Ambani brothers clash over charges on non-transfer of business control
Mumbai: A fresh spat has broken out between the Ambani brothers and the main issue is almost the same as that of the first round: control of the group's businesses.

Anil Ambani has alleged that even eight months after the announcement of the division of business between the two groups, RIL, which is controlled by Mukesh Ambani, has not transferred the management and control of the four demerged companies to the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG).

Responding to the allegations made at a press briefing at Reliance Centre, RIL in a statement said that it had completed allotment of shares of the four demerged companies, the record date for which was January 25, 2006.

The RIL statement said: "More than 23 lakh shareholders have received shares of the demerged companies - Reliance Communication Ventures, Reliance Natural Resources (RNRL), Reliance Capital Ventures, and Reliance Energy Ventures."

Earlier on February 3, RIL and RNRL signed a gas supply agreement for supply of gas from RIL's KG block to RNRL for the Patalganga and Dadri power projects.

ADAG had questioned the agreement saying that it had deviated from the originally agreed terms between the two groups. He also alleged that RNRL was still controlled by RIL and its ownership had not been transferred to ADAG.

ADAG said that besides the gas supply agreement, two other agreements - non-compete and brand agreements - have been executed while the four companies are still under RIL control. This has been done despite dissent being communicated by ADAG nominees.

"RIL's stance, that management and control of the four companies can be handed over to ADAG only after listing of the companies, is contrary to the clear language and intent of the Scheme of Arrangement."

The group has also alleged that RIL has been controlling the procedural aspects of the listing process of the four companies. It has accused RIL of delaying the listing of the companies, as a result of which "incorrect and misleading information" is being communicated to the BSE and NSE in the draft information memoranda of the four companies.
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Toyota workers threaten hunger strike
Bangalore: The Toyota Kirloskar Motor Workers' union on Sunday threatened to go on a hunger strike from Monday to force the company to accede to its demands including taking back suspended employees.

A workers' union representative said the workers would go on a hunger strike in batches for the next few days and later resort to indefinite strike.
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'Lifetime validity' offers may not be not for life
New Delhi: According to information gained from Trai's queries into the recent spate of 'Lifetime' validity on prepaid cards offered by telecom companies, it has emerged that the offers may not be actually valid for a lifetime The plans would be valid only as long as the telecom services operator's licence is valid.

Trai says the licences of most operators will remain valid for not more than 15-odd years mainly because the first set of telecom licences was issued in 1994-95 for a period of 20 years.

Also and more disturbingly, tariff plans for "Lifetime validity' can be altered by service providers. GSM and CDMA operators have informed Trai that their tariff plans have been designed and structured keeping in view the present licencing, regulatory and interconnect user charge regimes. If any of this were to change in the future, the tariff packages will be altered. The operators have also pointed out that under existing laws, they are only required to ensure that tariffs for lifetime validity plans remain unchanged only for a period of six months from the time a subscriber buys such a plan.

Operators have also failed to give specific answers to Trai queries on measures they will take to protect consumer interest, the nature of penalty for violations by service providers and whether call charges for these schemes should be monitored.
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Oracle to increase presence in India
Kochi: Oracle is increasing its presence in India. The company plans to set up its network in nine cities to supplement its six development centers in Gurgaon, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata.

"All the nine new centres will come up in tier 2 cities within the next 12 months," said Oracle India senior director SPS Grover.

In three years India has moved up to third place from the 10th rank in volumes among Oracle's Asia-Pacific operations.
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