Metaljunction to offer end-to-end solutions for Tata Steel
Kolkata: Metaljunction Services Ltd (MSL) - the public limited avatar of the erstwhile MetalJunction.com Pvt Ltd has announced that it will offer end-to-end solutions for collection and sale of a range of secondary products of Tata Steel.

Created as an e-commerce joint venture between Tata Steel and SAIL, MSL is aiming to make BPO operations its mainstream business in the long run. The secondary steel products division of Tata Steel previously managed the Rs450-crore business.

The company has said that as per the latest agreement finalised on December 1, 2004, the company would be responsible for collecting and selling non-prime ferrous and non-ferrous, products, by-products, capital goods and spares and a host of such other items for Tata Steel.

Meanwhile, MSL is gearing up to launch an e-retailing initiative for Tata Steel in March 2005. As per the project, MSL will create virtual stocks at the depots maintained by Tata Steel and sell these to the end customer or retailer by arrangement with a logistics provider. The initiative is expected to replace the existing multi-layered distribution system.
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TRAI seeks more powers to resolve rows
New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has said that it will approach either the Supreme Court or the Government to amend the TRAI Act to get more powers to intervene in disputes relating to interconnection.

TRAI said, "Due to an order by the Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT), TRAI has no policing powers over disputes for which the telecom tribunal is currently the sole authority. We are trying to deal with the situation to get a remedy. Either we will request that due amendment be made to the law or we will go to the Supreme Court that in interconnection, general ruling is not applicable."

TRAI has also made a recommendation to the Government to give it financial independence by allowing it to use a small part of the licence fee collected from the operators to fund its operations, instead of the existing support from the Consolidated Fund of India.
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Commodity price on Reliance mobiles
Mumbai: Reliance Infocomm has tied up with National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange Ltd (NCDEX) to disseminate its spot and future commodity prices through its R-world suite of mobile applications. This would make available real time commodity prices to subscribers of Reliance IndiaMobile.

Bringing the mandi on mobile handsets will benefit the huge farmer and trader community of India, said a news release from Reliance Infocomm. The application `NCDEX Quotes' is available on R World, the data application suite of Reliance IndiaMobile.

NCDEX with around 500 members, has on a daily basis over 2,000 users participating in an average of 40,000-60,000 trades involving volumes of over Rs1,000 crore, said the news release.

"Active trades are conducted in all major agro products such as castor seed, chana, crude palm oil, expeller mustard oil, guar gum, guar seeds, jute, cotton, mustard seed, pepper, palmolein, refined soya oil, rubber, soya bean, soya meal, sugar, turmeric, urad, wheat and yellow peas.

Precious metals such as gold and silver have been recently added.
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Seagate market share up at 72.4 percent
New Delhi: Hard drive company Seagate Technology has announced that it has increased its market share in India to 72.4 per cent in the September quarter of 2004, compared to 61 per cent in the previous quarter as per an AC Nielsen latest report.

The report found that while assemblers and system integrators continue to dominate the market, accounting for as much as 55 per cent of all hard drives sold, local original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have overtaken global OEMs.
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HCL Tech to provide services to UK insurance broking firm
New Delhi: HCL Technologies, a provider of information technology and BPO solutions, has announced that it has entered into an agreement with UK-based insurance broking giant AA Insurance Services, for offering financial services to the latter's customers.

"Leveraging its contact centre in Belfast, Northern Ireland, HCL will be selling financial services to AA customers. HCL has regulatory approval for such work and with this contract, make its entry into the front office distribution market for the first time," a company release said here.

It is expected that the sales activity for AA will become fully regulated by January 2005. AA Insurance Services - part of one of UK's largest automobile associations - provides competitive quotes for car, home and travel in the UK market.

HCL Technologies Global Insurance Practice offers business solutions to global insurers operating in the life & annuities/pensions, property & casualty/general, health and reinsurance segments. The practice works with over 30 insurance clients worldwide, with operations across the US, UK, India and the Asia Pacific.

HCL Technologies BPO is a subsidiary of HCL Technologies.
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Wipro Tech tops in remote data management
Bangalore: Wipro Technologies, the global IT services division of Wipro Ltd, has said that it has been ranked the leader in an AMR Research report titled `Remote Data Centre management - Low cost and high quality from India'. Leading Indian and international players were evaluated based on service and organisational attributes.

The ranking was awarded based on a combination of qualitative and quantitative inputs coupled with customer references, the company said in a release.

Remote data centre management includes tasks such as IT HelpDesk, System administration, network, storage, server and database management from remote locations without transferring data centre IT assets and employees to the outsourcing provider.

The report said that satisfactory levels of service had been reported from Indian services providers with savings of between 30-80 per cent which made remote data centre management an excellent way to cut IT operational costs.
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Infosys application for Australian public transport services
Bangalore: Infosys Technologies Ltd, through its Australian subsidiary, has delivered a new software application to the Victorian State Government for managing its public transport services.

The automated bus contract system, valued at $4.5 million, is a suite of business applications to improve ``management of public transport bus contract worth $450 million per annum,'' said a company release.

The bus system will enable the Victorian infrastructure department to provide professional public transport support systems. The Victorian Government manages 1,700 bus contracts involving 1,600 operators and covering metropolitan, regional and school bus services.
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Funskool and Japan's Tomy Toys tie up
Chennai: Funskool (India) has entered into an exclusive agreement with Japan's Tomy Toys to sell the latter's range of toys meant for infants and pre-school children.

According to Funskool, the toys would initially be imported and later manufactured here. The license agreement is for an initial period of two years.

Funskool is the only toy company to have a manufacturing facility and local manufacturing facility is crucial in shortening the time required to replace stock in the shop shelf.

The company estimates the market for pre-school toys to be in the region of Rs35 crore, of which Funskool has a share of about Rs7 crore. The company's aim is to increase its share to about 35 per cent of the market for pre-school toys.

Funskool, a joint venture between MRF and US's Hasbro Inc, manufactures seven toys sold by Hasbro. The company also designs toys for UK's John Adams, and is in talks with two other companies to design and manufacture their toys.
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