agreed between the parties at a later stage, the statement said.
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Tata Motors to boost bus and truck exports
New Delhi: The country's largest commercial vehicles manufacturer Tata Motors said on Wednesday that it expects exports of its trucks and buses to increase by 50 per cent this fiscal, over the 10,000 units exported last year.

The company also said it would bring in Daewoo trucks into the country by next year, which would be manufactured at the Korea facility that it recently took over.

The company might also look at setting up a bus body assembly unit in South Africa where it has bid for a taxi project. Other external markets the company will focus on include the neighbouring countries, West Asia, Italy, Spain, Russia and Ukraine.

The company recently launched its light commercial vehicles in South Africa.
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Hero Honda sales up
New Delhi: Hero Honda Motors Ltd has posted a 31.5 per cent increase in sales in August.

Sales, including exports, rose to 191,635 units from 145,730, the company said on Wednesday.

The cumulative sales of the company for the period April - August 2004 stood at 10,06,412 motorcycles, translating into a growth of 35 per cent. The company had sold 7,47,660 motorcycles during the corresponding period last year (April - August 2003).
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Maruti sales rise
New Delhi: Maruti Udyog Ltd has said that sales were impacted last month by an eight-day nationwide truckers' strike that halted supplies to dealers.

Sales in August, including exports, rose 32.2 per cent to 42,480 vehicles from the same month last year, the company said in a statement. The sales however lagged behind the 43,419 cars the company sold in July this year.

Exports increased 79.6 per cent, to 4,820, the company said.
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India Development Gateway begins operations
New Delhi: India Development Gateway, a joint initiative of the Indian Government and Development Gateway Foundation, Washington, has commenced operations.

The India Development Gateway is a part of the global network of 58-country gateway. The Indian country gateway is an enabler of development by improving people's lives through partnerships and information systems that provide access to knowledge for development, according to the Centre for Development for Advanced Computing.
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Disruption in telecom services from Sept.10 likely
New Delhi: The face-off between private telecom operators and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd on access deficit charges gained momentum with the basic operators shooting off a missive to the telecom regulator supporting cellular operator's demands for abolishing the charges.

The controversy could lead to disruption in telecom services from September 10 with the private operators threatening to stop payment of the charges.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said that it was seized of the matter and was studying the communication from the private operators. The regulator may hold meetings with the two sides this week to resolve the imbroglio.

Access deficit charge is a levy imposed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on all telecom service providers for subsidising rural telephones. Since BSNL provides the largest number of rural phones, significant part of the fund collected goes to the state-owned company's kitty.

While private operators had been objecting to paying such a charge, the recent tariff cuts by BSNL has added fuel to the controversy with private operators claiming that the state-owned company was misusing the monetary support to "kill competition". BSNL had last week announced a 33 per cent cut in STD rates and a 60 per cent reduction in mobile tariffs making it the cheapest operator in the country. The new rates will come into effect from September 10 and that is when the private operators have threatened to stop ADC payments.

The Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (AUSPI), representing companies such as Reliance Infocomm and Tata Teleservices, has said that ADC was not required and it was serving to fund BSNL's business interests.
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Chennai to host AT&T's global network node
New Delhi: The US based telecom major, AT&T Communications Services, is investing over $1.5 million for setting up a global network node at Chennai by the end of the year.

The node will cater to the growing demand for data communication services by the enterprise segment from India. AT&T already has three similar nodes in the country.

The Chennai node will be part of AT&T's six new global network nodes being set up around the world. A node is a set of equipment environment, which carries voice and data for a customer. Currently, the Chennai-based clients were being serviced from the Bangalore node.

According to AT&T, India is among the fastest growing markets and one of the two strategic areas in the Asia Pacific; the other being China. The Chennai node will also cater to its customers in nearby cities of South India.

AT&T, which has over 350 customers in India, currently has points of presence in New Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai. The Chennai node will also act as a disaster recovery centre for the Bangalore node. The company is looking at the possibility of setting up nodes in Hyderabad, Pune and Kolkata.
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VSNL America gets FCC licence for international operations
Mumbai: VSNL America Inc, affiliate of Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd, has been granted an international telecommunications licence by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

The FCC has granted the company an International Common Carrier 214 Licence, said a news release issued by VSNL. The licence will enable origination and termination of all forms of telecommunications both domestically and overseas.

