No more oil price hikes: Deora
Mumbai: Murli Deora Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas has said there would not be any more hikes in domestic oil prices despite rising international prices.

"We are not considering any rise in domestic oil prices at present," Deora told reporters after launching futures trading in natural gas on Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd (MCX) here.

Deora said, "To bridge the demand and supply gap in natural gas we have a big contract with Iran. There are some problems in execution and we are trying our level best that Iran fulfills the conditions of that contract," Deora added that the problem was in the contract itself and efforts were on to sort them out.
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WB plans small airports
Kolkata: The West Bengal is planning to set up small airports at Coochbehar, Ambari, Purulia, Vishnupur and Burdwan for short distance flights within the state. It is also revamping the country's oldest Behala flying club in the metropolis.

The government has also floated a global tender for upgrading the flying club at Behala into a modern commercial pilot training institute. The tender was yet to be opened.
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Haryana govt grants its entrepreneurs a tax holiday
Chandigarh: Entrepreneurs setting up industrial units in Haryana would be eligible to get tax concessions and facilities on the lines of similar tax holiday granted in Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal. Chief Minister of Haryana Bhupinder Singh Hooda said the central government and the Planning Commission have also assured his government in this regard and anyone putting up industrial units in these states before March 31 next year could avail the tax holiday. This included tax concessions on excise and income tax.

The Haryana government has taken this step as hundreds of industries, especially in the pharmaceuticals sector, have shifted to Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal in the last two-three years following the grant of a 10-year tax holiday in these two hill states by the central government. Himachal Pradesh alone had attracted investment of nearly Rs200 billion.

Haryana is offering several new industrial estates and special economic zones (SEZs) for investment in the state's industrial sector after its success with the Gurgaon-Manesar industrial belt.
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DTH plans goes for a six as GSLV crashes into Bay
Bangalore: With ISRO's GSLV-F02 satellite launch vehicle crashing into the Bay of Bengal shortly after its launch from the SHAR centre in Sriharikota on Monday, direct to home plans of various broadcasters have been hit as GSLV-F02 was carrying the operational communications satellite, Insat 4C.

The satellite, with 12 Ku-band transponders, had commercial bookings from broadcasters like Sun TV for DTH, Sri Lanka's Rupavahini, and NICNET, apart from the regular payload for Doordarshan. A few more broadcasters were expecting to shift to it.

ISRO had been projecting the GSLV as a cheaper and reliable service in the small but tough $2-billion space transportation market. The market is dominated by Europe's Arianespace, US players Boeing and Lockheed Martin, and to a lesser extent by China and Japan.

For over three decades, the space organisation has been planning to make a home launch of its indigenously built Insat; it has so far been flown by Arianespace for $200-250 million apiece. An Indian launch is said to come 30 per cent cheaper. ISRO officials had earlier put the cost at Rs150 crore for the launcher and Rs100 crore for the satellite.

The crash comes a day after the DRDO's Agni III missile test failed in Orissa.
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Telecom service revenues rise to Rs87,962-crore
New Delhi: Telecom service providers in India have registered revenues of Rs87,962 crore for the year ending March 2006, up 30 per cent from Rs67,523 crore for the same period last year.

With a growth rate of 9 per cent and revenues of Rs39,500 crores, BSNL remained the top service provider. Its closest competitor, Bharti Airtel brought in Rs11, 663 crores, growing at 46 per cent, while Reliance grew 109 per cent to clock revenues of Rs11,288 crores, becoming India's third biggest telecom service provider, according to a Voice & Data 100 2006 survey of the Indian Communications Industry.

International Long Distance (ILD) services in India turned around this year, as they reported an almost 90 per cent growth and revenues of Rs7,251 crores in FY 2005-06, as against a minus 12 per cent growth last year. VSNL's share of this market segment fell to below 50 per cent, despite the company growing at 72 per cent. The phenomenal growth in this area can be attributed to Reliance, which grew its ILD business at 314 per cent to post ILD revenues of Rs2,714 crores.

Cellular services for FY '06 grew 57 per cent to post revenues of Rs35,879 crores, which although less than the 63 per cent growth reported last year, was enough to take the mobile service revenue beyond that from fixed services, the survey said.

The other highpoints of the industry were the expansion of networks in new areas, consolidations, and the operators offering virtually every customer segment a personalised tariff structure. The cellular industry overall added 38.5 million users in FY 2005-06.

Bharti Airtel was the top cellular service provider, with revenues of Rs7,928 crores, while Tata Teleservices and MTNL were star performers with a 345 per cent and 105 per cent growth respectively.
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