Mukesh Ambani meets PM
New Delhi: Reliance Industries Ltd Chaiman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and one of his top lieutenants held discussions with Finance Ministry officials. The meeting comes on the back of younger Ambani sibling, Anil, making serious allegations in the ongoing battle for control of the Reliance empire.

Mukesh, along with RIL Executive Director and cousin Nikhil Meswani, met Singh at his residence. Meswani also met UK Sinha, Joint Secretary handling capital markets in the Finance Ministry.

Anil's spokesperson had accused Meswani yesterday of being involved in "false briefing" in violation of SEBI's insider trading regulations and "fraudulent trade practice regulation" and had sought "strong regulatory action" to protect interests of Reliance shareholders.

The allegations were strongly refuted as baseless by RIL, which is chaired by Mukesh.
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Boeing refutes Airbus allegations
New Delhi: After Airbus alleged that there was something wrong in the way Boeing got the huge contract to sell fifty planes to Air India and wanted India's Chief Vigilance Commissioner to look into the deal, Boeing has responded saying its deal with Air India was entirely clean and it is ready to cooperate with any investigation.

"They can look into whatever they like. A probe never happens after one is informed. A probe takes place without anyone knowing," said Dinesh Keskar, Senior VP, Boeing. Boeing says the only reason they got the contract was because its planes are much better than what Airbus has to offer. Boeing claims:

• Air India will earn about $180 million more in operating profits by using Boeing planes instead of similar Airbus aircraft.
  
• It will save between one to two million gallons of aviation fuel per aircraft every year by flying Boeing planes.
  "We have proven that we are better on all parameters such as fuel efficiency, seat capacity, landing charges," said Keskar.

The Boeing vs Airbus war is not likely to end soon, with Airbus too facing allegations that it overcharged Indian Airlines for the same planes it sold to other Asian airlines.
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M&M launches the Scorpio in Malaysia
Mumbai: Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd (M&M) has announced the launch of the Scorpio in the Malaysian automobile market. The car would be marketed through USF-HICOM (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, which is a member of DRB-HICOM, a diversified conglomerate and the largest automotive group in the country.

The Scorpio is already available in South Africa, Europe, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Uruguay and Oman.

According to an official statement, the Scorpio would be initially available at 24 major outlets in Malaysia and would be gradually made available at 40 outlets.

The vehicle would be equipped with the 2-litre MPFI DOHC Renault engine and a version based on the 2.6-litre diesel engine would be launched soon with both 2WD and 4WD options.
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Tata Tele mobile services launched in Kerala
Kochi: Tata Teleservices Ltd has launched its Tata Indicom mobile phone services in Kerala, where it plans to invest Rs575 crore in the current fiscal.

Tata Indicom, which is the sixth operator in the State, is targeting to have two lakh subscribers in Kerala by the fiscal year end, said M.A. Madhusudan, Chief Operating Officer of Tata Teleservices said.

"Kerala is adding 60,000 to 80,000 mobile phone subscribers every month for the past six months. The market is far from saturation at this point of time," Madhusudan said at a press conference.

Tata Indicom, which is using the CDMA technology, will offer handsets starting at Rs1,499 and pre-paid cards that give talk-time for the full value in Kerala. As an introductory offer, free SMS would be offered till June 30.

In the initial phase, coverage would be available in 100 towns and by December this year, an additional 256 towns are to be covered. The company has set up 60 `True Value' exclusive shops and their number would be ramped up to 200 across the state by end of the year.

In addition, Tata Indicom products would also be available in over 1,000 outlets.

The company had already launched its fixed wireless phone services in the state. "We have had 70,000 customers for this services," he said. This service is expected to have a subscriber base of 2.5 lakh in the current fiscal.
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BSNL to double mobile capacity in Tamil Nadu
Madurai: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) is all set to become a market leader in mobile service in the Tamil Nadu Circle with the proposed doubling of its equipped capacity by June, which is around nine lakh at present, according to BSNL officials.

At present, there are two mobile phone switches installed at Tiruchi and Salem, whose equipped capacity got exhausted last month, forcing stoppage of issue of new pre-paid cards to avoid traffic congestion. In Madurai - Secondary Switching Area alone, more than 3,000 people have been wait-listed.

