Tata Sky launched
New Delhi: Tata Sky, the Star network and Tata group's direct-to-home (DTH) venture was officially launched in New Delhi on August 8, 2006.

The other two DTH players in the market are Zee Group's Dish TV and Prasar Bharti's DD Direct which do not compete with each other. While Dish TV airs all the private satellite channels, DD Direct beams all the Doordarshan channels on its platform. Also while Zee is metro centric DD Direct has penetrated remote areas and villages across the country.

Tata Sky officials said there is tremendous potential in DTH as currently, 63 million Indian homes are connected by C&S television, while 47 million homes receive terrestrial television. Apart from this there are 110 million homes which do not have television sets giving rise to huge potential.

Tata Sky which will come in direct competition with Dish TV, will initially offer 55 channels for Rs200. The one-time installation and activation charges would be Rs3,999. Against this Dish TV charges Rs180 for offering 75 channels. The installation cost is Rs3,290, which also includes three months' subscription.

Tata Sky also doesn't offer the Zee bouquet of channels on its network and negotiations are on to acquire this bouquet. Dish TV scores here as well because it already has the STAR bouquet of channels on its platform.

Tata Sky has tied up with LG, ITC (through its e-choupal initiative) and Indian Oil for distribution. 225 distribution outlets are said to be already in place throughout the country and these will tie up with 10,000 outlets in the top three cities of India by the end of this month.
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Tata Tea eyes acquisitions in US
Mumbai: The Tata Tea group, comprising Tata Tea, Tetley and Tata Coffee, is targeting a turnover of Rs7,000 crore in the next three years. The group is eyeing acquisitions in the US and other countries over the next few months. The company's acquisitions in the US are likely to be in the specialty tea segment or an advanced beverage. It could also be a large acquisition comparable to Tetley.

The next generation business of the group will be to enter into tea-based products, which may again be driven through the inorganic route. Broadly, this may include tea-based cosmetic products as well.

According to Ratan Tata, chairman, Tata Tea brand growth will be the priority area for Tata Tea's growth.

Rabobank International and Rabo India Finance Pvt Ltd (a wholly owned subsidiary of Rabobank International) have just concluded financing the acquisition of Eight O'clock Coffee, US, by Tata Coffee Ltd for a total value of $231 million.
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Hero Honda to set up plant in Uttaranchal: to invest Rs1,900-crore
New Delhi: Hero Honda Motors is setting up a plant in Uttaranchal and plans to invest Rs1,900 crore in a new two-wheeler facility in the state where the government offers excise concessions. This will be its fourth facility in India.

The plant, expected to begin production from May 2007, will have an initial capacity to build 5 lakh units a year and will be expanded to 1.5 million units by 2010.

The company has planned the facility to meet the growing demand of two-wheelers. Two-wheeler sales surged nearly 18 per cent in the first four months of this fiscal to slightly under 25 lakh units.

The plant and its ancillaries will be located on a 275-acre plot in Haridwar at the Integrated Industrial Estate in Haridwar, being developed by State Industrial Development Corporation of Uttaranchal Ltd and will have an initial investment of around Rs 300 crore. The company, which currently has two plants in Haryana, said the Uttaranchal plant would start with an initial capacity of 5 lakh units to be scaled up to 15 lakh by 2010.
The plant will help it achieve an annual production capacity of 44 lakh units by May 2007. The company is already expanding capacity at its existing plants in Gurgaon and Dharuhera by an additional 9 lakh units that will be completed this month.

Uttaranchal offers 100 per cent excise exemption for 10 years and 100 per cent Income-Tax exemption for the first five years and 30 per cent for the next five years, among other benefits.
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ONGC shuts down plant at Hazira due to floods
Mumbai: The industrial belt at Hazira in south Gujarat has been inundated as the Tapi river overflowed, halting operations of a number of industrial units in the area. Also the situation is expected to get worse, as the weather office has predicted heavy rains in the catchment area over the next 36 hours.

The Heavy Water Plant at Hazira was shut down early morning on Tuesday. The floods also hit ONGC's Hazira gas processing complex on Monday midnight, calling for an emergency shutdown, a company statement said.

Water started entering the Hazira gas processing complex through the storm water channel, resulting in flooding of the plant to the level of 4-5 feet and leading to closure by 1.53 a.m., ONGC said.
The shutdown will affect availability of gas from two of the country's largest gas fields - Bassein (off Mumbai) and Panna-Mukta-Tapti (off the Gujarat coast).

Supplies to the tune of 40 million standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd) from the Hazira plant have been suspended, ONGC said.

GAIL officials said that the company is trying to maintain gas supplies for category one consumers such as Indraprastha Gas Ltd, industries in the Agra-Ferozabad belt and IOC's Mathura Refinery.

Petroleum Ministry officials have said that CNG supply to Delhi will not be affected, according to agency reports. Public transport in Delhi runs on CNG.
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AT&T to offer ILD services again
New Delhi: The US telecom company, AT&T Global Network Services, is likely to reenter the Indian telecom sector as the Department of Telecommunications is in the final stages of giving its approval to the company's application for a long distance licence. AT&T has formed a joint venture company with Mahindras where AT&T Global holds 74 per cent equity.

AT&T's application for an ILD license ran into trouble after the DoT received complaints that AT&T's group company AT&T Communications, was offering services without proper licences and thus evading various taxes payable.

However as per the existing laws, the Government cannot hold back new licences if the applicant or its sister concerns were being examined for any violations.

AT&T Mobile was earlier a strategic investor in Idea Cellular along with the Tatas and Birlas. AT&T is also on BSNL's list of preferred long distance carriers.

The company will have to compete with the likes of Bharti, Reliance Communications, BSNL, VSNL and MTNL. The Government has so far given ILD licences to six companies and the NLD licence to nine companies, which include HCL Infinet, Power Grid, Tulip IT and RailTel.
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Zenotech receives approval for biotech products
Hyderabad: Zenotech Laboratories (ZLL) has received marketing and manufacturing approval for two of its biotech products — GM-CSF (Innovator brand: Leucomax by Novartis) and G-CSF (Neupogen by Amgen/Roche). Both the products are used by the oncology specialists to treat neutropenia in cancer patients. The company would launch the products in India in the next few days. Zenotech is the first Indian company to develop generic version of GM-CSF.
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GSM subscriber base crosses 82mn at July end
New Delhi: The GSM -based cellular subscriber base rose by four million in July, to touch 82.4 million. Of all telecom operators Bharti captured 29.53 per cent of the market share. The subscriber base grew from 78.5 million as on June to 82.4 million in July - recording an addition of 3.93 million during the month, latest figures released by cellular association COAI said.

Bharti added 1.27 million new users taking its total subscriber base to 24.34 million.

State-run BSNL came second in the subscriber figures with its 19.03 million users by adding 0.74 million new customers with a market share of 23.09 per cent and was followed by Hutch.

Hutch added 0.85 million new subscribers and its total user base touched 18.39 million. Hutch's market share was at 22.33 per cent.

Idea Cellular added 0.58 million new subscribers and took its user base to 9.12 million and its market share stood at 11.07 per cent. Aircel's market share stood at 4.12 per cent this month.

Reliance, which has a minor presence in the GSM space, also added 0.19 million new users and its subscriber base touched 2.51 million. Spice Telecom has 2.09 million users with 0.04 million additions in June.

MTNL added 0.07 million subscribers and its total subscriber base stood at 2.24 million. MTNL operates in Delhi and Mumbai.
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