Maharshtra Govt.: Dabhol phase-I to restart in two months
Mumbai: The phase-I of the Dabhol Power Company, now renamed as Ratnagiri Power & Gas Co, will start power generation by March-end, while its phase-II will be commissioned by the end of this year, Maharashtra finance minister Jayant Patil has said.

"These, along with two additional power units, Khaparkheda and Parli, will together add to the state's grid about 3000 mw," said Patil, on the sidelines of Western India Trade Conference organised by Indian Merchants' Chamber on Saturday.

Patil said as a result of these and other remedial steps, the state would be able to considerably reduce its peak hour power deficit of about 40 mw at present and can reduce load shedding from 12 hours in rural areas to four or five hours.
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Reliance Infocomm's new tariff plan for free outgoing calls
New Delhi: Reliance Infocomm has come up with a new tariff plan that offers free outgoing calls worth up to Rs2,000 on some of its new handsets along with lower local and STD call charges.

"On buying a handset for Rs2,700, a subscriber will get Rs2,000 worth talktime for outgoing calls along with 2,000 local short messages (SMS) free," said SP Shukla, president (wireless), Reliance Infocomm, at a press conference here today.

The free talktime, however, had to be used within nine months and there should be a minimum recharge of Rs149 after two months from the date of subscription, Shukla added.

The "Free Outgoing Calls" scheme is available on purchase of five handsets. On LG handsets available between Rs2,700 and Rs7,999, the subscribers will get free outgoing calls worth Rs2000 along with Rs2000 free local SMS. In addition, on the two low-end LG handsets costing Rs1,999 and Rs3,500, the free outgoing talktime is Rs1000.
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Assocham: Ad outsourcing under threat
Bangalore: An ASSOCHAM study has said that India's advertising outsourcing business is facing a serious threat from several countries that lure ad-film makers with their hassle-free policies.

Countries including China, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa and Australia, are now gearing up to take away a major chunk of the advertisement outsourcing business from India, the size of which at currently estimated to be around US$280bn. Of this, US$50bn is estimated to be in creative and production moneys, according to the ASSOCHAM paper 'Outsourcing in Advertising: Is India the Destination Next?'

Assocham president, Anil K Agarwal, said these countries offered a sound infrastructure and a single window clearance to conveniently entertain outsourcing advertisement calls whereas in India, the policy makers have yet to evolve a mechanism to take a call.
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BPCL board approves merger with KRL
Mumbai: The board of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) has approved the merger of Kochi Refineries Limited (KRL) with itself.

Pursuant to the directions of the department of company affairs (DCA), a meeting of the equity shareholders of BPCL was convened on January 16 to consider the scheme of amalgamation and approved the same.

Earlier, an EGM of the shareholders and creditors of KRL and BPCL convened by DCA was held on Saturday. After the discussions at the meeting chaired by Justice (Retired) Santhosh Hegde on the swap ratio of 2.25:1 (for nine KRL shares four BPCL shares), voting was held and the results would be declared next week.

The proposed merger of KRL with BPCL will bring in the synergy between the refining and marketing strengths of both the companies.
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BSNL calls for interconnect exchanges to clear network
New Delhi: In order to decongest telecom networks, Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) is persuading private telecom operators to jointly set up interconnect exchanges. Interconnect exchanges are dedicated exchanges to route telephone calls from one network to another.

Currently, a telephone call from one network to another is passed on directly at points of interconnection between the two networks. BSNL feels there should be one interconnect exchange in each circle.

In a recent study, TRAI had said that the main reason for poor quality of voice was inter-network congestion. In some cases, congestion level between two networks was more than 70%, implying that 70 out of 100 calls made from one network to another drop.

The cost of an interconnect exchange would be between Rs100 crore and Rs150 crore. The proposal is still being discussed with all the operators.
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Corporate results: Indian Seamless, KLG, Liberty, Shoppers' Stop

Indian Seamless net up 181%
Indian Seamless Metal Tubes (ISMT) reported a 181 per cent increase in its net profit to Rs29 crore for the quarter ended December 2005, as compared with the corresponding period previous year. Net sales grew by 20 per cent to Rs274 crore and gross revenue went up by 26 per cent to Rs462 crore.

The Pune-based engineering company's EBIDT increased by 90 per cent to Rs69 crore for the third quarter in FY06. Exports of tubes accounted 26 per cent of sales.

The base figures for the above comparison are the consolidated results of the erstwhile Indian Seamless Tubes and Indian Seamless Steels and Alloys, which have been merged to form ISMT. The merger came in effect from 29 November, 2005.

The company is the only integrated and diversified manufacturer of precision seamless tubes and alloy steels in India. The company offers a range of precision tubes to Tier I suppliers of auto components, bearings, and other engineering OEM's.

KLG net up to 74% at Rs1.40-cr
Software solution company KLG Systel has reported a 73.97 per cent increase in net profit for the third quarter ended December 2005 at Rs1.40 crore, as compared with Rs80.64 lakh in the corresponding period previous financial year.

The company's income rose by 23.56 per cent touching Rs12.27 crore, against Rs9.93 crore recorded in the previous year. For the nine months ended December 2005, net profit jumped by 97.72 per cent at Rs3.88 crore, it said.

Liberty net up to 14%
Footwear manufacturer Liberty Shoes has reported a 13.68 per cent increase in consolidated net profit for the third quarter ended December 2005 at Rs4.98 crore compared with Rs4.38 crore in the same period last financial year.

The company said its net sales, however, decreased by 4.22 per cent to Rs50.18 crore as against Rs52.24 crore recorded during the same time previous year.

The footwear firm said the financial results were on a consolidated basis including figures of its subsidiary Liberty Retail Revolutions.

The company said it has paid its first interim dividend of Rs5 per share and issued bonus shares in the ratio of 1:1 to the shareholders.

Shoppers' Stop net at Rs.12.09-cr
Shoppers' Stop posted a net profit of Rs12.09 crore for the quarter ended December 2005. Net sales for the same period stood at Rs180.51 crore while total income was at Rs182.68 crore.

The operational profit was Rs21.46 crore and earnings per share for the quarter was Rs3.52. The company was listed in 2005, hence no comparable figures were available for the year-ago quarter.
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