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VSNL
and Reliance submarine cables damaged
Mumbai:
Two submarine cables FLAG and SEA-ME-WE-3 that carry voice,
data and Internet bandwidth to a number of countries,
including India, were damaged at around 37 nautical miles
off Mumbai coast today.
The mishap is unlikely to impact telephony as the bandwidth
is being restored over redundant cables and satellites.
Internet access in certain circuits, however, may slow
down. The degree of the damage was also not immediately
known
FLAG is a cable owned by Reliance Infocomm, while SEA-ME-WE-3
is a consortium cable. The Tata group-controlled Videsh
Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) is the landing partner of SEA-ME-WE-3
in India.
Officials from both Reliance and VSNL confirmed that the
cable had been damaged, but added that bandwidth has been
restored on both of them.
Officials of both the companies also said there would
be a lag in certain circuits as the bandwidth could not
be fully restored. This was likely to slowdown Internet
and bandwidth access, but precautions were taken as not
to affect enterprise bandwidth users, they added.
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Infosys
to set up new campus in Shanghai
Beijing: Infosys Technologies Ltd., India's second-largest
software and services outsourcer, announced Wednesday
that it has signed a letter of intent with the Shanghai
Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park to set up a new software development
campus in Shanghai.
Over
the next two years, Infosys will invest $10 million to
set up the centre, which will have seating capacity for
1,000 engineers. The new campus will be in addition to
the facility the company already has at the Shanghai Pudong
Software Park, which employs about 250 people, according
to a company spokeswoman.
The
centre will undertake projects in software development,
IT services and business process outsourcing services,
according to an Infosys statement. The center, which is
expected to start in January, will also be a staff training
and research center for the company.
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Tata
launches Safari with Direct Injection Common Rail engin
New Delhi: Tata Motors has rolled out a new range
of its SUV Safari with common rail direct injection (CRDi)
engines, and has said that it plans to offer other models
with CRDi in the future.
The
Safari was the first model to be fitted with CRDi diesel
engines and there would be others following it, officials
said. They said that they expect the new Safari model
to boost the model's sale by 25 per cent. The new 3-litre
Safari range `DICOR' (Direct Injection Common Rail) will
be priced in a range band of Rs 7.83 lakh and Rs12.70
lakh.
For
the last two years, the company has been selling about
250-300 units of the Safari every month, officials said.
Tata
Motors' passenger vehicle sales last fiscal grew 27.9
per cent at 1.79 lakh units, though it expects the growth
rate to drop to single digit this year due to a host of
factors.
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VSNL
and Bharti in agreement for sharing of undersea cables
New Delhi: Tata-managed Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd
has entered into an agreement with competing Singtel-Bharti's
joint venture under sea cable company, Networki2i, for
infrastructure sharing.
The
agreement will enable both companies to use each other's
under sea cable network in the event of a snag in one
of the cables, making it more robust.
While
VSNL has a 3,175 km under sea cable system connecting
Chennai to Singapore called the Tata Indicom India-Singapore
Cable (TIISC), SingTel and Bharti Tele-Ventures jointly
own the Networki2i cable system on the same route.
"With
this arrangement both Bharti and VSNL will be able to
provide quality international bandwidth to their customers.
This is a first of its kind agreement anywhere in the
world," said a VSNL official.
Disruption
in service due to snags in the cable system is a common
occurrence around the world, since it is very difficult
to predict under sea activities. Anything from a ship
to shark bite can cause the cable to snap. Though repair
ships are located at various points, it takes several
days before the link is restored.
The
VSNL-Bharti arrangement envisages automatic restoration
of services if one of the cables develops a snag. "The
arrangement between TIISC and Networki2i is probably the
first automatic restoration arrangement of its kind where
two different cables have formed an automated ring out
of their capacities to restore each other's traffic,"
said a VSNL source.
Earlier,
in a consultation paper on international bandwidth prices,
the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had suggested
infrastructure sharing as a means to increase competition
and better quality of service.
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Reliance
empire announces demergers
Mumbai: The Ambani split was formalised on Wednesday
with Anil Ambani disclosing the demerger plans of Reliance's
Rs100,000-crore empire and elder brother Mukesh Ambani
announcing a massive, Rs42,600-crore expansion at flagship
Reliance Industries (RIL).
While
Mukesh Ambani confirmed the demerger plan at RIL's much-awaited
31st annual general meeting, Anil Ambani spelt out the
details in a news conference hours after the AGM got over.
Anil
said a shareholder of RIL who holds, say, 100 shares will
get 5 free shares of Reliance Capital Ltd, 7 free shares
in Reliance Energy, and 100 free shares in both unlisted
Global Fuel Management Services Ltd (GFMS) and Reliance
Communications Venture Ltd.
RIL
has a shareholder base of 23 lakh.
While
GFMS will be the holding company of Anil's power business
with contracts for supply of natural gas from RIL, Reliance
Communications Ventures Ltd will be holding company for
all infocom and telecom companies of the group.
