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British Gas to shift billing operations
London: British Gas plans to introduce a computerised billing system and will outsource its 18 million customers' accounts to India, company spokes-man said.

"We are in the process of introducing computerised customer billing system some time next year and 18 million customers billing account will be outsourced to India," the spokesman said.

Stating that there will be no redundancies in its UK call centres until the summer of 2006, the spokesman said the UK call centres would continue to handle the requirement of customers in the UK.

"We are reducing the administrative role and outsourcing non-customer work to India," he stated.

He said some of their staff from the UK would go to Delhi to train the personnel in the Delhi call centres to handle the customers' accounts.
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Ratan Tata: Indica to be sold in the UK as Tata car
London: Tata group Chairman Ratan Tata has said that the winding up of Rover will help Tata Motors spread its foot prints in the UK. The company's flagship- Indica, will be sold there as a Tata car.

He said, "It's a blessing in disguise as we are now being approached by various distributors in the UK to market the same car as the Tata car. Therefore, while Rover may have died, the Indica may be in the UK markets as it is being sold as a Tata car."
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Apeejay group targets UK's Typhoo Tea for acquisition
Mumbai: After Tata Tea's landmark acquisition of UK's second largest tea brand Tetley, the Kolkata-based Apeejay Surrendra group is now learnt to have expressed interest in acquiring the UK-based Premier Foods' Typhoo tea, the third largest brand in UK, after Unilever's PG Tips and Tetley.

Company sources indicated that the sale would offer the Apeejay Surrendra group a great opportunity to grow its tea business, and that it the group was weighing options of a leveraged buyout similar to the Tata's acquisition of Tetley.

Launched by Birmingham grocer John Summer in 1903, it is said that a cup of Typhoo is sipped every 90 seconds in Britain.

If the deal goes through, the acquisition will catapult Apeejay Tea to the third largest slot in Britain. Premier Foods expects to rake in 100 million pounds (Rs797 crore) through the sale of Typhoo brand, which it acquired from Cadbury Schweppes. Tata Tea had acquired Tetley for 271 million pounds (Rs2,168 crore) in mid-2000. Founded by A R Gordon Shaw in 1889 in London, Apeejay Tea is largely a plantation company.

The global consumption of black tea has been shrinking, with consumers shifting towards flavoured tea. Apart from traditional and decaffeinated tea-bags, the Typhoo range includes the green varieties and a fruit selection.
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IA aircraft deal reaches CCEA for final clearance
New Delhi: Indian Airlines three-year-old effort to buy 43 Airbus jets seems all set to take off with the ministry of civil aviation on Wednesday presenting a cabinet note to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) seeking permission for the US$2bn purchase order.

The cabinet note was moved on Wednesday and it will be taken up by the CCEA shortly, a senior government official said. IA has sought to buy a mix of Airbus A319, A320 and A321 jets.

The deal has been facing major delays in government circles with some MPs questioning the price being charged by Airbus for the planes. The allegations that Airbus was charging a higher price for the planes had forced the ministry of finance to propose fresh price negotiations on the deal.

The deal now seems finally set to clear the last hurdle with civil aviation ministry asking the cabinet to either take a final decision on the price renegotiation or clear the proposal without further delay.
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BSNL to add additional six crore mobile phone lines next year
Chennai: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), the State-owned telecommunications company, is in the process of finalising tenders for an additional six crore mobile phone lines, according to the union minister for communications, Dayanidhi Maran. This will be taken up next year, he told reporters here on Wednesday. It is currently in the process of expanding its mobile capacity by 1.6 crore lines, which is expected to be completed by December.

Earlier, addressing a function to launch 40-lakh additional mobile phone capacities in the southern States, Maran asserted that BSNL would take on competition from the private sector and become the leading mobile services provider once the expansion project was completed. In any case, he said, while private mobile service providers started operations in 1994, BSNL entered the business only in 2002 and had come this far in such a short time.

He also said that Chennai and Tamil Nadu mobile circles would become one circle from October 1, as the operators were the same in both the circles and hence the Ministry was removing artificial barriers. He recalled that two months ago, the Ministry removed the need for STD dialling between Chennai and Tamil Nadu circles, as also in Maharashtra and Mumbai circles, Uttar Pradesh East and West circles, and Kolkata and West Bengal circles.

According to a BSNL press release, the network would be upgraded to EDGE (Enhanced Data Rate for GSM Evolution) technology, which offered higher data rate for video transmission to lead to 3G in the next phase.

Nortel, which is providing the infrastructure for this phase of BSNL's expansion, said in a release that it had deployed GSM (Global System for Mobile communication) radio base stations, mobile switching centres and intelligent network capabilities to provide wireless voice and data services. Nortel was also providing BSNL with project management, commissioning and installation services.
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L&T, and Chinese company bag Hyderabad International airport contract
Mumbai/Hyderabad: The Hyderabad International Airport Ltd (HIAL) has awarded two major works contracts to Larsen &Toubro and Hong Kong-based China State Construction Engineering (Hong Kong) Ltd (CSCEHK) totalling Rs1,110 crore.

While the Indian construction major won the Rs495-crore ALS (Airside and Landside) works contract, CSCEHK bagged PTB (Passenger Terminal Building) works contract worth Rs615 crore.

The contract, signed by L&T and Hyderabad International Airport Ltd (HIAL), envisages project completion in 30 months, a news release from L&T said. The airport is expected to be open to traffic by 2008.

