Reliance considers setting up ship registry in SEZ
Mumbai: The Reliance Group, controlled by Mukesh Ambani, is considering opening a shipping registry within the Special Economic Zone the company is developing in Navi Mumbai. The advantages this would offer would be that ships registered here may be exempt from certain taxes and enjoy more operational freedom.

At present ships registered in India (with the Mercantile Marine Department) bear fiscal burden in the form of service tax, sales tax and customs duties, in addition to the corporate or tonnage tax. Apart from this they are required to follow the mandatory manning scale and employment norms under the Indian Merchant Shipping Act.

In comparison, ships registered with flag-of-convenience registry, like the one proposed by Reliance, are expected to be free of all these restrictive regulations.

Reliance may reserve a part of the SEZ close to the upcoming Jawaharlal Nehru port — exclusively for shipping and allied activities. Indian shipping companies are backing the Reliance proposal, as it will benefit them in many ways. Their suggestion is that those who register with the Reliance registry should be allowed to operate under the Indian flag, so that they could continue to enjoy preference in getting national cargo. In return, they have offered to pay Tonnage Tax, but nothing else.
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Asian Paints Q4 profit falls 50 pc to Rs.20.28-cr
Mumbai: Asian Paints' profit for Q4 of 2005-06 fell by 50 per cent to Rs20.28 crore compared to Rs41.10 crore for the year ago period. The company has taken a one-time write off of Rs33.6 crore due to erosion in the networth of its international subsidiaries.

Total income (net of discounts and excise duty) increased to Rs578.94 crore in the March quarter from Rs460.14 crore in the year-ago period. In its consolidated operations Asian Paints reported a 27 per cent increase in net profit at Rs46.58 crore for the fourth quarter of 2005-06 (Rs36.68 crore).

Net sales and operating income increased by 21.3 per cent to Rs765.01 crore (Rs630.73 crore). For the full year, profits for the group rose 21.9 per cent to Rs212.15 crore. Net sales moved up by 17.4 per cent to Rs3,021 crore. All of its business units registered double-digit sales growth. The company's board has recommended a dividend of Rs5.50 per share. Total dividend for the year was Rs9.5 per share. Shares of Asian Paints moved up by Rs4.15 to Rs662.60 on the BSE.
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Tata Tele launches 'Don't Stop' offer
Mumbai: Tata Teleservices (TTSL) has announced a two-year package of free outgoing calls to all Tata Indicom connections within a State, without the customer having to recharge each month. Titled the `Don't' Stop' offer, it offers free outgoing calls for two years to mobile, fixed-wireless and landline phones of Tata Indicom within a State, subject to a maximum of 3,600 minutes.

Incoming calls for these two years would also be free. Existing customers can move into the scheme paying Rs199; subscribers can then recharge with any prepaid voucher starting at Rs50. All vouchers come with 100 per cent talk time. For new customers, the offer is bundled with the handsets Indicom Ace (bundled offer for Rs2,299), Kyocera Prisma (Rs2,499) and Indicom Star (Rs3,749).
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Tata Steel completes land acquisition for Orissa unit
Mumbai: Tata Steel has completed the acquisition of 3000 acres of land for its six-million-tonne steel plant in Orissa and is ready to place orders for the equipment for the plant according to B. Muthuraman, managing director, Tata Steel.

The company is setting up three projects at Orissa, Chattisgarh, and Jharkhand and about 2,200 families would get displaced in the land acquisition process. The company says it would not only rehabilitate and resettle the displaced families but would also offer training to some members of each family.

The Orissa Government has further enhanced the compensation in its rehabilitation policy. In Chattisgarh, Tata Steel has earmarked the specific land but the acquisition process is yet to commence. In Jharkhand, the company has earmarked the overall land.

The company requires 3,000 acres in Chattisgarh, where it plans to set up a five-million-tonne plant. At Jharkhand, the company requires 5,000 acres for a planned 12-million-tonne plant.

