Mukesh Ambani relinquishes sweat equity in Reliance Infocomm
Mumbai: Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), is understood to have sought the annulment of his sweat equity to the extent of 50 crore shares in Reliance Infocomm and the board of Reliance Communication Infrastructure Ltd (RCIL) has accepted this request from him.

According to a company's spokesperson, for the last few weeks, a sustained campaign was being carried out about the acquisition of 50 crore Reliance Infocomm shares at face value by Mukesh. RCIL has also informed RIL about this decision.

RCIL has been told that the detailed communication sent by the company on this will be placed at the RIL board meeting on December 27.
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Tata Indicom launches Push-To-Talk services
New Delhi: Tata Teleservices, has announced the launch of Push-To-Talk (PTT) services whereby customers can make unlimited calls to other Tata PTT subscribers at a flat fee of Rs99 a month. Tata is the first mobile operator to launch PTT in the country.

The new service allows customers to connect directly, in seconds, with other Tata Indicom Push-To-Talk users by simply pressing a button on their Push-To-Talk capable handsets.

Targeted at corporates, small medium enterprises and mass consumers, the service will be available on Kyocera KX 440 handset with a host of additional features such as chat applications and group talk. As an introductory offer, for post-paid customers, PTT handsets are priced at Rs5,000. In addition, Tata Teleservices is offering an EMI scheme for corporates, where a corporate customer can buy a PTT handset by paying a down payment of Rs1,000. The corporate customer will have to pay an EMI of Rs350 for 12 months.

Built on Qualcomm's BrewChat (tm) technology, the service allows subscribers to instantly call a group of people at one time from any place making it more convenient than sending an SMS.
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Tata Indicom to extend services in TN
Madurai: Tata Indicom has plans to extend its services to 145 towns in Tamil Nadu by the end of the current financial year.

At present the services are available in ninety towns. The expansion plan is in tune with the company's strategy to penetrate the markets on the one hand and establish its presence nationwide on the other.
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HCL Tech buys out Apollo Contact
New Delhi: HCL Technologies has announced the acquisition of balance ten per cent equity in Apollo Contact Centre, Belfast of HCL Technologies BPO Services (NI) Ltd, from BT plc.

With this, HCL Technologies now has 100 per cent stake in Apollo Contact Centre, a company release said here. The company had acquired 90 per cent stake in December 2001 and structured a 90:10 joint venture with BT called HCL NI, with a clause to acquire the balance stake after 36 months.
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Maruti plans price hike in Jan
New Delhi: Maruti Udyog has informed its dealers in a communiqué that it is likely to raise prices next month as rising input costs were putting pressure on margins.

Prices would go up by Rs5,000 to Rs20,000 in January as costs of steel, plastic and crude oil had gone up substantially, a company communication to dealers said. In addition, the weakening dollar is also showing impact on procurement prices of imported parts.

Maruti's rivals Hyundai Motor India, Tata Motors, Skoda Auto India, General Motors India and Ford Motors have also announced their plans to raise prices in January 2005.
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HAL: Puts up a show for Malaysia's PM
Bangalore: The Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd has presented its products, the `Dhruv', the advanced light helicopter, along with the Intermediate Jet Trainer and the Light Combat Aircraft for Malaysia's consideration, putting them up for display before the visiting Malaysian Prime Minister. The Malaysian Prime Minister, Abdallah Ahamad Badawi, visited HAL's Bangalore Complex on Thursday.

Badawi, leading a high level team of Ministers and officials to Bangalore, also watched the flight demonstrations of two other HAL products, the Intermediate Jet Trainer prototype and the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) prototype 2, for nearly 30 minutes, along with the 'Dhruv'. Meanwhile, the helicopter will be flying at next month's air show at the UAE as well as at the Paris show.

The ALH is a 14-seater multi-purpose helicopter with variants for civilian, navy and army use. It entered service in March 2002 and is being targeted at the States for VIP transits, for medical emergencies and at times of disasters.

The Malaysian Government has a fleet of 25 Alouette III helicopters and has been scouting for a new lot to replace or augment it. According to HAL, it has shown its interest in the ALH since it flew at the Paris Air Show in June 2003. Besides following it up with presentations to the Malaysian Armed Forces, the company has also offered to upgrade the Royal Malaysian Air Force's Alouette fleet and the offer is under evaluation.

Under a bilateral agreement, the RMAF has been sourcing Alouette spares, repair and overhaul services from HAL for $6 million. HAL also supplies helicopter spares and services to their aircraft maintenance agency AIROD.

