HM launches the Mitshubishi Montero
New Delhi: Hindustan Motors has launched the SUV Montero in India priced at Rs29.7 lakh. The 3.2-litre Mitsubishi Montero has a four-cylinder turbo diesel engine that generates 165 bhp.

Hindustan Motors is going ahead with its plans to sell land to private developers. The company has appointed HDFC to advise it on the sale. The company is planning to sell around 300 acres of the 740-acre land that it has in Uttarpara where it houses a plant. The proceeds from the land sales would be used for strengthening its car and auto components business.

The funds would principally be utilised for modernisation and expansion of the Uttarpara plant. It could also be used for relieving a part of the company's Rs110-crore debt.
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DoT to revive ITI
New Delhi: The Department of Telecom is finalising a package for the revival of the ITI. The package includes financial aid and infusion of new technologies through joint ventures. The move is aimed at wiping out the losses as well as making it independent of projects being offered by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. The Government had earlier given a financial aid of Rs1,025 crore to ITI to help it tide over mounting losses. ITI's losses stood at Rs4,501 crore during 2005-06. The net loss for the quarter ended June 2006 stood at Rs139 crore compared to Rs120 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

ITI has 14,700 employees spread across six manufacturing units in Bangalore, Naini, Mankapur, Rae Barelli, Palakkad and Srinagar. It also has three R&D facilities.

ITI involved primarily in fixed line telephone technology, is dependent fully on State-owned BSNL, which has reduced its investments in fixed line telephony drastically. BSNL is now focussing on cellular and broadband services making ITI factories idle.
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Spice Comm signs Rs250-cr deal with UK Co
New Delhi: Spice Communications, a joint venture between B K Modi Group and Malaysia Telecom, has signed a Rs250 crore deal with UK-based Tower Vision. According to the deal the latter will set up tower sites for the company's cellular network in Punjab and Karnataka. As part of the deal Tower Vision will build, own and operate 1,000 tower sites for Spice in the two States. Spice Comm will share these towers with other mobile service providers as part of the infrastructure sharing initiative.
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New Lenovo laptops
Bangalore: Lenovo has launched two new series of laptops that run on Intel's latest dual core processors. The ThinkPad Z61 series and R60 series are designed and targeted at the enterprise class. The Z61 series is optimal for business professionals and is available in 14.1-inch (Z61t) and 15.4-inch (Z61m) models. The ThinkPad R60 series is a lower-cost, mainstream laptop, which the company claims has better battery life. The ThinkPad R60 is priced at Rs60, 000 and the ThinkPad Z61 costs Rs65, 000.
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Bartronics to manufacture tags
Hyderabad: Bartronics., a barcode and RFID (radio frequency identification) solutions provider, is planning a backward integration project to manufacture tags with investment of up to Rs150 crore. The company is also in the final stages of acquiring a company. To fund the project and the acquisition, the company has recently passed an enabling resolution that gives it the power to raise funds up to Rs250 crore. The company raised Rs48 crore through the IPO some time ago and has expanded its service portfolio to cover RFID solutions for enterprise business and an R&D centre. With the funds it raised the company has repaid some of its loans raised through IDBI for expansion within the country and overseas marketing centres. It still has about Rs16 crore which would be deployed for working capital and other expenses. In the last financial year, the company recorded revenues of Rs28 crore and is poised to double it this year on expanded range of services.
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Tata Tele to invest Rs110-cr in Kolkata to expand network
Kolkata: Tata Teleservices plans to investing Rs110 crore this fiscal for setting up cell sites, true value shops and hubs in Kolkata. At present, it has 260 cell sites in the city and would be adding another 40 sites over the next two months.

The number of cell sites including the new ones to be added would go up to 110 by the end of the financial year.

Tata Teleservices has set a target of more than a million customers by this year. It would also grow the number of shops and hubs and add 35 shops by September 30.
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DoT not in favour of sample verification of mobile users
New Delhi: The suggestion made by telecom operators to restrict physical verification of subscribers to a sample size has not found favour with the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) which feels that the growth of cellular users cannot be at the cost of national security.

As per the conditions of both cellular and unified access service licences, the licencees are required to ensure adequate verification of each and every customer before enrolling the person as a subscriber.

The service providers are also required to obtain photographs and authenticated copies of identification and address proof from all customers before enrolment.

All operators, barring Tata Teleservices, have opposed the 100 per cent physical verification drive, and have proposed 10 per cent physical verification and 100 per cent document verification.
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