The total cost of the green field expansion works out to Rs40,000 crore.
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IT sector expected to grow at 30 pc over five years
Mumbai: Indian IT sector is expected to grow at 25-30 per cent over the next four to five years, according to a research company.

Edelweiss Research in a report titled, `Information Technology: Winning Global Markets', says the growth can be attributed to the increasing overseas demand for IT services and the deals struck between the Indian scale companies and overseas IT companies. The IT sector's export revenue stood at $17.1 billion during 2005-06. India's share in the global IT industry has also grown to74 per cent in 2006 compared with 65 per cent in 2005.

According to a forecast by a Nasscom McKinsey study for the Indian IT industry, the revenue of IT industry is expected to be $60 billion in 2010, mostly led by Indian scale players.

Seven listed Indian software companies have been identified as offshore Indian scale companies - Infosys, i-flex Solutions, Patni, TCS, Satyam, HCL Technologies and Wipro.
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Bharti gets license to operate in Jersey
New Delhi: Mobile service provider Bharti Airtel has received a licence to operate comprehensive telecom services, including international long distance, in the Jersey island of UK. Bharti Global's subsidiary "Jersey Telenet, has been granted a license to run comprehensive telecom services in Jersey, which include 2G and 3G mobile services and international long distance services. Services are expected to commence from October 2006," a company release said.

The company proposes to invest over £20 million pounds in setting up a network in partnership with two global companies — Nokia (for the telecom infrastructure) and IBM (IT solutions provider).
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Airtel launches `Easy Lifetime Pre-paid' plan
New Delhi: Airtel has introduced the Easy Lifetime Pre-paid plan wherein customers can go mobile for life for Rs99 per month in 12 instalments.

"When Airtel introduced the Lifetime Pre-paid last year, it marked the beginning of unprecedented growth in mobile telephony in India. Now with the Easy Lifetime Pre-paid, we propose to take customer convenience and affordability to a new level. This plan especially comes as a boon for the B and C class SECs," said Sanjay Kapoor, joint president - mobility, Bharti Airtel said in a statement.
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Mirchandani family parting likely
Kolkata: The promoters of Mirc Electronics, which makes the Onida brand of TVs, the Mirchandani family is likely to part ways. Last week Sonu Mirchandani and his brother-in-law, Vijay Mansukhani, appointed a merchant banker to find a buyer for their minority holding (effectively little over 26 per cent) in the company.

The family holding of 53.29 per cent in Mirc Electronics is mainly through Guviso Holdings, an unlisted entity. The sale, if implemented is likely to trigger the takeover code as the existing shareholders' agreement of Guviso would not come in the way of such a share transfer to an outsider, experts maintained. Guviso, which represents, Gulu, Vijay and Sonu, does not have any other business than holding of shares in Mirc, and its stake change would be considered as one altering the control of Mirc Electronics for purposes of takeover law. Vijay Mansukhani is on the board of Mirc Electronics, while Sonu Mirchandani is not on the board but runs Monica Electronics, which manufactures a range of white goods including CTVs. Under an arrangement with Monica, Mirc markets these products under the Onida brand.

Five years ago Mirc bought over the total interest in the Onida brand.
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Huawei Tech changes corporate logo
Bangalore: Huawei Technologies has announced a change in its corporate logo, effective May 8, 2006. Huawei's new logo is an extension of the company's core values of customer-focus, innovation, steady-and-sustainable growth and harmony, said a release issued by the company.
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MRPL to export petro products to Mauritius
New Delhi: Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals (MRPL), which is a subsidiary of ONGC, will start exporting petroleum products to Mauritius. Its parent company ONGC said the State Trading Corporation of Mauritius had finalised import of its entire petroleum product requirement (gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and furnace oil) for the country, aggregating to approximately one million tonnes from India, for a period of one year.