To enhance the equipped capacity, installation of three new switches are under way. A short messaging service centre is also coming up in Madurai. 200 new base tower stations are under construction with 101 of them coming up in Madurai SSA.
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Rupa to target hosiery exports to SAARC nations
Kolkata: After successfully exporting its products to West Asia, Europe, Canada, South Africa and Australia, hosiery and casual wear major Rupa has appointed consultants to facilitate selection of franchisees in countries such as Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

According to the company it has earned Rs7.5 crore from exports in 2004-05. While it exports to West Asia under its trademark Rupa brand, exports to other geographies are made to retailers in the region who sell the products under their own respective brands.

Besides, talks are under way to get select American brands into India as well. However, developments in this regard are at a "preliminary stage".

With the rollout of the company's products in SAARC countries, export earnings in the current fiscal would go up to Rs15 crore. The company's overall turnover in 2005-06 is expected to go up by 20-25 per cent over 2004-05, during which year the company registered a turnover of Rs210 crore.

Film star Sanjay Dutt has been roped in as the company's brand ambassador.
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Wipro Tech in strategic agreement with SmartTrust
Bangalore: SmartTrust, a Swedish mobile solutions provider, and Wipro Technologies, the global IT services division of Wipro Ltd, have announced a strategic agreement. Under this, Wipro would add people to develop device management software for SmartTrust so that mobile handsets can get better content and applications and telecom companies can get mobile device management solutions faster.

Wipro Technologies has said that the outsourcing deal was strategic for Wipro in that it was almost like adding a new service line. Company officials said that the company has handset hardware and telecom equipment software and this deal would widen its service delivery platform.

The project for accelerated delivery of mobile device management solutions to the world's mobile operators will add capacity at Wipro to SmartTrust's existing development teams.

Wipro is to provide software development and testing services, according to the terms of the agreement. Wipro would ensure that the development of SmartTrust's solutions continues to meet the demands of today's increasingly complex mobile network environments.

More than 170 mobile networks around the world already use SmartTrust technology to better manage subscribers, their devices and access to services, said Paul Cuss, President and CEO, SmartTrust.

He added: "Our agreement with Wipro will help us deliver the next generation of such technology and means we are better positioned to respond to changing market demands, quickly scale our resources and deliver solutions that offer real value to our operator customers."
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VSNL ties up with Cable & Wireless
Mumbai: VSNL has tied up with global telecom and networking company, Cable & Wireless, which will enable Indian corporate customers to gain access to the global network of Cable & Wireless through VSNL's existing domestic and international access infrastructure.

Cable & Wireless branded services will now be offered under the Tata Indicom brand name. Nodes for facilitating this service have been set up in Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai.

The Tata group is eyeing financial institutions and BPOs, among others, as potential customers for its managed data services; some new customers may be announced within a month.

The alliance aims to tap the growing need among IT and ITES companies for high-speed global connectivity for voice, data, multimedia, videoconferencing and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).

For Cable and Wireless, tying up with Indian partners will allow it to access the Indian market where it does not have an international long distance licence.
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Corporate Results: Visakhapatnam Steel Pant,NeST
VSP records Rs.435 crore turnover
Visakhapatnam: The Visakhapatnam Steel Pant (VSP) has achieved a turnover of Rs435 crore during April this year, up by 7 per cent, as against Rs407 crore in the same month last year.

Hot metal production stood at 3,45,045 tonnes, liquid steel 3,11,955 tonnes and saleable steel 2,59,012 tonnes.
According to a press release issued by the company here on Wednesday, value-added steel production amounted to 70,084 tonnes.

NeST turnover rises 60 per cent
Kochi: The NeST group has posted a turnover of Rs450 crore in 2004-05 against Rs250 crore in the previous year, an increase of 60 per cent.

The group located in the Cochin Special Economic Zone has also created additional employment for over 1,000 people last fiscal, according to N. Jehangir, Managing Director.

The company's major growth areas were electronic manufacturing, fibre optic products and RF products for health care applications, computers, networking, avionics solutions and software services, Jehangir said.

The NeST group had introduced its own proprietary and patented products, developed at its R&D centre here for fibre optic networks and CATV Broadband applications, he said.
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