"We
are targeting to list both GFMS and RCVL by March 31,
2006 so that shareholders get liquidity in new companies,"
said Anil while ruling out raising any additional funds
from the public. With this, ADA Enterprises will have
four listed companies, each with a shareholder base of
over 23 lakh with a net worth of Rs25,000 crore and zero
debt.
On
the other hand, Mukesh-controlled Reliance Industries
will invest Rs25,000 crore to double capacity at its Jamnagar
unit, making it the world's single-largest oil refinery
and Rs17,600 crore for upstream and downstream projects
in the petroleum sector.
The
capacity expansion would be among the biggest refining
expansions worldwide this decade. "The raising of
Jamnagar's crude throughput to 1.2 million barrels per
day (bpd), primarily for exports, would be complete by
the second half of the fiscal to March 2009," RIL
Chairman Mukesh Ambani announced at the AGM.
Mukesh
said: "RIL is implementing a two-fold strategy: strengthening
the petroleum retailing business and enlarging the refining
capacity." Mukesh said RIL has made ten more oil
and gas discoveries, including six at the Krishna-Godavari
basin (KG) and one at onshore block in Yemen.
Mukesh
said Reliance would increase its polyester manufacturing
capacity by 5.5 lakh tonnes per year in the current financial
year.
This
would take RIL's total polyester capacity to two million
tonnes per year. It has also planned new purified teripthalic
acid (PTA) plant at Hazira in Gujarat with a capacity
of 6.3 lakh per annum, taking total PTA capacity to 1.9
million tonnes.
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RIL
to invest Rs.3,900 crore in Hazira
Mumbai: Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) will be pumping
Rs3,900 crore into its Hazira petrochemicals plant in
the next one year. This is over and above the Rs42,600-crore
capital expenditure in the petroleum refining and E&P
sectors announced by Mukesh Amabani, Chairman and Managing
Director of RIL, at the company's AGM on Wednesday.
The
investment will go into three facilities - polyester,
ethylene and purified terephthalic acid (PTA) - as also
some downstream facilities and a captive power plant.
RIL has already got the Central Government's nod for this
investment that will be completed by next year.
The
polyester manufacturing capacity enhancement will be to
the tune of 5.5 lakh tonnes, taking up its overall polyester
capacity to 20 lakh tonnes a year. This project will be
completed during the current fiscal.
The
ethylene cracker de-bottlenecking at Hazira will see a
33 per cent capacity expansion from the present 7.5 lakh
tonnes a year to one million tonnes. While 50 per cent
of this project would be completed during the current
fiscal, the rest of the facility would come next year.
As
part of the polyester fibre intermediate manufacturing
facility expansion, RIL is also setting up a new PTA plant
at Hazira with a capacity of 6.3 lakh tonnes a year. This
would take up the company's consolidated PTA capacity
to 19 lakh tonnes and is scheduled for completion next
year.
RIL
is also expected to start commercial production at an
upcoming 125,000-tpa butadiene plant at Hazira during
the current financial year. Butadiene is building block
for synthetic rubbers.
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VSNL refutes
USTR charges on global bandwidth pricing
New Delhi: In a communication to the Telecom Regulatory
Authority of India, (TRAI), Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL)
has refuted allegations of high international bandwidth
pricing made by the United States Trade Representative
(USTR) saying that the data submitted by the US agency
were incorrect.
VSNL
said that it was not appropriate for any foreign governmental
agency to interfere with the lawful working in another
country.
The
USTR had earlier written to TRAI seeking its intervention
on alleged monopolistic practices by VSNL. With the acquisition
of Tyco Global Network and TeleGlobe's cable network,
VSNL is the third largest undersea cable operator and
this has raised some security concerns in the US.
Responding
to the USTR's allegations, VSNL said in a letter to TRAI,
"the underlying data were incomplete and flawed,
in part because they were based upon list rather than
transaction prices and did not take into account the relevant
cost differences".
VSNL
said that it only controls 51 per cent of international
bandwidth capacity in India, and only 8 per cent of capacity
on the Reliance-owned FLAG Europe Asia (FEA) cable system.
The
letter signed by VSNL Company Secretary, Satish Ranade,
states, "VSNL disagrees with USTR's assertion that
end-to-end bandwidth pricing is above market levels on
the US-India route. USTR refers to a single submission
to FCC in which a small US operator complained that prices
were too high. No other US operator voiced a similar complaint,
and the FCC did not express any opinion on the validity
of this allegation".
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Assocham:
Steel prices may bounce back in third quarter
New Delhi: According to the Associated Chambers
of Commerce and Industry's (Assocham) Eco Pulse study,
steel prices are expected to bounce back from the third
quarter of this fiscal on the back of the US economic
recovery, the large infrastructure build-up in West Asia
and strong growth prospects in the Indian economy.
