Telecom firms upset over new spectrum policy
New Delhi: Private telecom firms are irked over the fact that the department of telecommunications, while announcing the Spectrum Policy after the Group of Ministers' findings on the issue, has ignored the recommendations of its internal committees.

Private operators also upset over the fact that only PSU telecom company Bharat Sanchar Nigam was consulted on the policy say they are considering the legal ramifications of this. BSNL is the third largest player in mobile telephony after Bharti Tele-Ventures and Reliance Infocomm.

The subscriber-based linkages for spectrum for both GSM and CDMA-based service providers announced in the final policy are higher by up to 200,000 subscribers when compared to the figures proposed by the February 2005 report of the DoT's Spectrum Allocation Procedure Committee.

For metros and category B circles, the DoT's final spectrum policy announced last week has hiked subscribers by 100,000 as compared to the recommendations of its internal committees, while for category A and C telecom circles, the final policy has brought about a 200,000 increase.
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Essar to infuse Rs.1,500-cr fresh equity
New Delhi: The Essar group plans to infuse fresh equity worth Rs1,500 crore, in group companies. The money would be invested through a clutch of wholly owned subsidiaries of the Mauritius-based investment arm of the Group, Essar Infrastructure Holdings. The funds would be utilised partly for repaying of liabilities and partly to meet the costs of the various expansion plans in steel, power, shipping and all those that have already been announced.

The funds would be invested initially in the capital of Teletech Investment (India). Teletech in turn, would funnel the investment into the Group's steel, shipping, power and oil ventures.

The company had sought the Government's approval for its plans in February this year. Earlier the company's plans were approved by the the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) on March 7 and would be placed before the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) soon, officials said.
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Hyundai to set up R&D centre in Hyderabad
Hyderabad: Hyundai Motor Group is planning to set up a world-class R&D Centre at Hyderabad with the State Government agreeing to provide 42 acres of land in the city.

The company is also contemplating a manufacturing facility near Tada in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh. A delegation from the Hyundai Motor Group led by its President, R&D, Lee Hyun Soon met the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, at his camp office on Sunday and discussed their plans to set up a research centre at Hyderabad.
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SAIL registers record sales in 2005-06
New Delhi: Steel Authority of India recorded an all-time high saleable steel production of over 12 million tonnes during 2005-06 and also the highest-ever total sales of over 11.2 mt during the year, according to a release.

The company exported half a million tonne of steel to overseas markets, growth of 32 per cent over last year. Significant growth was recorded in the sales of structurals (10 per cent), wheels and axles (seven per cent), steels to Railways (five per cent) and wire rods (24 per cent).

Sail also developed and supplied special steel as an import substitute for building naval warships for the first time. Rails of 260-metre length were also produced for the first time for the Railways.

In keeping with the target set in its corporate plan 2012, SAIL operated all its blast furnaces in 2005-06 at record-breaking 107 per cent average capacity utilisation, enabling best-ever production of hot metal at 14.6 mt (11 per cent growth) and crude steel at 13.5 mt (eight per cent growth), leading to six per cent increase in saleable steel output.
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MindTree registers $102mn in revenue
Bangalore: MindTree Consulting has crossed the $100-million revenue mark and is preparing to float an initial public offering later this financial year. The company has achieved this milestone in six years since starting operations.

MindTree chairman, Ashok Soota said the company clocked revenues of $102 million for 2005-06, a growth of 85 per cent over previous year's $55 million. While the IT services business grew by 87 per cent accounting for 75 per cent of total revenues, the R&D services business grew by 75 per cent, accounting for the rest, Soota said.

Soota clarified that the company was not facing any pressures from its existing investors. The promoters own a majority stake in the company, while the venture capitalists own about 40 per cent stake. MindTree has till now been able to raise about $23.6 million in two rounds of funding from The Capital Group, Walden International and Global Technology Ventures.

Soota said the company has set a revenue target of $231 million by 2007-08, most of which would be achieved through organic growth.
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Reliance offers 10-year free incoming calls plan
Mumbai: Anil Ambani company Reliance Infocomm, has introduced a new incoming call scheme that is valid for 10 years at Rs795.

