Court asks Birlas to file original wills
Kolkata: Justice K.J. Sengupta of the Calcutta High Court today dismissed two petitions filed by G.P. Birla, K.N. Tapuria and P.K. Khaitan seeking to file a notarised photocopy of the wills of M.P. Birla and his wife, Priyamvada Birla, executed in 1982. The court observed that original wills have to be filed to obtain probate.

The court directed the three to file the original wills within seven days of receiving the copy of the order.

It also held that the probate petition filed by G.P. Birla, K.N. Tapuria and P.K. Khaitan was defective because the signatures of attesting witnesses were absent. This should be rectified, the court said.

The court also fixed the hearing of the application made by the two sisters of M.P. Birla, Radha Mohta and Laxmibai Newar, seeking that the Lodha probate petitions be declared as contentious and the probate petition be treated as a suit.
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Reliance Info unveils new post-paid tariff plans
Mumbai: Reliance Infocomm, has now announced new postpaid tariff plans, the notable feature of it being a call rate of 40 paise per minute from Reliance Indiamobile (RIM) to RIM or from RIM to Reliance Fixed Wireless Phone/Terminal under the Joy 499 plan. Under this plan, which the operator claimed is "arguably the most simple and attractive offer in the industry," all other calls, including STD, would cost Re 1 per minute, said a news release.

Reliance Infocomm has also announced newer versions of its popular Plans - Joy 149 and Joy 399. Under New Joy 399 also customers will be charged 40 paise per minute to RIM and FWP/T.

Under New Joy 149, the tariff for local and intra circle calls is 99 paise/minute for RIM to RIM and Reliance FWP/T. Customers also have the option to avail themselves of 99 paise/minute for calls to other mobile phones by paying an additional monthly rental of just Rs 25, under Joy 149.

Customers of Joy 399 and Joy 499 would also enjoy ILD rates of Rs 12.99 per minute for calls to the US, Canada, Europe, UK and South-East Asia.

Existing subscribers under other plans have the option of migrating to Joy 499 and new versions of Joy 149 and Joy 399. Another big advantage for Reliance Post Paid customers will be that they can roam on home tariff across India, resulting in savings of up to 80 per cent, said the news release.
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DoT to step up action against illegal long distance telephony
New Delhi: IN a bid to curb the menace of the growing grey market in the international long distance segment, the Department of Telecom (DoT) is planning to step up monitoring and conduct raids across the country.

Already 21 raids have been completed this year to track grey marketers, which is leading to annual loss of around Rs.1, 800 crore to the exchequer, according to industry estimates. It is also estimated that out of the total international traffic coming into India, about 30 per cent-50 per cent is now getting routed via the grey market operators.

The low cost of operations and the difference in arbitrage between legitimate and illegal channels is keeping the grey market alive. Meanwhile, Cellular Phone Users Association of India, a consumer organisation has filed a public interest litigation with the Delhi High Court against DoT and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on grounds that the authorities have failed to curb the growing grey market.

The court has directed the Government to file a status report before September 8, on the measures it has undertaken to tackle grey market operations.
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Maruti to procure globally
New Delhi: The country's largest automaker Maruti Udyog is set to launch a procurement programme to source components globally from the most competitive suppliers.

Apart from Japan, the company already sources dyes and certain raw materials from countries such as Taiwan and Korea.
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Ashok Leyland ontrack for BS III compliance
Hyderabad: Ashok Leyland Ltd has drawn up plans to roll out the entire range of Bharat Stage (BS) III compliant vehicles from January 2005 to meet the Union Government's pollution control norms to come into force on April 1, 2005.

The BS III compliant vehicles would be launched across segments and be available in various options of diesel-powered vehicles and CNG-based ones for both passenger and goods vehicles. However, these would be initially available for 11 major cities that are required to be BS II compliant.
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TVS to launch entry-level bike by month-end
New Delhi: Two-Wheeler manufacturer TVS Motor will launch an entry-level motorcycle 'TVS Star' by the end of this month and has earmarked an investment of about Rs.200 crore towards new product development this fiscal.

The company is also planning to set up a manufacturing subsidiary in South-East Asia, though it is yet to zero in on the exact country. The new motorcycle will be manufactured at the company's Hosur (Tamil Nadu) plant. TVS hopes to improve its market share in the entry-level motorcycle segment to 33 per cent with the new launch. The company is launching TVS Star after phasing out its two-stroke entry-level Max range of motorcycles.
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Temasek picks up 5 per cent of Apollo shares
Chennai: Apollo Hospitals' shareholders on Thursday cleared a private placement of 5 per cent of equity shares to Singapore's Temasek Holdings at Rs.246 a share. The Temasek investment would add about Rs.49 crore to Apollo's capital.

Dr Reddy said that the funds would be used to retire some of Apollo's high-cost debt, and as working capital. He hoped that Apollo could use Temasek's contacts to expand its operations in the Far East.
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i-flex to issue warrants to IBM Global Services
Mumbai: The board of directors of i-flex Solutions Ltd has approved a proposal to issue warrants to IBM Global Services India Pvt Ltd.

At the board meeting held here, i-flex has decided to issue 91,347 options or warrants convertible at a future date into equal number of equity shares of face value of Rs.5 each to IBM, according to a company notification to the Bombay Stock Exchange. The board also allotted 8,250 shares to employees under the stock option plan.

Meanwhile, i-flex has bagged an order from Ayudhya JF Asset Management, one of the largest mutual fund firms in Thailand with over $1.5 billion funds under management. AJF has selected Flexcube Investor Services as the technology platform for its Unit Trust Management operations.
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Infineon to invest 20 million euros in India centre
New Delhi: Infineon Technologies plans to invest 20 million euros (around Rs.113 crore) in its Research and Development centre in Bangalore in the coming year. The investment will be towards personnel cost and lab equipments amongst others.

Besides India, the company has R&D centres in Germany, Austria, Singapore and China.

While the others centres focus on chip design work, in the case of the Indian R&D centre about 80 per cent of the work is software and balance 20 per cent is in chip design.
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BSNL Data One Broadband set for commercial launch
Bangalore: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd's (BSNL) broadband value added service, Data One Broadband, is set for commercial launch next month.

The service was launched in Bangalore nearly nine months ago on a trial basis. Data One Broadband allows customers access to various services through a set top box. It allows customers to access high speed Internet at 256 Kbps, telephone services and video streaming and conferencing facilities. The customers will also be able to get entertainment on demand through access to two television channels, which will telecast movies, music videos and games.

When the service was launched on a trial basis, the customers were charged a monthly fee of Rs.999. The tariff structure may be changed once the service is launched commercially. The set-top boxes can either be bought at a one-time payment or through financing schemes.

As per the revenue-sharing agreement with I-Spatial, it will get 70 per cent of the revenues, while the rest will go to BSNL. The contract with I-Spatial is for 10 years. BSNL is looking at franchisee options in different circles as it believes that the market for such a service is huge.

BSNL expects to offer more services as the demand for this service grows. Some of the additional services proposed are audio conferencing, broadcast digital TV, personal Web site and for commercial use, enterprise service and managed LAN service.
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