Globally,
steel prices have declined by $150-200 per tonne over
the last quarter. This can be attributed to poor economic
activities in the European Union (EU) and also the piling
up of inventories by the US since September 2004. Such
an over-supply situation has resulted from a slack in
demand for steel in Europe, especially from France, Germany
and Italy.
Global
steel companies such as Mittal Steel, ThyssenKrupp and
Arcelor have reduced their steel production owing to the
inventory build-up, the study says.
Besides
this, domestic imports are on an upward trend. Imports
rose by over 20 per cent in the first quarter of the current
financial year as compared to the year-ago period. Such
an increase in imports can be attributed to competitive
pricing by countries such as Ukraine and Russia.
"Slackening
demand and over-stocking in certain countries, coupled
with cheap domestic imports, led to the erosion in steel
prices," according to the Assocham President, Mr
Mahendra K. Sanghi.
Steel
prices in the country have eroded by around 16 per cent
during June-July 2005. All domestic steel producers, except
Tata Steel, reduced their prices in June in the range
of Rs500-2,000 per tonne. In July, Tata Steel, Essar Steel
and Ispat Industries slashed prices of steel products
in the range of 5-8 per cent.
In
spite of the recent spate of price reductions, the future
still holds promise for the domestic steel industry. According
to the International Iron and Steel Institute, world crude
steel production (of 62 countries) increased by 5.2 per
cent to 89.7 million tonnes in June 2005 as compared to
the corresponding month last year. With the demand for
steel expected to remain buoyant, many domestic firms
have gone ahead with their expansion plans. As the economies
of South-East Asia and West Asia are growing, the Indian
steel industry is poised for a strong growth.
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Haldia
Petro: Purnendu Chatterjee group moves CLB
New
Delhi: The Purnendu Chatterjee group has moved the
Company Law Board (CLB) over West Bengal Industrial Development
Corporation's decision to allot a 7.5 per cent stake in
Haldia Petrochemicals to Indian Oil Corporation. The Chatterjee
group holds 61 per cent stake in Haldia Petrochemicals.
The Chatterjee group approached the law board today, taking
recourse to Section 397 of the Companies Act 1956 which
deals with mismanagement and oppression. IOC had issued
a Rs150-crore cheque, dated February 18, to WBIDC for
the 7.5 per cent stake.
While fresh shares have been allotted to IOC at par (Rs10
per share), the Chatterjee group has made an offer of
Rs29 per share for hiking its stake in Haldia.
Accepting the petition, the CLB asked the West Bengal
government to furnish details on IOC's cheque and transfer
of shares by the company. The case is listed for further
hearing tomorrow.
"If the share transfer has been done, it will be
subject to my order," CLB Chairman S Balasubramanium
said. The counsel for the Chatterjee group alleged breach
of trust by the West Bengal government.
The counsel referred to a memorandum of understanding
dated May 3, 1994 and other instances which, he claimed,
showed that the state government was to disinvest its
stake in favour of the Chatterjee group before it could
issue fresh shares to a third party.
"We will not object to the share issue to IOC but
the government has to disinvest 50-60 per cent of its
stake in favour of the Chatterjee group," the counsel
said during the course of the hearing.
As per the shareholding pattern (before the allotment
of shares to IOC), WBIDC had a 36 per cent stake in Haldia
Petrochemicals, the Tatas owned 3 per cent and the Chatterjee
group, 61 per cent.
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HeroITeS
spun off as separate company
New Delhi: The Hero Group, on Wednesday, announced
the hiving-off of its IT-enabled services unit, HeroITeS,
into an independent company, to pave way for the latter's
proposed initial public offering by end-2006.
The
company said that Sunil Kant Munjal would be actively
involved in the company operations as managing director
and CEO. It has also outlined a comprehensive business
strategy to be amongst the top five BPOs in the country
by 2007, a company release said.
The
company is targeting an organic growth of 100 per cent
for the next two years. Also, as part of the growth strategy,
it plans to aggressively look for acquisitions in identified
markets, sign new customers in the US and UK and double
the headcount to 2,000 employees in one year.
"We
have been growing at close to 100 per cent in last two
years and hope to sustain this growth rate over next few
years. We have now attained a reasonable size and are
profitable. We have strengthened our management team through
several senior-level appointments drawn with substantial
experience of the outsourcing industry. The company has
a robust pipeline and will continue to grow this year.
Accordingly, the Hero Group felt it was an opportune time
to hive-off HeroITeS into an independent company and that
it was no longer necessary to lend management support
to the company," said Sunil Kant Munjal, Managing
Director and CEO, HeroITeS.
The
company's recently constituted merger and acquisition
team is aggressively looking at acquisition opportunities
in the US market. "We are targeting profitable companies
with revenues of under $100 million and a sound management
team," he added.
HeroITeS
has experience in the credit card industry and has been
providing services to at least three of the top-10 credit
card companies in the US.
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