This is the first time that Mauritius will be importing petroleum products from India. In 2005-06, MRPL's export earnings nearly doubled to 92 per cent year-on- year. ONGC said that despite the hardening of international prices and ocean freight, ONGC-MRPL have offered very attractive and competitive pricesand, Mauritius will benefit as compared to its current import arrangements.
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Small cars get a boost by duty cut
New Delhi: Passenger car sales rose 15 per cent in April and stood at 74,536 units against 63,932 units in the corresponding period last year. Nine of the 11 companies, including Maruti Udyog, Hyundai, Ford, General Motors and Honda, saw a growth in demand following the 8 per cent excise duty cut on small cars in the Union Budget, figures released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) revealed.

In two wheelers motorcycles' sales were up nearly 17 per cent at 5,12,381 units against 4,38,325 units in April 2005. Hero Honda and Bajaj Auto led the charge, while smaller players like TVS Motors and Yamaha also saw numbers rise. The last month also saw new entrant Suzuki sell 3,675 units. Sales of scooter/scooterettee saw a 16.1 per cent decline with sales at 65,679 units in April against 78,313 units in the corresponding period last year, SIAM said. Commercial vehicles sales, meanwhile, saw a spurt in growth with sales growing by 68.5 per cent in April at 28,475 units against 16,890 units in the corresponding period last year.

Medium and heavy goods carriers spurred the demand as sales in the segment grew a whopping 85.9 per cent at 16,194 units against 8,709 units in April 2005.
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RIL considers acquisition of stake in Saudi Aramco project
Mumbai: Reliance Industries (RIL) may pick up a stake in the $ 9.8-billion Saudi Aramco petrochemical project in Saudi Arabia. Other petrochemicals majors interested in the project are ExxonMobil and Dow Chemicals.

The Saudi Aramco project is expected to be completed by the end of 2008.

The overall cost of the petrochemical project has risen to $ 9.8 billion from the originally estimated $ 8.5 billion. The shareholders of the company are investing $ 4 billion while the rest will come from loans, mainly from the Japan Bank of International Cooperation, a public investment fund, Islamic banks and local financial intermediaries.

The complex is expected to produce 2.4 million tonne of petrochemical solids and liquids per year and big quantities of gasoline and other refined products. Saudi Aramco currently owns and operates a topping refinery at Rabigh with a crude distillation capacity of 400,000 barrels per day (bpd).
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LG to make India sourcing hub for optical storage devices
Kolkata: LG Electronics India is planning to turn India into a sourcing hub for optical storage devices (OSD) for supplying to the Persian Gulf region, south-east Asia and other markets from its new manufacturing base at Pune.

LG plans to start manufacturing OSDs in its Pune factory in a couple of months. Company officials said the majority of OSD production in India would be exported. The overall export target from India is being doubled from $100 million in 2005, $200 million in 2006-07.
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Balrampur consolidated net up 57 per cent, dividend at 200 per cent
Kolkata: Balrampur Chini Mills has posted a net profit of Rs193.95 crore for the year ended March 31, 2006 as compared to Rs125.06 crore last year.

Gross turnover grew 26 per cent to Rs1,171.27 crore in the year ended March 31, 2006 as compared to Rs930.26 crore last year. According to an official release issued by Balrampur to the BSE today, the board has declared an interim dividend of 200 per cent i.e. Rs2 per share.
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BSNL launches free incoming calls on roaming
New Delhi: State owned telecom service provider BSNL has launched its promotional summer scheme for postpaid customers offering free incoming calls while roaming.

The new scheme also offers all local, national and roaming sms at Re0.10 in the home network and would be effective from May 1 - June 30, 2006, a BSNL release said.

The company would also offer free incoming calls for subscribers rendering MTNL services while on roaming in Delhi and Mumbai.

The scheme is applicable for postpaid customers who have opted for Rs325 or 525 rental plans.

BSNL has also announced an unlimited broadband plan at a rental of Rs900 per month. The same connection would cost Rs9,000 for 12 months if subscribed on an annual basis, the release said. Users would get unlimited access to the internet at 256 Kbps.
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