Airlines may be allowed to set fares
New Delhi: The Government of India is planning to allow domestic airlines to set their own fares against the present norms, under which domestic airlines have to get prior permission from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) before announcing new fares and schedules. Also under the present rules the DGCA can also issue orders to airlines on matters relating to tariff and can ask a carrier to change its existing fare structure.

The changes being planned are due to the fact that the government wants to see that airlines operate in a completely free market.
However, in order to curb monopolistic practices by airlines the latter would be required to inform the government about their average annual fare structure and would be required to maintain all records relating to tariffs established by it.

Every airline will also have to give information regarding cost of operation, profit and the general prevailing tariff and rates and charges for air transportation.
Back to News Review index page  

RIL to set up Rs2,000-cr Mumbai IT park
Mumbai: Reliance Industries (RIL) is planning to set up an information technology (IT) Park in Navi Mumbai at an estimated cost of Rs2,000 crore. Earlier the group committed a Rs25,000 crore investment for a mega retail rollout.

RIL will develop this project on the 450 acres of land owned by Nocil, a part of the Reliance group, and is in the process of securing necessary approvals from the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) to set up this project.

RIL's IT park is likely to generate at least 1.2 million jobs in the next five years and would be a part of Dhirubhai Ambani Corporate City, the proposed headquarters of the company.

They said RIL would have to obtain a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the MIDC to convert the Nocil land, which was meant for chemical production, for developing it as a dedicated IT city.
Back to News Review index page  

Vodafone may hike stake in Bharti Airtel
Kharagpur: Global mobile telecommunications major Vodafone Group Plc is open to the idea of hiking its stake in India's Bharti group from its existing level of 10 per cent. Arun Sarin, CEO of Vodafone Group Plc, "We are open to the idea of hiking our stake in Bharti from the existing level of 10 per cent. However, there are no immediate plans to do so," he said. Last year Vodafone acquired a 10 per cent stake in Bharti in an all-cash deal aggregating to 820 million. The acquisition gave Vodafone a footprint in India. Vodafone has been investing in emerging markets from where most of the growth will come in the next five years. Vodafone has invested in the mobile telecommunications business in India, South Africa, China, Turkey, Czech Republic and Romania, among other countries. At present, around 15 per cent of Vodafone's global revenue comes from emerging markets. In the next five years, this figure is expected to go up to 30 per cent.
Back to News Review index page  

OVL likely to lose Gabon oil block to China
New Delhi: ONGC Videsh Ltd has not succeeded in acquiring a stake in one of the three producing blocks in Gabon held by a listed oil firm of Canada. Sources said that OVL's bid was not found high enough to acquire the assets and indications are that it may finally go to China.

OVL had identified two blocks in Gabon for bidding, of which the company considered one. The bid size was over $1 billion, given that the properties are producing oil blocks, the sources said.

The major exploration players in Gabon are Shell, Total, Vaalco, and Marathon. Gabon had proven oil reserves of 2.5 billion barrels as of January 2005. The country is sub-Saharan Africa's fifth largest producer of crude oil after Nigeria, Angola, Sudan, and Equatorial Guinea, at approximately 233,000 barrels per day.

Gabon's projected oil consumption in 2005 is 10,700 barrels per day, with net oil exports of approximately 222,300 barrels.
The country is also the fifth largest exporter of crude oil, with over half of its exports at 126,000 barrels per day going to the US. The rest goes to Western Europe and Asia.

OVL, the overseas arm of ONGC, which has expanded its portfolio significantly in the recent past, made nine acquisitions in 2005-06 and five in the previous fiscal. Currently, it has 21 projects (31 blocks) in 13 countries.
Back to News Review index page  

Accenture to set up fourth R&D centre in Bangalore
Chennai: IT consulting and services company Accenture has set up its fourth R&D technology lab in Bangalore. The company plans to hire about 50 researchers by 2007 selected from the country's leading universities and engineering institutes to staff this facility. This will be expanded to 100 in a phased manner over the next three to four years.

The focus of the lab will be mainly on delivery innovation, according to Scott Rose, global managing director, Accenture Technology Labs. This focus is expected to reduce cost and improve the quality of technology solutions delivered to its global clientele, he added.

Accenture currently operates three labs, two in the US (at Palo Alto, California and Chicago, Illinois) and one at France (in Sophia Antipolis).
Back to News Review index page  

Genpact considers BPO unit in Bhopal
New Delhi: Genpact is considering setting up a 7,000-seat business process outsourcing facility in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. Sources said the company has been allotted 50 acres of prime land near the airport in Bhopal for its BPO operations. The operations are expected to begin in about one month.

Among the reasons cited for the company to set up its facility in the city is a huge pool of English speaking people and the setting up of STPI (software technology parks of India) with an investment of Rs7 crore.

Pramod Bhasin, president and CEO, Genpact, said, "We are considering the proposal very seriously. We are in discussion with the State Government."

Genpact currently has operations in Gurgaon, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Jaipur, employing 14,000 people.
Back to News Review index page  

UB, Russian company enter into distribution deal
Mumbai: United Breweries, the world's third-largest spirits company, has entered into a bilateral tie up with Roustam Tariko owned Russian Standard Group for distribution of each others' liquor products in India and Russia respectively.

