MTNL to invest Rs.2000 crore towards GSM expansion
New Delhi: The state-owned MTNL has announced another round of expansion in GSM mobile phones and has said that up to Rs2,000 crore would be invested in the next financial year.

The national carrier said that it was growing much faster, compared to its rivals in the private sector. It added 44,659 new customers in January this year in Delhi alone, which formed 53 per cent of the total added subscribers. Similarly in Mumbai it added 50,102 subscribers in January.

Officials said that if this trend continues, MTNL may require additional capacity much sooner than expected. Fresh capacity of four lakh lines each in Delhi and Mumbai should be completed within first half of 2005-06, officials said.

In January, against MTNL's 53 per cent share in the net addition, leading private GSM players like Bharti managed to take away only 15 per cent (12,992), Hutch only 10 per cent (8,275) and Idea added 18,599 new subscriber in Delhi, officials said. In Mumbai also, the private players were far behind.
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BPCL ties up with Lufthansa for refuelling
Hyderabad: The Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) has been given the contract for refuelling the planes of the German Airlines, Lufthansa.

Lufthansa last week flew in its inaugural flight from Frankfurt to Hyderabad.

Lufthansa will operate thrice-a-week, with A340-300 aircraft.
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Qatar Airways and Kale consultants renew contract
Mumbai: Kale Consultants has renewed its contract, worth $12 million, with Qatar Airways for providing revenue accounting and revenue recovery services. Qatar Airways has outsourced its revenue accounting service to Kale MPS, the BPO centre of Kale.

The contract will run for four years and could be worth $20 million-$25 million in this period, given the airline's current growth, Qatar Airways officials have indicated. Qatar Airways said that the airline would soon finalise other outsourcing deals, which are under negotiation. He said the airline was committed to outsourcing non-aviation jobs to reduce costs.

The association between Qatar Airways and Kale began in 2001.
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Four more localized versions of Windows and Office by April
New Delhi: Software giant Microsoft plans to release the localised version of its operating system Windows and Office suite in four more Indian languages, including Tamil and Bengali, by April.

The company has already launched the localised version of its products in Hindi and Kannada, and plans to make them available in fourteen Indian languages by the end of this year. These versions have already been developed, tested and showcased to the some State Government and customers at various forums, he added.

Besides the localised versions, Microsoft already provides support for Windows and Office in twelve Indian languages, including Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Gujarati.

Microsoft's localisation programme focuses on four areas - ensuring that each product works for various Indian languages; collaborating with the Central and State Governments; supporting, developing and enhancing local independent software vendor ecosystem; and working in a community to reach out to individuals, he said.
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HP launches home projector
Chennai: Hewlett-Packard has launched its Home Cinema Digital Projector in India with three models, priced Rs80,000 onwards.

The company, quoting a study by Decision Tree Consulting, UK, said the home projector market is expected to grow 200 per cent with sales of 5,000 plus units forecast for this year.

The HP Instant Cinema Digital Projector range is available at select retail outlets across the country. The company also has marketing tie-ups with JBL to make HP projectors available at all JBL showrooms.
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