This comes after telecom regulator TRAI's order last month that the `lifetime validity' or `unlimited' schemes by cellular companies would remain valid only till the licence period of the telecom operators.

The new scheme will run parallel to the company's existing `lifetime validity' scheme which will be valid till 2021 or about 15 years from now, considering that fact that the company has a longer licence period remaining compared to other mobile operators.
Senior company officials said, "The new 10-year validity product from Reliance is comparable to the `lifetime validity' products offered by most other mobile operators.

The `lifetime validity' products offered by mobile operators who had received their licence in 1994 are valid only till 2014, which is less than 10 years from now," he said.
Reliance Infocomm said its total subscriber base touched 20 million by March 31, compared to about 11 million users at the end of last financial year.
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Senior Ambani showcases RPL to bankers, investors
Mumbai: Mukesh Ambani chairman Reliance Industries is showcasing Reliance Petroleum Ltd, which is setting up the world's largest stand-alone refinery to investors and investment bankers.

Around 250 of the country's top investment bankers and retail brokers flew down to Jamnagar recently to listen to Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani's first presentation on Reliance Petroleum.

The senior Ambani said Reliance Petroleum wanted to "recreate a miracle." He said the company created the first miracle when it completed its existing Reliance Industries refinery in a record time of 3 years and at half the cost of comparable refineries all over the world.

He said, "We will complete the new refinery in record time once again at a time when the country is witnessing another oil shock after the ones in 1973 and 1979," he said.
Ambani said demand for oil would reach 92 million barrels a day in 2010 and 115 mb/d in 2030 and for the first time in many years, the world was experiencing serious constraints in refining capacity.
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Ruchi Soya to invest Rs.2000 cr in retail operations
Mumbai: Ruchi Soya Industries, the flagship company of the Rs4,000 crore Ruchi Group, is planning to enter the retail market with an investment of around Rs2,000 crore spread over two years. The company intends to follow ITC's e-choupal route by focusing on rural markets including tier II and tier III towns. The company would initially invest Rs750 crore and increase it to Rs2,000 crore in two years.

The network of the proposed retail foray is designed in a model that the company will buy commodities directly from farmers and sell back to them, sources close to the development said.

Earlier, Ruchi Soya had raised $60 million through a Global Depository Receipts (GDR) issue, which will be listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.
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Delphi considers shifting to low cost regions
New Delhi: Delphi may transfer some of its product lines to low cost regions like India, as part of its global transformation process.

"When it comes to products that are related to easy logistics and low costs, countries like India, China will have a shot at some of those product lines," Prashant Shah, vice president-sales, marketing & communications, Delphi India.

US auto component major Delphi announced a global transformation plan on Friday.
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LG introduces colour handsets
Mumbai: South Korean electronic major LG Electronics has introduced an entry-level colour handset, bundled along with Reliance Infocomm's CDMA telephony services in the country.

The company expects to sell around 50,000 units of the handset RD 3330 in the first month and "substantially" higher in the coming months. The CDMA-based handset is priced at Rs3,100. Also, Reliance Infocomm is offering free talktime of Rs1,000 over a five-month period.

This could be one of the lowest priced colour handsets in the market.
The company intends to manufacture the handsets at its Korean plant and ship them to India.

A large phonebook consisting of 2,000 entries and mobile banking-related facilities, apart from SMS on call reject are the additional features on the handset.
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Visesh Info to raise Rs.65 cr
Mumbai: The Rs67 crore small and mid segment ERP company Visesh Infotecnics, that recently won a Rs90-crore BPO deal from the $ 7-billion US DTH operator Echostar, will fund the project by issuing equity warrants mounting to nearly Rs65 crore to three private-equity firms in India.

The company will issue nearly 1.25 crore warrants for an equal number of shares at Rs52 per share, which is slightly less than the company's closing price of Rs55 on the BSE.
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Adhunik Metaliks raises rates by Rs.3,500/tonne
Kolkata: Adhunik Metaliks, which manufactures automotive grade steel, has increased prices of steel billets by around Rs3,500 per tonne with effect from April 1, 2006, after other steel producers hiked steel prices.
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