TDSAT quashes bandwidth price cut
New Delhi: The Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) on Thursday quashed the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (TRAI) orders to reduce international bandwidth tariff by 70 per cent.

The decision comes as a relief to Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL), which had contested TRAI's order on the grounds that the telecom regulator had not followed appropriate process in fixing the tariffs. On the other hand, the telecom tribunal's order comes as a blow to consumers of international bandwidth, including Internet service providers and business process outsourcing units.

Setting aside TRAI's order, the tribunal asked the regulator to have a re-look at the entire exercise and share the full facts and basis of calculation with VSNL in a transparent manner. "It is difficult to appreciate the argument that TRAI is not required to comply with the principles of natural justice and therefore, not required to disclose the material relied upon or methodology. We, therefore, direct that all the documents and information as asked for by the VSNL, the appellant, be supplied by TRAI. In this view of the matter, we are of the opinion that in the absence of non-disclosure of information to the appellant principles of natural justice have been violated and so also TRAI has breached the mandatory requirement of transparency in its functioning," the TDSAT order said.

VSNL is the largest international bandwidth provider in the country and a reduction in tariffs would have had serious revenue implications for the company. The revised tariff was scheduled to come into effect from April 1. The VSNL counsel said that there was no transparency while arriving at the 70 per cent reduction in bandwidth prices.

VSNL said that it would stand to lose 60 per cent of its revenues from selling international bandwidth if the order was implemented. Various industry bodes such as Nasscom had supported TRAI order. Some American trade bodies had also written to the telecom regulator to revise the tariffs on the ground that it was kept artificially high.
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Videocon to invest Rs.300 crore in Bengal
Kolkata: The Rs7,000-crore turnover Videocon Group has unveiled plans to invest Rs300 crore in West Bengal. The investment would be made through Kitchen Appliances India Ltd, a Videocon Group subsidiary.

While Rs100 crore would be invested in a plant at Taratola in Kolkata for manufacturing desktop and laptop computers and special glass for television picture tubes, Rs200 crore would be invested in a "IT hub" that would be set up in the Salt Lake Electronics Complex here.

V.N. Dhoot, Chairman of the Videocon Group, said the factory would manufacture a special type of picture tube glass for the first time in eastern India. Besides, the plant would also manufacture desktops and laptops that would be compatible with televisions in the same format.

The plant would have a capacity to manufacture 6,000 personal computers per day. However, to begin with, 5,000 personal computers would be manufactured every month and the production would be ramped up depending upon the demand.

Dhoot said the IT hub would be set up on the excess land at Kitchen Appliances' Salt Lake factory. Besides providing infrastructure for stakeholders in the IT industry, the Videocon Group would also explore the scope in the IT business that can find fruition through the proposed IT hub.

He said the Group had decided to float a GDR issue of Rs2,000 crore in June this year. The GDRs would be listed at the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. Of the Rs2,000-crore proposed to be raised, Rs1,200 crore would be set aside for exploration and production of oil while the balance would be used for funding acquisitions in the oil sector in countries such as Sudan and Ukraine.
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HP to set up supercomputing facility in Delhi
New Delhi: HP has announced that it would set up India's biggest super computer with a four-teraflop peak computational capability. The facility would be installed at Delhi-based Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), a constituent laboratory of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research.

A teraflop measures computing speed and equates to a trillion floating point operations per second.

IGIB will use the super computing facility for research in complex molecular dynamics simulations, protein structure and in silico toxicity studies.
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Israeli defence equipment producer to start production in India
New Delhi: Israel-based defence equipment manufacturer International Technologies (Lasers) Ltd (ITL) has finalised plans to have equity participation in an Indian outfit through which it would have a manufacturing base in the country and sell its products to Indian army and paramilitary forces.

The company has finalised plans to acquire a 26 per cent stake in Alpha-ITL Electro-Optics Private Ltd, a 100 per cent export oriented unit.

ITL specializes in the development of products and systems designed to enhance night fighting capabilities of the armed forces as well as providing daytime electro-optical solutions. The company's products include night vision systems, laser aiming devices, laser range finders and target acquisition systems, dry zeroing devices and searchlights and illumination devices.
The company is a leading supplier to the US Marine Corps, the US army and Special Forces, Israel Defence Forces and NATO member countries.

The company proposes to make its Indian operations a sourcing base for the parent as well as supply to the Indian buyers. Officials said that the company had asked for treating the supplies made by the Indian subsidiary to the Indian defence forces as deemed exports and the permission has been granted. This would mean that the company would be able to make duty free sales of its products to the defence and paramilitary forces within the country, officials said.

