Qualcomm says no royalty cuts for India
New Delhi: Qualcomm Inc, owner of the pioneering CDMA technology, has refused to reduce royalties for handsets sold in India.

In a global webcast, senior Qualcomm executives refuted a recent claim by Indian telecom industry players that CDMA is an expensive technology for consumers to adopt because of royalty payments.

Qualcomm said the real reason why Reliance, the top CDMA service provider in India with 21 million subscribers, is contemplating a move to GSM is because India's spectrum allocation rules are ''distorted'' against CDMA technology. They said the spectrum policy in India allocates roughly twice as much spectrum to GSM operators as is given to CDMA operators. They also said that the price reduction in the handsets is driven by factors other than royalty.

The company executives said Qualcomm's licenses are issued to manufacturing firms and not to operators and that the royalty to handsets in India is one of the lowest in the world.

Reliance Infocomm has been considering a shift to GSM based phones as it says that the total cost of owning a CDMA connection is higher than that of a GSM connection due to the high patent payments on CDMA handsets.
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CCEA approves 10 pc stake sale in Nalco, NLC
New Delhi: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved selling of 10 per cent Government equity in Nalco and Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC). The Government plans to raise around Rs2,500 crore in the process.

Finance minster, P. Chidambaram, speaking to the press, confirmed the decision by the CCEA. Based on the current price, sale of 10 per cent in Nalco could fetch about Rs1,400 crore, while Rs1,100 crore would come from a 10 per cent equity sale in NLC. The proceeds of these disinvestments would go to the National Investment Fund (NIF). In October last year, the Cabinet had approved setting up of the NIF under a three-member board; disinvestment proceeds were earmarked for this fund. Post-divestment, the Government equity in Nalco would come down to 77.15 per cent from 87.15 per cent. In NLC, the stake would decline to 83.56 per cent from 93.56 per cent currently. Both the offers would be made through the book building process and the price would be decided in consultations with the lead managers, the Minister said.

As the share price of Nalco is ruling at around Rs250, the Government has decided to split the shares before the offer to ensure greater participation of retail investors. The Department of Disinvestment would decide on the split ratio after consultations with the Ministry of Mines and Department of Public Enterprises.
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CSC plans 4,500-seater campus in Noida
New Delhi: Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) plans to expand its operations in Noida by setting up a campus with capacity to house 4,500 employees. The company said India plays an important role in its world sourcing strategy and global business plans. It says it selected its locations in India on considerations of infrastructure, improved living conditions and ability to scale up operations.

"The first phase of construction of the campus is expected to be complete by March 2007, and will house 3,000 employees," said Tom Kenyon, president and managing director of CSC India, said at a conference here.

Subsequently the company would expand its Noida headcount to 4,500. The new campus would cover 10 acres, with scalable build area of up to 1.2 million square feet. At present, CSC India has 5,400 employees, including 450 employees in Indore, and 2,500 employees spread across multiple facilities in Noida. Another 2,000 employees are located in the company's Hyderabad and Chennai centres. "

In Noida the company would be adding between 1,000-2,000 people over the next 12 months, Mr Kenyon said and added that the company had initiated talks with potential clients in India, to tap the opportunities in the domestic market.
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AMD to step up hiring in Bangalore
Bangalore: Chip maker Advanced Micro Devices plans to double the strength of its chip design team in the city over the next one year said Ajay M. Marathe, president, AMD India.

At present 100 hardware engineers are working on latest chip designs, besides software and alliances management (working with partner firms to consolidate knowledge). Besides platform engineering and research and development, the firm is also strengthening its sales and marketing teams at its centre in Bangalore.

According to analyst firm IDC at present AMD has 23 per cent of the desktop PC market in India, which is 50 per cent higher than the share in the October-December quarter. AMD also introduced socket AM2 series of processors, which will enable Windows Vista users to take advantage of new capabilities such as virtualisation (running different operating systems on a single PC). Energy-efficient processors, with up to 40 per cent reduction in power, were also revealed.
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Rajesh Exports gets orders worth Rs 231-cr
Bangalore: Rajesh Exports has bagged an export order worth Rs231 crore from Singapore firm, Gold Star Jewellery. Rajesh Exports will design and manufacture 22- and 14-carat designer gold jewellery.

The Singapore company earlier gave an Rs124 crore to Rajesh Exports three months ago. The company has also secured an order worth Rs25 crore from Canara Bank to supply 47,400 gold coins. Both the orders will be completed at the company's manufacturing facility in Whitefield near Bangalore.
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Limited edition Corolla launched by Toyota Motor
Bangalore: Toyota Kirloskar Motor has launched a limited edition of Corolla. The company says it endeavours to constantly upgrade its products. Corolla is a proven success globally and offers class leading comfort, luxury and safety. The limited edition Corolla is aimed at further delighting our customers a company statement said. The limited edition version has new features and available in two colours, metallic red and champagne mica metallic.