As part of the tie up UB will use RSG's distribution network across Russia to market its products in return for which UB would distribute RSG's brands in India through its distribution network.
RSG owns high-end vodka brands in Russia including Russian Standard and Imperia, which will be available through UB's distrubution channels across the country.

The company is also looking for similar kind of tie up for its scheduled foray into the Chinese market
Back to News Review index page  

Satyam's BPO arm to set up operations in Hungary
Kolkata: The BPO subsidiary of the Satyam group, Nipuna Services is poised to set up shop in Hungary. This will be Nipuna's third overseas BPO operation as it already has a sizeable presence in the US and the UK.

Nipuna decided to enter Hungary as it had clients in the country as most international companies are settling for Indian BPO vendors with multilingual expertise in delivering solutions across a number of industry verticals.

Nipuna CEO Venkatesh Roddam said: "Nipuna is actively looking to service its international clients out of Hungary. Our parent company Satyam Computers already has a 90-member team operating in Budapest and we intend working closely with Satyam Computers as part of our global go-to-markets strategy, wherein Nipuna's sales/BPO experts work alongside Satyam's overseas software professionals and pitch for international client projects on location."

At present, Nipuna offers BPO solutions in four core verticals, including telecoms, manufacturing, healthcare/insurance and banking-financial services.
Back to News Review index page  

Disney may buy stake in UTV arm
Mumbai: Walt Disney, which has two television channels in India - Disney Channel and Toon Disney - is in advanced talks with the Ronnie Screwalla promoted UTV channel to buy 30 per cent in the latter's subsidiary, United Home Entertainment (UHEL), which owns the Hungama kids TV channel. The US media giant is expected to invest in the company so that the money is used to battle Time Warner's Cartoon Network in the Rs 100-crore kids channel space in India.

The move is expected to help both Disney and UTV. While the former will strengthen its foothold in India with a significant ownership in the No 2 kids channel, UTV will get extra money and will also be able to produce content for Disney.

Disney launched its two channels in '05 but has been up against stiff competition from Cartoon Network with its first mover advantage. Of the Rs100 crore in ad revenues, Cartoon Network and Pogo together enjoy a share of at least Rs60-crore.

Hungama, the home-grown kids channel, is estimated to have a share of Rs10-12 crore. Disney's share is estimated at about Rs20 crore. Though Disney's revenue is bigger than Hungama's, the alliance would help it bridge the gap with market leaders.
Back to News Review index page  

Oil marketing PSUs get a Rs17,000-cr hit in Q1
New Delhi: The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation's (ONGC) payout in oil subsidies to PSU oil marketing companies for the first quarter of 2006-07 is of the order of Rs4,948 crore. Its subsidy payout is the highest in a total upstream assistance of Rs5,799 crore for the quarter. OIL and GAIL will have to fork out Rs569 crore and Rs 282 crore, respectively, as their share of subsidy.

The petroleum ministry has estimated the under-recoveries of OMCs on sale of petrol, diesel, LPG and kerosene for the first quarter at Rs 7,397.94 crore. Of this, under-recoveries on domestic diesel sales are the highest at Rs8,759 crore followed by PDS kerosene at Rs4,522 crore, domestic LPG at Rs2,211 crore and petrol at Rs1,906 crore. While the downstream assistance has also been worked out at Rs5,799 crore, the government has spared refiners sharing subsidies for the first quarter.

This means no discounts from private and state-owned refiners, including Reliance, Essar, MRPL, Kochi Refineries, Chennai Petroleum and Bongaigaon Refineries. IOC-IBP, BPCL and HPCL have been asked to pay the entire downstream subsidy share. IOC and IBP will bear a subsidy of Rs3,270 crore, BPCL Rs1,334 crore and HPCL Rs1,195 crore in the first quarter.
Back to News Review index page  

Bangladesh says revising Tata gas price offer
Dhaka: Bangladesh is preparing to offer a compromise price for the gas the Tata group needs to fire its industries in an effort to defreeze the $3.0 billion investment deal with the Tata conglomerate.

The plans for the biggest ever investment in Bangladesh were frozen last week in a row over the gas price and concerns that the planned industrial plants could harm the environment.

'The final report prepared by a government-appointed committee of experts has suggested a 19 per cent increase in the gas price earlier offered by Tata,' government energy adviser Mahmudur Rahman said on Sunday.

The committee set the price per thousand cubic feet (mcf) of gas at $3.70 and said it should be subject to revision as the gas price fluctuates in the domestic and global markets, Mahmudur said after an inter-ministerial meeting.

In April, Tata offered to buy natural gas in Bangladesh at $3.10 per mcf, more than double its previous offer.

'The final report will now go to a cabinet committee headed by Industries Minister Matiur Rahman Nizami for approval,' Mahmudur said.

Tata made its initial offer to invest $2 billion in October 2004 but it made no headway because of the dispute over the gas price. Tatas want to set up a steel plant with annual production capacity of 2.4 million tonnes, a urea factory with 1 million tonnes capacity, a 500 megawatt coal-fired power station and a 1,000 MW gas-fired power plant in Bangladesh.
Back to News Review index page