BSNL to review rural telephone project after ADC cut
New Delhi: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, has said that it would have to review its rural telephone project in the light of the new Access Deficit Charge regime. The state-owned company said that the new regime announced by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India would result in an Rs1,254 crore loss.

"With the reduced revenues from ADC as per the new regime, BSNL may now have to review some of the projects which may hamper growth of services in rural areas and of other socially desirable but economically unviable projects," BSNL said in a statement.

"The new ADC regime will not only affect our development activities but also adversely impact the roll-out of our services in rural areas as well. It is worth mentioning that BSNL has incurred expenditure of the order of about Rs40,000 crore from 2001 to 2004 in rural telephony and socially desirable projects and had ambitious plans for the current year and future as well to fulfil the Government objective to achieve the envisaged rural tele-density targets for overall economic growth of the country," BSNL said.

The company said that it has to provide rural telephones at the tariff of Rs50 per month only against average cost based rental of Rs361 per month. "After unification of licences the private sector has shed all responsibility to provide rural telephony and the entire burden is being borne by BSNL only," the statement said.
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Chidambaram steps into Ambani puddle
Mumbai: The Union Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, said that he is advising the Ambani brothers, who are fighting over the ownership of Reliance group, to sort out their differences privately.

Responding to queries from newspersons at a function at the BSE, the Finance Minister said: "Both Mr Anil Ambani and Mr Mukesh Ambani meet me from time to time. We all know that there is a problem between the two. I have advised both of them to try and settle these differences within the four walls of their house. I would be very happy if they heed that advice and settle these differences."

On issues of corporate governance arising out of the battle between the brothers, Chidambaram said that it is up to the authorities concerned to take a view on corporate governance violations, if there are any.

Meanwhile, Reliance Industries has informed the stock exchanges that its board of directors will meet on January 21 to discuss third-quarter financial results. The board of directors of RIL's petrochemicals subsidiary, IPCL, and Reliance Capital will meet on January 20 also for discussing third-quarter results.
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DaimlerChrysler best-ever sales in ten years
Pune: Car manufacturer DaimlerChrysler India has said it has achieved its best-ever sales in its 10-year track record in the country, selling 1,815 units of the car in 2004.

The company, which set up operations at Chikhli near Pune in 1994, said sales volumes of its S, E and C class cars grew 15 per cent over the previous year.

The company posted a turnover of Rs536 crore in 2004, which is 23 per cent more than that in 2003. The company also sold 126 units of its flagship model S-Class and S-350 L petrol in 2004.

The company said it sold 816 units of the new E-Class, E-240 petrol, E-200 Kompressor petrol and E270 CDI diesel. It also sold 785 units of the popular new C-Class, C-200 Kompressor petrol and C-220 CDI diesel. The company sold 148 units of completely built units such as M-Class, SL-Class, SLK and Maybach in 2004.
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Ashok Leyland's December sales up
Chennai: The increase in productivity consequent to wage negotiations at the Hosur-I unit helped Ashok Leyland produce 5,647 vehicles against 4,497 vehicles in the previous month.

Ashok Leyland sold 5,126 trucks in December 2004, 18 per cent more than in the same month of 2003 (4,356 vehicles).

In the first three quarters of the current year, the company sold 36,411 vehicles, compared with 32,838 vehicles in the same period last year - an increase of 11 per cent.
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Honda Siel sales up 110 per cent in 2004
New Delhi: Honda Siel Cars India has said its sales surged by 110 per cent to 35,414 units in calendar 2004 over the previous year.

According to the company, it sold 115 per cent more City sedans in 2004 at 30,834 units.

A total of 2,977 Accord sedans were sold, a rise of 69 per cent over 2003. The new version of the luxury sedan Accord V6 helped the company strengthen its position in the segment, a company statement said.
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Mobile subscriber base up 1.9 million in Dec. '04
New Delhi: Mobile subscriber base went up by 1.9 million to cross 47 million in December. While the global system for mobile (GSM) based operators have added 1.4 million new subscribers, the code division multiple access (CDMA) based mobile operators have accounted for the remaining 5 lakh subscribers.

Releasing the figures, the Cellular Operators Association of India said the addition in subscriber base in December was 20 per cent higher than the additions in November.

AirTel led the tally with 9.8 million subscribers, which accounted for a 26 per cent market share. Airtel added about 4.10 lakh subscriber in the month, while Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd added 2.86 lakh new users, taking its overall subscriber base to 8.4 million.

Hutch added 3.28 lakh subscribers in December, taking the total base to 7.1 million users. Idea's subscriber base stood at 46.96 lakh, marginally up from its November user base of 45.13 lakh.

The market leader continues to be Reliance Infocomm, which added 4 lakh new subscribers to take the total tally to over 10 million. Among the metros, Delhi continued to be the hotspot with 3.8 million subscribers followed by Mumbai with 3.5 million subscribers.
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CQMS, Jadavpur University working on e-waste management system
Kolkata: The Centre for Quality Management System of Jadavpur University is working on the development of an effective e-waste management system that will minimise the hazardous impact of inappropriate disposal of e-waste.

With a view to gathering inputs from various stakeholders in this regard, the Centre at JU is organising a one-day National Symposium on e-waste Management on February 17. The Centre for Quality Management System, said that those attending the symposium would include manufacturers of electronic equipment, Government agencies, non-government organisations, re-cyclers, researchers & academicians. The idea was to prepare a concrete action plan for effective e-waste management within the next two years.

The term e-waste was being loosely applied to computers and peripherals, mobile handsets, televisions, fax machines, electronics toys, appliances, etc that were at the end of their life cycle and awaited disposal. This, he felt, would become a major issue in India in the years ahead, he said.

According to him, over 7,000 tonnes of e-waste is generated in India annually from old computers and cellular handsets alone. Added to this is the e-waste from other condemned electronics items such as TVs, VCRs, stereos, copiers and fax machines. The enormity of the problem can be gauged from the fact that over 1,000 personal computers are scrapped in India every day.
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Singapore Airlines' special fares to Sydney, Bangkok
Mumbai: Singapore Airlines has said that it would offer round trip fares of Rs16,139 to Bangkok and Rs31,000 to Sydney. The fares are part of a special New Year package and will be valid up to March 31.

The fares will be applicable only on the SQ 421 flights that leave for Singapore five times a week from Mumbai. Passengers will be offered connecting flights to Bangkok and Sydney.

The last date for booking tickets under the scheme is February 22, a news release said.
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Samsung launches national digital imaging initiative
New Delhi: Samsung India Electronics Ltd has announced its national digital imaging initiative to popularise digital photography amongst Indian consumers. Towards this end, the company has announced the launch of six new models making a total offering of thirteen models of digital cameras in India.

The company has also announced the expansion of its retail presence for digital cameras across the country.
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