Reliance makes more gas discoveries off east coast
New Delhi: Reliance Industries has discovered gas at two locations off the East Coast at its large D6 and NEC-25 blocks. the company's junior partner Niko Resources of Canada announced this.

At the D6 block in the Krishna Godavari basin, off the Andhra coast, Reliance made its 11th and 12th consecutive gas discovery in M-1 and H-1 exploration wells.

Reliance estimates the M-1 exploration well has approximately 155 metres of net pay making it one of the thickest net pay gas sections encountered to date in the D6 Block (where 14.5 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves have been discovered since 2002), Niko said.
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Tata Steel awarded TPM 'excellence award' for 2004
Kolkata: Four units of Jamshedpur-based Tata Steel have been awarded the TPM 'excellence award' for 2004 by the Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance (JIPM).

The institute confers the TPM awards to applicants from all over the world for implementing TPM to increase plant efficiency. This is the first time in India when a hot strip mill, a bearings plant, a precision tube mill and wire rod mill have obtained the JIPM TPM Excellence Award, according to a Tata Steel spokesperson.

Buoyed by the significant improvements achieved in the units, the deployment of this TPM philosophy has now been done at all the manufacturing and support service areas of the company, including mines and collieries, the spokesperson said in a release.
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i-Flex to acquire two firms in US and France
New Delhi: i-Flex Solutions has said it is planning to acquire two entities in the US and France as part of its efforts at inorganic growth.

The two strategic initiatives include the acquisition of the US-based image sensor technology experts Equinox Corporation, and picking up of a 33 per cent stake in the French treasury software specialist firm, Login SA, i-Flex has informed the Bombay Stock Exchange. Company officials said that both the acquisitions are cash-based transactions.

Both the initiatives are aimed at strengthening its solutions portfolio for the global financial services industry.

The officials said Equinox complements the Flexcube core banking solution of i-flex. At this point the valuation of the companies cannot be disclosed, but the size of these acquisitions are valued at $5 million each.

The US-based Equinox has close to 300 people in its back office process at Gurgaon with approximately five to six customers and post-acquisition this would come under the i-flex umbrella. i-flex had a marketing alliance with Login SA and procuring the 33 per cent stake in the treasury solution provider is an extension of the relationship.

While Equinox provides customer acquisition and BPO services to mortgage institutions, auto financers and credit companies, Login SA is a specialised front and mid-office treasury solution provider.

Both these companies have in-house IP-based products with Equinox having products such as SmartAcquisition and StopLeakage and Login owning Acumen.
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Toyota Prado to be launched in India by month-end
Pune: Toyota Kirloskar Motors plans to launch its Land Cruiser Prado later this month.
Company sources said the company will initially launch V6, the 4-litre petrol engine version of the SUV.

It plans to bring in completely built units of the SUV from the Toyota plant in Japan. Sources said the company was targeting sales of an estimated thousand units in the first year.

The 5-door, 235 bhp SUV features a 5-speed auto-transmission, permanent four-wheel drive, dual zone air-conditioning, height control mechanism and the trademark Toyota 'electronic modulated suspension'.

The company has still not finalised the price.

Toyota Kirloskar Motors is also planning an MUV to replace its Qualis model.
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AirTel sets aside Rs150 to Rs200 crore for service rollout in Orissa and Bihar
Kolkata: Airtel has set aside between Rs150 and Rs200 crore for its cellular rollout in the Orissa and Bihar telecom circles. The Bihar Telecom Circle includes the state of Jharkhand as well.

The company will roll out its cellular operations in the Assam Telecom Circle this fiscal.

Airtel has initiated market surveys in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Lakshwadeep, where it proposes to launch cellular operations.

According to the company, AirTel has a 25 per cent share of the country's cellular market. Its share of the domestic cellular revenue is higher than its market share. The company was in the process of identifying select towns and cities in India where end-to-end wired and wireless telecom services would be offered to corporate customers.
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236 more towns to be covered by RIM in Kerala
Kochi: Reliance Infocomm has announced its second phase of expansion plans in Kerala and is extending its mobile phone network to 236 more towns in the State.

The RIM phase-II plan for Kerala, backed by an investment of Rs250 crore will be completed within 120 days. Of the 236 new towns, around 100 locations will be covered by January 1, 2005, The company had already covered three towns in the last three days under the second phase of expansion programme.

With this expansion, the Reliance Infocomm network would cover 337 cities and towns in the state. The area covered by the network would also include all national highways, state highways and railway routes in the state. The expansion further enhances connectivity capacity of the network, guaranteeing seamless communications across the state with RIM covering all the districts in the State.

RIM had 4.84 lakh customers in Kerala as on October 31. With the addition of new towns in the network, RIM service would be accessible to new customers as well providing increased coverage to the existing subscribers.

