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BSNL JVs to help roll out 80 mn mobile lines in three years
New Delhi: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd intends to form joint ventures with equipment manufacturers for its massive rollout of 80 million cellular lines over the next three years.

The State-owned company also said that it had started routing international long distance calls to 23 countries on its own network with bilateral agreements with six international carriers.

Addressing a two-day conference of the Chief General Managers (CGMs), A.K. Sinha, Chairman and Managing Director of BSNL, said the corporation plans to issue free cordless and call line identification (CLI) phones to high-end customers and make similar facility for others on marginal rent basis.

The BSNL chairman said that company has set a number of targets including providing 100 per cent rural telephony by the end of 2006, cellular services in all Tehsil and block headquarters and strict adherence to the three-year expansion of the network by another 80 million, adding 6.6 million Internet and six million broadband connections.

Some of the other new initiatives being considered by BSNL include GSM-based mobile public call offices, appointing a brand ambassador, modifying the commission structure for PCOs and introducing new value-added services in the network.

BSNL was also planning to enter new production facilities and forming joint ventures for the manufacture of SIM cards, ADSL modems/DSLAM and 5 pair cables, optic fibre cable accessories, patch panel antenna, drop wire and jointing kits have been added to the product range. According to Sinha, while tower production had commenced, CDMA handset and fixed wireless terminals would also be manufactured.
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Hardy Oil and Gas set to list in London
London: Hardy Oil and Gas is set to become the first Indian oil and gas company to list in London as it floats on the Alternative Investment Market, according to a report in the Sunday Telegraph. The company hopes to raise 15 million pounds, which would give it a market value of about 75 million pounds.

Formed as Jehan Energy in 1997 by its Indian management team, the company changed its name to Hardy Oil and Gas after it acquired the Indian subsidiary of British Borneo in 1999. Hardy is already profitable, but needs additional cash to help fund its exploration and development programme. The company has one field in production in India and interests in three exploration licences.

It's potentially most valuable asset is its 10 per cent interest in a field in the Bay of Bengal.

The field, operated by Reliance, the Indian conglomerate, is adjacent to one of the largest gas discoveries in recent years. Exploration drilling is expected to start next year.
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Nasscom ITES-BPO strategy meet on global leadership
Bangalore: The Seventh Annual Nasscom ITES-BPO Strategy Summit, with "Global Leadership and Operational Excellence" as its theme, will be held in Bangalore on June 7 and 8. Over 400 delegates from 300 companies are expected to participate in the event.

According to Nasscom (the National Association of Software and Services Companies), prominent ITES-BPO chief executives expected to attend the summit include Akshaya Bhargava of Progeon, Ananda Mukherjee of ICICI Onesource, Atul Kunwar of eFunds International, Dan Sandhu of Vertex, Jaswinder Ghumman of Convergys, Jerry Rao of MphasiS, P.V. Kannan of 24x7 Customer and Raman Roy of Wipro BPO, among others.
The President of Nasscom, Kiran Karnik, in a statement said the summit this year will provide a platform for both third party and captive vendors to probe and dwell upon the issues and challenges for securing global leadership.

The event would feature two exclusive platforms for the CEOs and the operational heads. Besides the CEO conclave, the topics for other sessions included examining the business impact of domestic policy and regulations, security and data privacy: raising the bar, managing investor expectations, from BPO to BTO, defining metrics for customer service delivery and sustaining the skill pool advantage, said a Nasscom press release.
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