ITL is listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE). Its major shareholders are SOLTAM Systems Ltd (56 per cent) and a group of ITL managers (20 per cent). The company has two subsidiaries - US-based ITL Inc and Israel-based NA-OR Systems.
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Wipro signs deal with Akzo Nobel
Bangalore: Wipro Technologies has signed a three-year, multi-million euro deal with Akzo Nobel NV.

Wipro will help Akzo Nobel Chemicals implement its idea of creating a shared IT environment by providing infrastructure management services for distributed data centres across multiple locations in the US and Europe.

Akzo Nobel will also use its global delivery platform and stringent quality procedures to maintain and enhance a wide range of applications such as SAP, according to a Wipro press release.
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Corporate Results: Bharti, Godrej Consumer, Vishal Export Overseas, Moser Baer, KPIT Cummins, Subex
Bharti Q4 net zooms 44 per cent
New Delhi: Bharti Tele has reported robust fourth quarter results with the net profit spurting by 44 per cent to Rs437 crore, up from Rs304 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.

The net profit for FY05 is up a whopping 132 per cent to Rs1439 crore. The telecom major's operating profit for the reporting quarter has soared to Rs905 crore.

The EPS for FY05 stands at Rs7.77. The Q4 sales are at Rs2317 crore, up 49 per cent from Rs1,553 crore.

The company has crossed total revenues of Rs8,000 crore during the year, Chairman and group Managing Director, Bharti Televentures, Sunil Bharti Mittal, told reporters.

The company, which offers services throughout the country (in 23 circles), aims to have a mobile customer base of over one crore, he said.

Godrej Consumer PAT for fiscal rises 33 per cent
Mumbai: Godrej Consumer Products Ltd (GCPL) has reported a 32 per cent increase in profit after tax at Rs 25.3 crore for the fourth quarter of 2004-2005, against Rs19.2 crore in the earlier year.

Sales grew by 14 per cent to Rs138.5 crore during the quarter. Sales of Godrej Brands moved up by 16 per cent to Rs133.6 crore.

The board has recommended an interim dividend of 125 per cent taking the total dividend to 300 per cent.

For the full year, GCPL reported a 33 per cent increase in profit after tax at Rs86 crore (Rs64.84 crore). Sales moved up by 15 per cent to Rs562.7 crore.

Godrej Brands sales were up 14 per cent and hair colour sales up by 16 per cent.

Vishal Export Overseas fiscal net up marginally
Mumbai: Vishal Export Overseas Ltd has reported a 54.46 per cent rise in net profit at Rs11.43 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2005 compared to Rs7.40 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

Net sales stood at Rs895.83 crore (Rs1,030.36 crore).
The company has registered 4.15 per cent rise in net sales at Rs2,647.70 crore (Rs2,542.15 crore)for the year ended March 2005.

The net profit grew by 0.42 per cent to Rs25.40 crore (Rs25.29 crore).

Moser Baer Q4 profit down 66.6 per cent
New Delhi: Moser Baer India Ltd has posted a 66.6 per cent dip in net profit for the fourth quarter ended March 2005 to Rs24.52 crore, compared to Rs73.43 crore in the same quarter last year, primarily due to rise in input costs.

Total income increased to Rs411.82 crore (Rs369.97 crore), the company said in a notice to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
For the full year it registered a net profit of Rs58.37 crore, compared to Rs324.43 crore for the previous year.

KPIT Cummins consolidated net up
Pune: KPIT Cummins Infosystems Ltd has recorded consolidated revenues of Rs252.45 crore, an increase of 98.79 per cent as compared with revenues of Rs126.99 crore in the year ended March 2004.

The consolidated net profit has increased 94.69 per cent to Rs28.08 crore (Rs14.42 crore). The earning per share (basic, post share split) stood at Rs22.14.

The board of directors had approved the audited financial results .
It noted that quarter to quarter on a sequential basis, consolidated revenues had grown 7.50 per cent to Rs67.27 crore (compared with Rs62.58 crore in Q3FY05, while net profit stood at Rs7.51 crore (Rs7.41 crore).

KPIT Cummins focuses on two verticals, manufacturing and banking, finance & insurance.

The top 10 clients including Cummins contributed 89.35 per cent of the revenues during the quarter compared with 91.90 per cent in the previous quarter.

Subex net up at Rs.26 crORE
Bangalore: Subex Systems Ltd has reported a 45-per cent rise in net profit at Rs25.72 crore on revenues of Rs116 crore that grew by 33 per cent for 2005 fiscal over the previous year.

Revenues from the products business grew by 58 per cent, accounting for 53 per cent of the overall revenues. The board has recommended a final dividend of Rs2 per share (20 per cent on par value)

The Subex CEO, Subash Menon, said, "The growth in products eclipsed the growth in services, as we had expected, besides significant growth in the profitability of the products segment. The acquisitions have turned profitable in the past six months. We expect complete payback from them by March 2006."
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