Cairn makes another strike in Rajasthan
New Delhi: British energy firm Cairn Energy Plc has announced a fresh discovery in its Rajasthan block. "Cairn has made a new gas discovery with the Raageshwari-5 well, currently operating 75 km south of Mangala (oil field), in the southern part of Rajasthan basin," the company said.

The company's oil discoveries, Mangala and Aishwariya (formerly N-A field), are scheduled to go into production from the last quarter of 2007. Plateau rates are currently targeted at between 80,000 and 100,000 barrels per day.

Cairn has also secured a further exploration area, as an extension to its existing onshore acreage in Rajasthan. The company has received approval from the government for exploration in another 856 sq km extension of the block to the north west of the recent NV discovery. The extension runs until the middle of May 2005.

India currently imports 2 million barrels of oil a day. It produces 650,000 barrels a day itself, of which 50,000 comes from the Cairn-operated Ravva field.
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Reliance Infocomm clears all dues to BSNL
New Delhi: Reliance Infocomm has paid Rs 84.7 crore to BSNL towards access deficit charge (ADC) that it allegedly evaded by routing incoming international calls as local ones, thereby meeting the Supreme Court directive in this regard.

Reliance deposited the amount on January 7, and with that has cleared the dues of Rs182.7 crore it owed to BSNL till October 2004, BSNL officials have said. The total amount pending on Reliance was Rs263 crore till date.

The Supreme Court had, on January 3, directed the private telecom operator to pay the balance amount within a week failing which BSNL would be free to disconnect the services.
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NALCO gross profits at Rs.750.12 crore
New Delhi: The National Aluminium Company (Nalco) has posted a net profit of Rs790.31 crore in April-December 2004, crossing the total annual target of Rs597.62 crore in the first three quarters of the current fiscal itself.

Gross sales during the first nine months of the current fiscal was Rs3,124.49 crore as against a target of Rs2,643.15 crore, an official release said. Total export earnings during the period also surpassed the target of Rs1,394.27 crore to touch Rs1,454.43 crore.

Gross profit during the period under review stood at Rs1,322.6 crore as against a target of Rs750.12 crore.
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MphasiS BFL Q3 net down fifteen per cent
Bangalore: Software company MphasiS BFL has reported an almost fifteen per cent fall in its third quarter net profit along with a marginal fall in its consolidated revenue.

The Bangalore-based company's net profit is down 14.75 per cent to Rs26.86 crore in the December ending quarter. MphasiS BFL's consolidated revenue is down 0.6 per cent to Rs191.83 crore in the Oct-Dec period on a quarter-on-quarter basis.

The company said it hired 821 employees in Q3 and added 13 new clients over the same period.
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Reliance Infocomm ties up with Sprint
Mumbai: US-based communications service provider Sprint has said today it has tied up with Reliance Infocomm to offer its 'SprintLink Internet Protocol' network to US-based and other global MNCs in India.

As per the network agreement, Reliance Infocomm will provide international connectivity to India and intra-country 'last mile' connectivity for Sprint in servicing US-based and global corporations, Sprint said in a release here.

Sprint will now offer its comprehensive suite of corporate data services to help companies connect to employees, offices or business partners in and outside India, it said, adding IP nodes have been deployed in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore.

The tie-up will extend Sprint's reach across India through Reliance Infocomm's network backbone, based on a fully redundant architecture covering over 1,400 cities in India.
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Eli Lilly cuts insulin prices
New Delhi: Eli Lilly and Company [India] Pvt Ltd has reduced the price of its 100 IU/ml range of Huminsulin vials [Human Insulin-r DNA origin]. The company had earlier cut prices on its 40 IU injections of insulin at the start of 2003. With an over 20 per cent price reduction, each vial of Huminsulin 100 IU/ml will now be cheaper by almost Rs100, thus making it more affordable.

These vials are especially suited for patients on high dose of insulin because for such patients, higher concentration in a vial means lesser volume to be injected, resulting in ease and convenience of administration.
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Sonata Q3 revenue up 54 per cent
Bangalore: Sonata Software declared a 54 per cent rise in third quarter revenues at Rs25.28 crore, with profits rising 48 per cent to Rs4.2 crore over the corresponding previous year period. Sequentially, revenues grew 4 per cent while PAT grew 7 per cent over the previous quarter (Q2).

The company added four new clients during the quarter. Fifty one per cent of export earnings came from Europe where the company has a presence in three cities including the newest subsidiary in Frankfurt, and 49 per cent from the US.

Sonata generated Rs6 crore in cash from operations during the quarter.
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Percept launches out-of-home media service arm
New Delhi: Integrated marketing and communications group Percept has launched Posterscope India, an out-of-home (OOH) media service agency, through a joint venture with Aegis Group Plc of UK.

Posterscope is part of the £7.1 billion Aegis Group Plc - one of the world's leading marketing services company. The move forms part of Percept Group's plans to consolidate its position in the fast growing Rs1,300-crore OOH market. Percept's OOH business is currently the second largest media service in the country with clients such as Airtel, FedEx, SaharaOne, Philips, Pantaloon and Kingsbury.

Posterscope India plans to expand operations from 120 people in 16 locations currently to 375 people across 20 full service locations to look after strategy, planning, buying and operations in 2005.

The Indian OOH market is currently growing at 15-18 per cent. The major customer segments that have spurred the growth are telecom, films, financial services, television channels, and consumer durables.
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