HPCL and BPCL pay dividends to Govt
New Delhi: Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd have paid dividends of Rs.276.92 crore and Rs.228.39 crore respectively for 2003-04 to the Government of India.

HPCL had paid an interim dividend of 60 per cent and a sum of Rs.103.85 crore was paid to the Government. The dividend payout for the company for 2003-04, including dividend tax, was Rs.842 crore representing 220 per cent, the highest among oil marketing companies.

BCPL had declared a total dividend of 175 per cent, including an interim dividend of 60 per cent, for 2003-04. The Union Government holds 66.20 per cent of BPCL's total equity of Rs.300 crore.
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Cricket: Zee to file affidavit today
Mumbai: The board of Zee Telefilms Ltd (ZTL) will make its decision to make a fresh bid for the rights to telecast cricket matches known on Tuesday after it files an affidavit in the Bombay High Court.

The board met on Monday to decide after the Bombay High Court proposed that both Zee and ESPN-Star Sports go in for a fresh and final bid for the rights to telecast domestic and international cricket played in India for four years starting October. Analysts are of the view that in the event a re-bid takes place, the price of the rights would go above $308 million. At these price levels, the broadcast rights would probably be economically unviable.
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Capital Research hikes stake in HDFC
Mumbai: Capital Research and Management Company has acquired an additional 4.71 per cent stake in Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) Ltd. taking the US-based company's total stake in the company to 6.09 per cent.

Capital Research and Management Company has bought 1,16,07,500 shares from the open market, and now holds a total of 1,50,25,318 shares.
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KRBL to make private placement to Reliance Commodities
Mumbai: The Rs.700-crore KRBL Ltd is to make its second private placement of 30-lakh-equity shares/equity convertible zero coupon warrants to Reliance Commodities Pvt Ltd DMCC on preferential basis.

The Gulf-based Reliance Commodities DMCC is buying these shares/warrants at a price of Rs.90 i.e. at a premium of 50 per cent to its current market price of Rs.59, according to the company release.

KRBL is planning to utilise these funds for a retail push in the country with special focus on institutional business segment as well as on re-furbishing the recently-acquired milling plant.

Earlier Al-Balsharaf, one of Saudi Arabia's top basmati importers, also took 16 per cent stake in the company at a price of Rs.90.

Dhunseri Tea replaces Lodha & Co. as auditor
Kolkata: The C.K. Dhanuka-controlled Dhunseri Tea has removed Lodha & Co of R.S. Lodha as auditor of the company.
A resolution in this regard was approved by a majority of shareholders at the company's AGM. Lodha & Co has been replaced by Lovelock and Lewis.
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Maran: 200 million phones by '07
New Delhi: The Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Dayanidhi Maran, has set a target of at least 200 million telephones by 2007 for which the country would require equipment worth Rs.1 lakh crore.

The Minister reminded the indigenous telecom equipment manufacturing sector to be more competitive to face the growing challenges in the light of World Trade Organisation's (WTO) Information Technology Agreement which envisaged zero duty by 2005. Maran said the Department of Telecom (DoT) has already approached the Ministry of Finance on the problems the indigenous manufacturing sector would face.

The industry has been demanding tax exemption and duty relaxation on raw material and components.

Tax holiday for at least 10 years, simplification in customs clearance, labour laws and bringing IT and telecom on par with Special Economic Zones were among the others issues.
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Microsoft hardware devices: At the touch of a fingerprint
New Delhi: Microsoft has announced a range of hardware input devices including mouse and keyboards in India, and said it was looking at doubling the current growth rate of 100 per cent in the hardware space.

The company has also initiated a research with IMRB to understand the consumer behaviour and estimate the size of the market for input devices. The initial findings of the survey are expected in three months.

The new range of mouse and keyboards are priced between Rs.195 and Rs.5,000 and would be available through a network of 4,000 resellers across 80 cities. The products are wireless optical desktop comfort edition, optical desktop with fingerprint reader, fingerprint reader and standard wireless optical desktop in the desktop category, and digital media Pro keyboard and Internet keyboard in the keyboard category.

In the mouse category, the company has launched wireless intelliMouse explorer with fingerprint reader, and wireless intelliMouse Explorer special edition, wireless optical mouse - special edition, wireless notebook optical mouse and standard wireless optical mouse.

A highlight of the features incorporated in the products are biometric technology, fingerprint reader and keyboard zoom slider. Elaborating on the fingerprint technology, Microsoft India said that the consumers could now throw away their passwords and log into their PCs and favourite Web sites with the touch of a finger.
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IBM bags Hutchison deal
New Delhi: IBM has announced that it would build the IT infrastructure for Hutchison's national customer relationship management (CRM) project in India. The CRM project involves installation of IBM eServers - four IBM eServer pSeries 690, seven IBM eServer pSeries 630 and four IBM eServer pSeries 615 - as the foundation of the nation-wide infrastructure.

With the system in place, Hutchison's customer service executives will have access to information on its over seven million subscribers in India. Having the customer information at their fingertips will enable them to provide faster and more responsive services to customers, thus improving service levels and customer satisfaction.
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Air Sahara unveils 'Steal fares'
New Delhi: Air Sahara has announced 'Steal fares' through which passengers can avail themselves of substantial savings on select to-and-fro flights on six sectors. These include Delhi-Hyderabad, Delhi-Bangalore, Delhi-Chennai and Mumbai-Bangalore.

Air Sahara's announcement on 'Steal fares' coincides with the coming into force of the instant purchase 'Check fares' scheme of Jet Airways, which offers a passenger savings of about 30-45 per cent on air tickets on 10 sectors.

In a statement here, Air Sahara said that 'Steal fares' would be available to passengers in two categories - higher and lower levels. Unlike the Apex fares, the 'Steal fares' need not be booked in advance. These tickets can be purchased near the date of travel based on the availability of seats. A passenger availing of 'Steal fares' will be charged either Rs 5,850 or Rs 7,150 for a one-way economy class trip between Delhi and Chennai, while those travelling between Delhi-Hyderabad will either pay Rs.4,750 or Rs.5,950. Similarly, those availing themselves of the scheme between Mumbai and Bangalore will be charged either Rs.3,250 or Rs.3,750.
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HBO to shift platforms from January
New Delhi: English movie channel HBO will return to the Turner-fold from January next year after being part of the Sony Entertainment Television (SET)-Discovery's One Alliance for two years.

Effective from January 1, 2005, Turner International India will exclusively manage the advertising sales for HBO and distribute the service through its Zee Turner joint venture in India.

HBO will now be an integral part of the Zee Turner bouquet that features Zee TV, Zee Cinema, Cartoon Network, Pogo, CNN as well as a number of regional channels.
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Titan launches bridal jewellery watch collection
Chennai: Titan has launched its new bridal jewellery watch collection under the Nebula brand in the South. Priced between Rs.35,000 and Rs.41,000, this range is crafted from18-carat gold and precious stones.

According to the company, the South accounts for more than 75 per cent of jewellery watches sold in the country. The new designs have been inspired by Indian latticework, and goes well with Indian clothes.

The Indian watch market is about Rs.24,000 crore with only 50 per cent being in the organised sector.
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