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Tata Motors to launch the Indigo in Russia
Moscow: Tata Motors is planning to launch its Indigo car in Russia and hopes to complete negotiations within six to eight months for an annual assembly of 30,000 automobiles.

"Tata Motors is planning to assemble up to 30,000 Tata Indigo cars annually in Russia and is negotiating with Russian partners. The negotiations could be completed within 6-8 months," Tata's Russia and CIS manager Amrit Kuruvilla said.

Initially the kits for the assembly of Tata Indigo would be imported from India and subsequently 100 per cent localised, he was quoted as saying by leading business daily Vedomosti.

Tata Indigo would have to compete in the market segment currently occupied by Renault Logan, Daewoo Nexia, Hyundai Accent, the daily said. Tata Motors has already set up truck and bus assembly lines in Russia's three regions.

On the sidelines at Moscow motor show yesterday, Uralaz heavy truck plant of "Ruspromavto" signed an agreement with Ural-India Ltd. for the assembly production of special duty heavy trucks at Haldia plant in West Bengal. The agreement signed by Uralaz plant director general Viktor Korman and president of Ural-India Ltd. J Saraf provides for launching of the Assembly of 6X6 and 8X8 cross-country heavy trucks for the Indian armed forces and other clients in November this year. This year 90 Ural trucks would be assembled at Haldia facility of Ural-India Ltd.
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Idea Cellular to invest US$298mn towards expansion
Mumbai: India's fourth largest GSM operator Idea Cellular has announced plans to invest US$298mn in network rollouts in the coming year. In addition to expanding its existing services in several regions, it plans to enter three new circles, Uttar Pradesh East, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh, before the end of 2005.

At the beginning of this month, domestic groups Tata and Aditya Birla agreed to buy US-based Cingular Wireless' 32.91% stake in Idea for US$300mn. The buyout, subject to regulatory approval, will bring Tata's holding in Idea to just under 49% and raise Birla's to over 50%. The exit of Cingular and the transfer of ownership to Tata and Birla Group leaves the path open for Idea to launch an initial public offering (IPO) as it looks to keep pace with rivals Bharti, BSNL, Hutchison and CDMA market leader Reliance.
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Telecom firms oppose OneIndia tariff plan
New Delhi: Telecom service providers are opposing the move by the Government to introduce a uniform telephone call rate across the country has hit a block with cellular operators and basic operators expressing reservations against the Government intervening in tariff regulation. The operators say that such a move could be counter-productive with an increase in local calling tariffs.

"We endorse the view that it may not be desirable to merge local call and long-distance rates and have a single all-India tariff, " said the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI).

"A single rate for intra- and inter-circle calls would mean higher intra-circle call rates in order to reduce the inter-circle rates. This would mean that local calls will subsidise long-distance calls. This would not only be contrary to well-accepted practice but also unfairly penalise and antagonise local call consumers. Long-distance cannot be brought down to the level of local call tariffs as this would be financially unfeasible and make the operations totally unviable." The Association of Unified Services Providers of India (AUSPI) said that already market forces are bringing down per minute long-distance call charges to below Re1; therefore, the Government need not regulate the tariffs.

The industry body representing CDMA operators such as Reliance Infocomm and Tata Teleservices said that the Government should instead focus on bringing down the cost burden on operators, which would help in lowering the tariffs automatically.

"OneIndia can be achieved through promotion of healthy competition with a little help in the form of incentives rather than the Government intervention to drop tariffs," AUSPI said in its communication to the DoT. The telecom operators had met DoT officials on August 16 in this regard.

The operators have also said that the Government should bring out a paper on the proposed tariff regime explaining the modalities of the OneIndia plan. "We request that the Government may kindly provide us a position paper on this concept which would give us a clear understanding on the subject and will allow us to provide a more comprehensive response in this matter," the two associations said.
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NASSCOM: Software exports on track to touch US$50bn
Bangalore: The Indian software exports sector is on track to reach the US$50bn mark by 2008, projected by Nasscom-Mckinsey report, said Kiran Karnik, president, Nasscom.

He said that the sector is looking at achieving a 30-32 per cent growth for the current fiscal on top of US$17.2bn registered during FY05.

Speaking at the Nasscom Quality Summit in Bangalore on Thursday, Karnik said: "We are pretty much on track for that target. To achieve that, the sector has to grow by around 35 per cent year-on-year for the next three years, which should not be much of a problem. The first quarter results of FY06 have been encouraging and this trend of robust growth should continue."

On a parallel effort to improve the ecosystem for Indian software companies to come out with world-class software products, Nasscom, he said, has associated with Microsoft to launch a quality certification program for independent software vendors (ISV).

"India has already emerged as a global leader in the IT services domain. In order to further build on this leadership and to leverage the competencies Indian IT companies have attained so far, it is vital to capitalise on the burgeoning products opportunity. This program is an effort in that direction," he said.

This certification has been developed on the Microsoft Solutions Framework and would enable ISVs to align themselves to the product development requirements as per the SEI CMM Level 3 certification.

A spokesperson for Microsoft India took pains to explain that this certification is platform agnostic and the ISVs can use any platform and tools to develop products and need not be tied down to Microsoft's platform.

The certification will be offered by QAI, a software process consulting firm, and it will cover the best practices in architecture planning, development, user experience, testing, release operations, program management and product management, with which ISVs can attempt to reduce time to market and development cost.
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IA fleet acquisition plan: PM to empanel GoM
New Delhi: The much-delayed fleet acquisition plan of the Indian Airlines, moved another step ahead with the Cabinet Commitee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) referring the matter to an empowered Group of Ministers (eGoM) for a final round of price negotiation with European aircraft manufacturer Airbus Industrie.