It has features like chrome alloys, a stylish side skirt and intelligent auto headlamps and 10-spoke chrome finish alloy wheels. The steering wheel has audio controls and the interiors of the car are equipped with insulators that reduce noise, vibrations and harshness. Auto headlamps equipped with sensors ensure that the multi-reflector headlamps come with changes in the ambient light.
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BHEL gets two APGenco contracts worth Rs 82 crore
New Delhi: Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) has received two contracts worth about Rs82 crore from the Andhra Pradesh Power Generation Corporation (APGenco). The contracts entail the supply and setting up of electromechanical equipment for two Hydro Electric Projects (HEP) in Andhra Pradesh — the 50 MW greenfield Nagarjunasagar Tail Pond Dam and the 9 MW Sriramsagar Extension project, according to a BHEL statement issued here on Thursday.

BHEL has been assigned the design, engineering, manufacture, supply, testing and supervision of the erection and commissioning of turbines, generators and other associated equipment. The turbines and generators will be manufactured at the company's Bhopal plant while its electronics division in Bangalore will supply the static excitation equipment.
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Sakthi Sugars to expand
Coimbatore: Sakthi Sugars has started work on its expansion plans which would be commissioned by September 2007. The expansion is being funded through the foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCB) issue last month.

Once complete, the sugar major will have a total installed sugar crushing capacity of 18,500 tonnes per day (tcd). The company plans to enhance the capacity of the plant in Sakthinagar to 9,000 tcd and is in the process of setting up a 3,500 tcd greenfield project in Tamil Nadu. It also has a unit in Sivaganga, Tamil Nadu.

Apart from enhancing its crushing capacity, the company's targeted investment on the co-generation plant has been estimated at Rs 310 crore. At its Sakthinagar unit, the company plans to increase the co-generation capacity from the existing 35 MW to 60 MW, while at Sivaganga, it is expected to go up to 35 MW from 5 MW at present.
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Rico Auto to get technology assistance from Italian Co
New Delhi: Auto ancillary company, Rico Auto Industries has signed a licensing and technological assistance agreement with Italy-based Teksid Aluminium according to which it would get technological assistance from the latter to develop aluminium engine blocks and heads, required for a new generation of engines. Teksid, which is a supplier to almost all vehicle producers in the world and has operations in Italy, France, Poland, USA, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and China, is a pioneer in these technologies.
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Private oil cos not be compensated: Oil ministry
New Delhi: The Petroleum Ministry says private oil companies like Reliance Industries (RIL) cannot get compensation on under-recoveries from sale of motor spirit (MS) and high speed diesel (HSD). The Government said this is as the private companies were free to decide on the retail price of these petroleum products.

Private oil players like RIL and Essar are voicing similar concerns to those of state-owned oil marketing companies (OMCs) over the sale of petroleum products at a controlled price, despite the surge in international crude prices. RIL has requested the Petroleum Ministry to treat it on par with PSU OMCs, while working out a compensation policy for retail companies over the losses incurred in selling these products below cost price. The company is said to have informed the Ministry that it had incurred under-recovery of Rs1,187 crore in 2005-06 on the two products. While the under-recovery on MS was Rs103 crore, on HSD it stood at Rs1,084 crore for the fiscal.

While for similar under-recoveries PSU OMCs are compensated by the Government through oil bonds or discounts from upstream companies, no such mechanism is available for private oil companies, they argued.

RIL received marketing rights for petroleum products in May 2002.

RIL had recently increased the price of diesel and petrol sold through its retail outlets. It had increased the price of diesel by Rs2 per litre plus local taxes on May 22 and from May 12, the company had increased the price of domestic petrol by Rs2 per litre plus local taxes.
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BHEL gets equipment order worth Rs 2,448 cr from UP
Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government plans to place orders worth Rs2,448 crore with Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) for the supply of equipment for 4 250MW thermal power units in Pariccha and Harduaganj thermal power stations. BHEL will supply boilers, turbines and generators for capacity expansion of the 2 stations.

The state government has taken up the expansion of the Pariccha and Harduaganj thermal power units, where two 250 MW units will be set up in each thermal plant. UP chief secretary Naveen Chandra Bajpayee said the Pariccha unit would commence generation within 35 months while the Harduaganj one will be commissioned in 39 months.
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Sahara, Jet Airways fly solo
Mumbai: Air Sahara, Jet Airways have begun operating on their own, rolling back the partial integration that was taking place since the signing of the deal on January 19 this year. Air Sahara executives said the airline had written to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, saying that its agreement to lease a wide-bodied plane to Jet should be cancelled. Jet had deployed the aircraft for its international operations.

Many of Air Sahara's flights were delayed by two-three hours and its engineering service disrupted today. Airport sources said this was the result of Jet withdrawing its executives — including vice-president (marketing) Gaurang Shetty and chief operating officer Dale Moss — and engineers.

Jet Airways ended common ticket sales, passenger exchange, flight-swapping and corporate and agency agreements with Air Sahara. Sources said Jet Airways had also dropped maintenance-checks for Air Sahara's CRJ and Boeing 737 aircraft and was on the verge of terminating the vendor support arrangement for supply of spare parts.
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