In addition to helicopter-related business, the company has been in interactions for support to Malaysia's SU-30 fighters. It recently signed a $10.38-million contract with the Malaysian Government for the supply of radar computers for the Su-30 MKM aircraft that Malaysia is procuring from Russia. HAL said it was exploring further opportunities to enhance business volumes with that country.
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LG's refrigerator sales cross one million mark
New Delhi: LG Electronics, India claims to have sold upwards of one million refrigerators this calendar year. According to LG Electronics India, sales of LG's direct cool refrigerators have grown by 65 per cent during 2004, principally due to the fact that the company started manufacturing refrigerators at its own facilities in the beginning of the year and rolled out a complete range.

LG was earlier sourcing its direct cool refrigerator requirements from Voltas. Sales of the company's frost-free refrigerators have increased by 25 per cent in 2004.

Meanwhile, LG has already set targets for the next calendar year, and expects to grow by 75 per cent in 2005.
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Hughes Soft to become Flextronics
New Delhi: Hughes Software Systems Ltd (HSS) has said that its board of directors has approved the change of name of the company to `Flextronics Software Systems Ltd.'

HSS informed the BSE that "the board of Directors of the Company, by way of resolution passed by circulation on December 22, 2004, has approved the change of name of the company from `Hughes Software Systems Limited' to `Flextronics Software Systems Limited,' subject to the approval of the shareholders and other statutory approvals."

The move comes in the face of the fact that Flextronics is now the majority shareholder in the company. Flextronics holds about 70 per cent stake, and the balance is with the public. Flextronics paid approximately $226.5 million to Hughes Network Systems, Inc for its ownership stake in HSS and approximately $62.5 million to the shareholders of HSS who participated in the open offer made by it in accordance with Indian securities regulations.
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MRF pays 140 percent final dividend
Chennai: MRF Ltd's board of directors has recommended a final dividend of Rs 14 a share (140 per cent) on the paid-up capital as on September 30, 2004.

The company has already declared and paid two interim dividends of Rs 3 (30 per cent) each for the year, thus aggregating to a total dividend of Rs 20. The company has informed the stock exchanges that its annual general meeting of shareholders will be held on March 17, 2005.
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Praj Ind. to set up two breweries
Pune: Praj Industries, the Pune-based alcohol and brewery technology and engineering group, has bagged two more contracts to the tune of Rs18 crore for setting up greenfield breweries. The orders involve one brewery to be set up in the Eastern region of India and another in the Saarc region.

It has also bagged an export order from West Africa for a microbrewery. A microbrewery usually caters to the local demand of draft beer, which is ready-to-drink. A popular concept in many emerging economies including China, this concept is yet to be introduced in India.

Earlier SABMiller had also contracted Praj for their modernisation project in South India. Praj now has a market share in excess of 70 per cent in the Indian brewery segment also.
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HPCL pays interim dividend to Govt
Mumbai: Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) has paid the Union Government a 50 per cent interim dividend of Rs86.54 crore, a news release said.

For the first half-year ended September 30, 2004, HPCL had recorded a net profit of Rs541.61 crore compared to Rs601.18 crore.
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Volkswagen opts for Vizag
Hyderabad: German automotive major Volkswagen has finally decided to set up its manufacturing unit in about 400 acres located opposite the steel plant at Visakhapatnam.

Volkswagen had also identified its Indian partner in the proposed Rs1,000-crore manufacturing facility but declined to identify the joint venture partner.
A Volkswagen team will be arriving here by this month-end or in the first week of next month when they are expected to make an announcement about their joint venture partner.
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Naushua Electronics and TCL to set up unit at Vizag
Hyderabad: Sri Naushua Electronics Pvt Ltd, an electronic goods assembly and maintenance unit, and TCL India Holdings Pvt Ltd, a 100 per cent subsidiary of the $4-billion TCL Corporation of China, are setting up a Rs100-crore manufacturing plant at Visakhapatnam for the production of consumer electronic products.

The State Government had allotted 25 acres of land and granted sales tax exemption for a period of five years for the joint venture company, which would provide direct and indirect employment to 1,000 people. The electronics company proposes to manufacture colour televisions, DVD and VCD players, home theatre systems and home appliances.

The range of products to be produced includes air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, desktop and laptop computers, digital cameras and mobile phones.

Naushua would most likely have a 76 per cent holding and TCL could hold the remaining 24 per cent stake in the manufacturing company. Apart from transferring the know-how, TCL will be controlling the quality of the products. Currently, it has 700 distributors. TCL, the world's largest producer of 22 million colour televisions a year, will also export the products manufactured at Visakhapatnam.
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