The final round of negotiations would be carried out with the European consortium "within a month", sources said after an hour-long meeting of the CCEA chaired by prime minister Manmohan Singh.

The composition of the eGoM would be decided by the Prime Minister, they said, adding that there would be no further discussion in the Cabinet on the matter after the eGoM takes a decision.

As per its latest project report, the Indian Airlines plans to acquire 43 Airbus aircraft of varied mix at a total cost of Rs10,237 crore.
The need for a final round of price negotiations arose after a group of MPs wrote to the government quoting reports that the Airbus Industries had offered a lower price for a similar order by a Southeast Asian airline.

When the airline's Board approved the fleet plan in 2002, the project was valued at Rs10,089 crore. However, when the Public Investment Board (PIB) approved the plan last year, the cost had come down to as low as Rs9,475 crore, which was attributed primarily to exchange rate fluctuations.

The public sector carrier had decided to induct 19 A-319s, four A-320s and 20 A-321 aircraft.

While 70 per cent of these 43 aircraft would replace the carrier's ageing fleet, the remaining ones would be used for capacity enhancement.

Among the aircraft that would be phased out are 11 Boeing 737s, which comprise the Alliance Air fleet, 15 A-320s which are on lease and three A-300s. The public sector carrier had last purchased aeroplanes in 1994.
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Nokia to base global network operation centre in India
New Delhi: Global mobile vendor, Nokia has said that it plans to open a global networks operation centre in India by the end of the year, by way of further commitment to one of the world's fastest-growing telecommunications markets in the world.

The centre will perform network operation tasks primarily for selected operators in the Asia Pacific region as well as Europe, the Middle East and Africa as part of Nokia's managed services offering.

The location of the site, which will initially employ up to 100 people, will be unveiled at a later date, company's Executive Vice President and General Manager (Networks), Simon Beresford-Wylie said here.

It is the latest investment by Nokia in the vibrant Indian market, continuing a decade-long relationship that started with the first-ever cellular call in India, which was made on a Nokia mobile phone and a Nokia-deployed network.
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Amara Raja eyes 25 per cent market share this fiscal
Visakhapatnam: Amara Raja batteries expects to achieve a 22-25 per cent market share in the automotive and industrial battery segment in the country by the end of this fiscal. Currently, Amara Raja's market share in automotive and industrial batteries segment is 16 per cent.

Amara Raja clocked a total sales turnover of Rs 220 crore last fiscal.

The company is seriously working out plans to enter into two- wheeler battery segment. "We will announce the plans on this issue soon," he said.

At present, the company supplies automotive batteries to Ashok Leyland, Fiat, General Motors, Hindustan Motors, Honda, Hyundai Motor India Limited, Daimler Chrysler, Ford, Swaraj Mazda, Mahindra and Mahindra, Maruti and Tata Motors.

The company exports industrial and automotive batteries to Africa, Japan, Australia and several other Middle East countries, he said.
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L&T all set to acquire Datar Switchgear
Mumbai: Larsen & Toubro has entered into an agreement to acquire Nashik-based company Datar Switchgear Ltd under a scheme which it will forward to the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) for approval.

As part of the arrangement for Datar's merger with L&T, the latter will assume debt of approximately Rs24 crore. There will be no significant equity dilution for L&T post-merger; the debt assumption of Rs24 crore may effectively be considered the cost of acquisition, said an official with L&T.

The acquisition is in line with L&T's plans to expand the product range in the low voltage electrical business. The attraction of Datar for L&T lies in its products for the building electrical segment, which are well accepted, but which Datar could not exploit to its full potential, due to various constraints, said a release from L&T.

"Datar Switchgear brings with it a core technology available with very few manufacturers the world over," said L&T. L&T is now marketing miniature circuit breakers and earth leakage circuit breakers imported from Hager, France, to service the premium end of the building segment. Datar has been manufacturing these items since 1984, said L&T.

With the products from Datar, L&T said it would serve both the premium and mass market in India where the building electrical segment has tremendous growth potential. L&T has already commenced work on product augmentation along with Datar.

After obtaining approval from Datar's lenders, the scheme will be filed with BIFR for its approval, after which, the matter will be put to L&T's shareholders.
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PSU tenders: Motorola to set up manufacturing base in order to meet conditions
New Delhi: Telecom equipment major Motorola on Thursday said it will consider a manufacturing facility in India if it was a pre-condition in tenders floated by public sector companies such as Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. The company may invest about US$100mn over the next three years.

"We are evaluating the M-option (setting up a manufacturing facility) and would do everything to comply with the tender conditions of the PSU telecom carriers," Edward Zander, chairman and chief executive officer of Motorola, told reporters.

According to a proposed government policy, vendors would need to have local manufacturing facilities to be able to bid for tenders of telecom PSUs. BSNL alone is close to finalising a Rs13,000 crore tender for its 40 million GSM mobile project.

Zander said the company was planning to invest about US$100mn over next three years on expanding its presence in India. The company is also in talks with telecom operators to manage their networks. Last week, Motorola signed a deal with Hutch for managing its network in Thailand.

Zander said Motorola will focus on gaining market share in the country and was going to focus on the distribution network in the GSM segment.

The company is in talks with the Cellular Operators Association of India for launching handsets that were priced at the lower-end. The sales team has also been revamped to take on Nokia, the leader in the Indian market with nearly 60 per cent share.

Motorola has also lined up a series of handset launches, covering the broad spectrum. While it had already launched one model priced under Rs 2,000 in April, another such model could be expected by October.

Zander said chipmakers also have to play a crucial role in helping in the reduction of cost. Motorola is also looking to expand the use of its technology in other fields including defence and transportation. Zander was upbeat about further developing the research and development expertise in the country. Motorola plans to increase its staff in India by about 1,000 by the end of next year from the current 3,000, he said.
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