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Premji to stay Wipro chairman till 2007
Bangalore: Wipro chief Azim H. Premji was reappointed chairman of the firm till June 30, 2007 at the 59th annual general meeting of the company here Thursday. A resolution to this effect was unanimously approved by shareholders at the meeting held at the company's corporate headquarters on the outskirts of the city.

Vivek Paul, who resigned last month as vice-chairman and CEO of Wipro Technologies, was also present at the meeting. Premji's reappointment with effect from Dec 31, 2004 will be in force retrospectively for 30 months till June 2007, when the software tycoon will turn 61.

The resolution was moved in the wake of the company's two-tier retirement policy at 58 and 60 years for all its employees.

With the exit of Paul, Premji, who holds about 84 percent of the company's equity, will be chairman and managing director, overlooking the global operations of the IT bellwether.

According to the resolution, the chairman will not be liable to retire by rotation.

Through another resolution, about 600 shareholders who participated in the meeting authorised the firm to double its authorised capital to Rs.3.55 billion from Rs.1.75 billion as a result of a 1:1 bonus awarded for the last fiscal.

A top Wipro official said shareholders had also authorised the company through a special resolution to allot six million shares of Rs.2 each to lateral and senior employees under the employees' stock options scheme (ESOP).

After's Paul's exit, Premji rejigged the top management, making Lakshman Rao the new chief operating officer, Sudip Banerjee president of the enterprise business unit, and Girish Paranjpe head of the banking and financial services business division.

Wipro Infotech president Suresh Vaswani, however, was retained as head of India and Asia-Pacific business, while T.K. Kurien, who replaced Raman Roy, will continue to be CEO of Wipro BPO services division. The research and development services business will be headed by Ramesh Emani, who will report to Rao.

All executives of different business units will directly report to Premji.
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Radhakrishnan Nair is new Exec. Dir. at SEBI
Mumbai: Radhakrishnan Nair has taken charge as Executive Director at SEBI.

Nair will be in charge of the general services department, the research department, the office of the investor assistance and education, integrated surveillance department and vigilance, SEBI has said.
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Essar appoints two directors on BPL Comm. board
Mumbai: The Essar Group has already appointed two directors on the board of BPL Communications in which it is set to acquire majority stake.

The two directors are Anshuman Ruia, Director, Essar Group, and Vikas Saraf, CEO of Essar Teleholdings, the holding company for most of the Essar Group's telecom investments, sources said. Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Chairman & CEO of the BPL Mobile group will be stepping down from the board, said the sources.

On Wednesday, the Essar Group signed a binding agreement to buy 64 per cent stake in BPL Communications in an all-cash deal. The enterprise valuation yielded by the transaction worked out to over $1 billion.
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