The expanded network would cover all tourist destinations and pilgrimage centres of the state. The network will soon be available for pilgrims in the current Sabarimala pilgrimage season.

With Kerala fast emerging as a leader in tourism, the 'anywhere, anytime' data network of Reliance would be a significant infrastructure contribution to the future growth of tourism, he said.
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Microsoft plans to offer software in 14 Indian languages
New Delhi: Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, who is on a visit to India, said the company plans to localise its Windows and Office software in 14 Indian languages by next year-end. He said, the Indian government needed to take measures to stimulate the IT economy in India as the country lagged in investments in computerisation.

Ballmer indicated that there were opportunities for the government to do even more on the issue of digital inclusion.

Ballmer said he had updated prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh on Micosoft's project `Bhasha' to bring Windows and Office in 14 Indian languages by this time next year.

He said Microsoft would continue to hire more R&D engineers both in India and its headquarters in the US.
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OATS launches India centre, partners with Infosys
Bangalore: RFID product development and services major, OATSystems, has launched its Indian facility and announced a partnership with Infosys Technologies to service its RFID (radio frequency identification) products.

The facility will work on both product development and software support and services for OAT's Foundation Suite, the company expects to create IP-oriented products here.

Dr Sanjay Sarma, Chief Technology Officer, OATs said this a step to transition the country from being software services to product development.

Dr Sarma said that a portion of the $11.5-million VC funds received by OATS last year had been ploughed into the Indian facility and the company would look at hiring
top-notch engineers and scout the IITs for talent.

Ashish Vikram has been selected to head the Indian operations.

He said that with large retailers such as WalMart and Tesco working towards RFID compliance in 2005, there will be a need for competent RFID manpower and India can fulfil this requirement and provide services for RFID deployment.
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TeamLease to train students in BPO job skills
Bangalore: TeamLease Services, a staffing solutions company, has launched a BPO-ITeS training programme for students of graduate and technical colleges.

The training programme focuses on enhancing the skills required for a BPO job like improving vocabulary and communication skills, neutralising regional accents, etc. The programme also helps students understand the cultural nuances of various countries, geographical and social issues that are of relevance to the business.

Apart from this, students will also have the opportunity to interact with HR managers of BPO companies to discuss career issues.

According to a recent Nasscom report, the total manpower demand in the BPO sector is estimated to touch 11.2 lakh by the year 2009.
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Cartoon Network will telecast of 3D animated show worldwide
Mumbai: Cartoon Network has approved 'Pet Alien,' a 3D animated television show of Crest Animation Studies for worldwide telecast.

The series is co-owned by Crest and MYP, an arrangement believed to be a first for the industry here in the 3D Computer Generated Imaging (CGI) space.

The two companies are also working on another co-production, `Dive Olly, Dive', likely to be ready for the market by mid-2006, for which nine networks have signed pre-production contracts.
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Air Deccan scales down income projections
New Delhi: South India-based carrier Air Deccan has scaled down its revenue projections by about 25 per cent to $90 million for the year ending March, 31 2005. This is because of the delay in inducting new aircraft into its fleet.

The deployment of three Airbus aircraft was delayed by two months, resulting in late start of its services in key metro sectors like Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Bangalore and Delhi-Chennai.

Besides, the airline was further hit by delays in getting the mandatory regulatory clearance for parking and landing in some of the metro stations like Delhi and Mumbai.

Officials say the carrier will not be able to achieve the earlier target of $120 million though it will cross $90 million.
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GMI plans to change on failure of talks with lenders
New Delhi: General Motors India said its takeover of Daewoo Motors' assembly plant in Surajpur, Uttar Pradesh, has been hindered by disagreement over unsettled debts. The company is talking to the creditors of Daewoo Motors India (DMIL) to acquire the car assembly unit of the failed Korean carmaker and has set a timeframe to clinch the deal.

The announcement of GMI to acquire the car assembly unit of DMIL in March had revived hope of re-launch of Daewoo's compact car' Matiz' as Chevrolet Spark.

GM, the world's largest automaker, now plans to give a deadline to the two disagreeing parties - the Mumbai-based Debt Recovery Tribunal and the customs department - to convey that a prolonged delay in resolving the issue of debts might force it to "look at other options."

GM India's president and managing director, Aditya Vij, said the company will look for alternate routes for expansion after some time. However, he did not provide the time-frame by which GM India will start looking for expansion alternatives.

In March this year, General Motors had made an offer to buy the unit from the principal lenders -ICICI Bank Ltd., Industrial Development Bank of India Ltd and Export-Import Bank of India. The Debt Recovery Tribunal, Mumbai had said the principal lenders should be given first preference in awarding any proceeds of the sale of the Daewoo unit.

Customs officials have claimed that Daewoo India owed money to the department in the form of unfulfilled export commitments, against imported auto components.
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