L&T will construct the runway, taxiway and aprons to accommodate wide-body planes, including new generation aircraft, such as the A380. L&T will also build the cargo terminal building, ground handling workshops and other buildings. The contract also covers development of airfield ground lighting system and fire station, installation of the aviation hydrant system and the security perimeter.

The Hong Kong company would construct the fully operational terminal building area of over one lakh sq. metres. This would include building structure, information technology and security systems and ATC tower with adjacent technical building.

The two contracts would be executed in 30 months, including a three-month airport operational trial period, a GMR release said. The HIAL hopes to achieve the financial closure by this month-end and make the airport operational by 2008.

The GMR group holds a majority stake (63 per cent) in the Rs 1,418-crore HIAL project. The other stakeholders are Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (11 per cent), Government of Andhra Pradesh (13 per cent) and Airports Authority of India (13 per cent).

The company release said that the two companies were selected following an international competitive tender bidding that attracted 35 companies from 12 countries. Of these, seven tenders were qualified for ALS works and six for PTB works.

CSCEHK is a wholly-owned subsidiary of China State Construction International Holdings Ltd, the flagship construction company of the China State Construction Engineering Corporation.

On awarding the contract to CSCEHK, the company said it had completed more than 500 projects, including Hong Kong International Airport and airports at Hainan, Guilin and Xiamen in China.
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Domestic steel prices may go up in Sept.
Mumbai: Indian steel makers are likely to raise prices by up to seven per cent from September in line with a global price rise, and in response to easing inventories and strong domestic demand, industry officials said on Wednesday.

Prices of various grades of hot-rolled steel could go up by Rs700 -1,500 ($16-$23), after a drop of nearly 25 per cent in the past quarter.

A Steel Authority of India (SAIL) official said that there was buoyancy in global steel prices that could impact domestic prices. "The company would review prices at the August-end," he added.

Tata Steel, however, said it was relatively insulated by a rise or fall in steel prices. "About 75-80 per cent of our sale is through contracts, which is decided at pre-determined prices. As less than one-fourth of our sales are meant for general markets, we are not affected."
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CMIE study: Car sales to go up by 14 per cent this fiscal
New Delhi: Passenger cars sales in India are expected to clock a 14 per cent growth this financial year on higher demand for compact and mid-sized cars, economic think-tank CMIE has said in its latest report.

"Compact and mid-sized cars are the fastest-growing categories. These two segments will drive the car market in 2005-06," Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy said.

According to CMIE, the next one-two years will see the entry of several foreign companies in the small car category, which is the volume segment.

"Toyota Motors, along with its subsidiary Daihatsu, plans to start making small cars in India by 2007. General Motors will launch a small car in 2006, besides launching its compact car 'Chevy Aveo' this year," it said, highlighting the positive factors for the market.

Also, it said that Czech automaker Skoda Auto plans to roll out a high-end compact car and Tata Motors is likely to roll out its much-awaited ambitious Rs one lakh car in the next three years.

"Increasingly, many global automakers are choosing to have their manufacturing operations in India," CMIE said, pointing out the plans of BMW and Volkswagen for India. BMW and Volkswagen are looking at setting up manufacturing facilities in the country.
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Hyundai launches the Embera - set to hike Accent, Getz prices
New Delhi: Hyundai Motor India on Wednesday announced plans to invest US$600mn in India to expand its car-making capacity and introduce new models across all product segments.

The firm also announced that it would review the prices of its existing models, Accent and Getz, in August in view of the rising input costs. The announcement of the review comes within days of Hyundai driving up the price of its compact car Santro by up to Rs11,000 citing rising production costs.

At the launch of the company's new-look premium sedan the Sonata Embera, company officials said the firm is planning to expand its presence by rolling out new vehicles in every segment. According to them between now and 2007, the company will be investing US$600mn to ramp up capacity and develop new cars in all segments. In some cases, new models will replace the existing cars and in others, the new models would complement the existing models, they said.

The new-look Sonata is part of this drive to revamp its product portfolio in India. Powered by a 2.4-litre petrol engine, the car will be available in two variants, manual transmission (Rs13.69 lakh) and automatic (Rs14.59 lakh).

Most of the company's new investments would be used for capacity expansion at its plant near Chennai. Hyundai India, which currently has a capacity of about 2,50,000 units, plans to jack this up to about 4,00,000 units by the middle of 2007.

The firm had ended the previous year with a turnover of around Rs6,500 crore).
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Hero Group may power Tata's mini car
New Delhi: Media reports suggest that the Munjal family-promoted Hero Group is may make its way into the four-wheeler market, by supplying engines for Tata Motors mini-car.
According to reports both the firms may be exploring the option of Hero Motors producing a 400cc engine for the Tata mini-car. Outsourcing major parts of the car would enable the Tata's to cut production costs and meet the Rs1 lakh price tag, which it may have inadvertently set itself.

Hero Motors is already making 800cc engines, components and transmissions for Bombardier's four-wheeled recreation vehicles and the Tata deal, if struck, would be a major boost to Hero Group's plans to emerge as an auto component major.

Tata Motors had recently announced that the firm is prototyping the car, which will be commercially available in 2008. While Tata seems to be driving full stream ahead with its proposed mini car plans, the Indian automobile industry is divided over the norms governing these cars, also known as quadricycles.

Unable to achieve an agreement over the rules, governing the norms for these quadricycles, the industry body, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam) has put forward four different sets of safety and emission norm recommendations to the government.
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