FCC granted the licence to VSNL America partly based on its success in reaching an agreement with the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Department of Homeland Security to ensure that US law enforcement, national security and public safety are fully protected, said the news release.

Based on that agreement, those three US Government agencies informed the FCC that they have no objection to permitting VSNL America to operate as a licensed US international telecommunication carrier.
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ICICI OneSource buys majority stake in US research company
Mumbai: ICICI OneSource has announced that it has acquired a majority 51 per cent shareholding in business research and analytics firm, Pipal Research of the US.

The BPO service provider plans to enter the lucrative $15-billion business research market cross-selling Pipal's capabilities in customised business research, analytics and information services. According to PwC, the global market for research and information services is estimated at $150 billion.

ICICI OneSource plans to cross-sell its BPO capabilities and Pipal's business analytics expertise to their roster of clients.

Incidentally this is ICICI OneSource's third acquisition following the acquisition of Customer Asset in May 2003 and First Ring in July 2003.
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Satyam opens Melbourne centre
Hyderabad: Satyam Computer Services has announced the launch of its largest Global Development Centre outside of India in Melbourne, Australia, to support the company's Asia-Pacific operations, including Japan. It had opened its first Australian development centre in Sydney in November 2001.
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Stata Labs launches e-mail product - Bloomba
Chennai: The US-based Stata Labs has launched Bloomba, a search-based e-mail product, in India.

Bloomba was designed and developed by the Chennai-based Integrated SoftTech Solutions (iSoftTech) Pvt Ltd, provider of high-end design services to product development companies. iSoftTech has been appointed as resellers of Bloomba in India.

Using Bloomba, one can instantly find any e-mail message, attachment or contact whether or not one uses the folders. It also has an integrated personal information manager that includes a searchable calendar and contacts. The product, which was launched in the US in 2003 and costs $60 there, will be available in India through iSoftTech's Website for Rs.1,499.

Bloomba is also bundled with Saproxy Pro 2.0, which is spam protection software built on open source — Spam Assassin. This product would be available for Rs.499.

Bloomba would meet specific usage needs of heavy e-mail users and businesses without the cost of expensive server-based enterprise solutions.
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Onida Devil II to appear soon
Mumbai: Mirc Electronics Ltd, makers of the Onida brand of TVs and durables, has decided to launch a sequel to its well-known 'Onida Devil' campaign.

A press release from Mirc says that its research showed that the "Onida Devil' continued to enjoy tremendous brand recall value with customers. In this context, Mirc has decided to launch the 'Onida Devil II' in a new avatar, says the release.

The new 'Onida Devil,' while retaining his customary horns, will otherwise be completely contemporary. Two new television commercials, created by Rediffusion DY&R and shot in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, will be aired shortly announcing the arrival of the new 'Onida Devil'.
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Saatchi & Saatchi to handle Chateau Indage ad account
Mumbai: Chateau Indage Ltd. has appointed the creative agency Saatchi & Saatchi India to launch its advertising and marketing campaign. Chateau Indage will spend about Rs.12 crore on marketing and advertising this year.

Saatchi & Saatchi will launch the campaign in the months to come and has already started work on the ad account.

Currently, Chateau Indage has more than 32 leading brands under its umbrella with a reach in more than 60 countries.

Going by Chateau's brief, the challenge for Saatchi & Saatchi will be to project wine drinking as an art and a part of lifestyle, at the same time keeping in mind the thin line between surrogate and aggressive brand positioning.
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Doordarshan to launch DTH next month
Hyderabad: The Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting and Culture, S. Jaipal Reddy, has announced that Doordarshan's Direct-To-Home (DTH) service would be launched in the country next month.

The DTH platform would telecast 40 channels free of cost, he said while inaugurating a low-power TV transmitter at Miryalguda, which he represents in Parliament, in Nalgonda district.

Reddy said that out of eight crore TV sets in the country, only four crore had cable connection; the DTH service, however, would reach the homes of a large number of people through the 40 channels, including those of Doordarshan, through a dish and set-top box.

The Minister also said the Centre's decision to provide licences to 400 FM stations and 4,000 community radio stations, including colleges and other educational institutions, would considerably boost radio.
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