Reliance Comm applies for GSM frequency
New Delhi: Anil Ambani's Reliance Communication has applied for radio frequency to start GSM- based cellular services in Delhi and Mumbai to the Department of Telecom. Reliance officials said that the decision was based on a long-term strategy to offer services riding on a mix of both technologies and replicating the model deployed by Chinese operator, China Unicom. The company said the spectrum crunch for CDMA operators was forcing them to look at deploying a GSM network.

Market watchers said Reliance was eyeing the 45 Mhz spectrum which the defence forces are in the process of vacating for commercial mobile usage. They said if Reliance's application is approved, the company would immediately get a pair of 5 Mhz of spectrum in 1800 Mhz, a frequency for GSM operators.

Internationally, China Unicom and US-based AT&T have made similar switches.

Reliance has close to 20 million mobile subscribers to its CDMA-based service.
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No exclusive right for trademark rules Delhi HC
Chennai: The Delhi High Court has ruled that if the trademarks of two different companies were identical or resembled alike, and if both had registered their trademarks they were not entitled to have exclusive right to use one of the marks against the other.

Quoting the provisions of Section 28 of the Trade Marks Act, 1999, Justice Anil Kumar, heard two parties — AstraZeneca UK Ltd (plaintiff) and Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Ltd (defendant). The plaintiff, which had a registered trade mark `Meronem', a sterile dry powder for intravenous injection or infusion for curing infections such as pneumonias and nosocomial pneumonias, contended that the defendant had launched similar drug to derive advantage in marketing the same.

The defendant submitted that the trademark `Meromer' was adopted in an honest manner after taking all necessary safeguards prior to its adoption. They had been in the business of manufacturing and selling various bulk drugs and formulations and had their own plant to manufacture the molecule Meropenem.

The judge observed that it was difficult to infer at this stage that the adoption of the trademark `Meromer' by the defendant to market a life-saving drug was with the intention to pass off his product as that of the plaintiff.

He observed that if the defendant was to be restrained from marketing the drug under the tradename `Meromer', the inconvenience caused to the defendant shall be much more. The judge held that prima facie, the balance of convenience was in favour of the defendant.
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TCS to add 30,500 to payrolls
Coimbatore: TCS is planning to increase its headcount by 30,500 people in the current fiscal which is about 10,000 more than the numbers recruited last fiscal. The company is planning to make campus offers to 12,000 candidates from about 200 institutions across the country, according to S Padmanabhan, executive vice-president of Global HR.

The company has already made 9,200 campus offers for the current year and plans to continue its aggressive drive.

Apart from recruiting from institutions in Tier I cities the company has covered many institutions in Tier II cities such as Coimbatore. The company is offering a 10 per cent increase in the salary levels compared to the offers made in 2005-06 and the existing employees have received a 15 per cent jump. Growing at 35 per cent year-on-year, TCS is focusing on recruiting more people (to meet the demand supply requirement) and at increasingly diversifying this talent pool.
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Falcon Tyres to increase prices
Bangalore: Tyres prices may be on an upward swing. Falcon Tyres is increasing price of tyres between 6 per cent and 7 per cent from June 11. Other tyre manufacturers may follow suit.

Sources in Falcon Tyres, a Ruia Group company, said the company is being forced to increase prices because of the rise in the price of natural rubber, which has almost doubled to Rs 110 per kg. Falcon, which was recently taken over by the Ruia Group, manufactures tyres for the two and three-wheeler industry. The industry may again increase prices a few months later, sources said.
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Niko approval required for Mukesh to sell Anil cheap gas
Mumbai: The oil ministry says Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries' cannot sell gas at a subsidised rate to Anil Ambani's Reliance Natural Resources (RNRL). The ministry is said to have Reliance Industries to move a joint application with Niko Resources, its partner in developing the D-6 block of the Krishna-Godavari basin, from where the gas was proposed to be supplied to RNRL.

Niko Resources holds a 10-per cent stake in the block while the balance 90 per cent is with Reliance Industries. Industry sources said the government's rejection of the Reliance Industries application and insistence on a joint application might pose a question mark on the proposed gas supply if Niko did not agree with Reliance Industries' proposal for supplying gas to RNRL at $2.98 per mmbtu, which was much lower than the market rate.

Industry experts also question why Reliance Industries made a solo application, knowing that it needed a nod from Niko for the purpose.

Reliance Industries and RNRL had entered into a master agreement on gas supply in January. The announcement of the agreement led to a series of allegations and counter-allegations levelled by both the camps against each other.
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ONGC drops plan for hiking stake in MRPL
New Delhi: Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has shelved its plan to increase its stake in Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals to 88.6 per cent following Hindustan Petroleum Corporation's (HPCL) refusal to sell its 16.97 per cent stake to ONGC.

ONGC says it offered to buy HPCL's stake in Mangalore Refinery at the rate of Rs 38.5 per share or a consideration of nearly Rs 1,140 crore. If the stake sale had gone through ONGC would have become the sole promoter of Mangalore Refinery, for which it has ambitious expansion plans.

In order to gain complete control over Mangalore Refinery, ONGC, in 2003, acquired Aditya Birla group's 37.4 per cent stake in the loss-making Mangalore Refinery for Rs 59.43 crore, at Rs 2 per share. It had also bought out 20 per cent equity held by various financial institutions.

ONGC's current stake in Mangalore Refinery is about 72 per cent. The oil PSU plans to double the capacity of the refinery to 15 million tonnes per annum.
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Reliance Retail looks at China for sourcing durables
Mumbai: Reliance Retail controlled by Mukesh Ambani's is eyeing vendors from China to source consumer durables products which it can relabel and sell in India. Chinese consumer durables manufacturers are said to be among the lowest-cost producers in the world due to economies of scale.

Though Reliance's durables chain will have multiple-brands, the company wants to have a strong private label presence in the segment. Reliance is also said to be considering acquiring an existing retail chain in India, especially in the south India, where durables chains have a strong presence.

The company is aiming for a turnover of Rs1,000-2,000 crore by September, 2007, and has already started its business by taking over the supply chain arrangements of the Maharashtra government owned Sahakari Bhandar.

Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani is expected to make significant announcements at the forthcoming annual general meeting of Reliance Industries later this month.
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