Reliance to start retail operations in September from Hyderabad
New Delhi: Reliance Retail Ltd., which would be a unit of Reliance Industries, is likely to open its first outlet in September in Hyderabad. The store will sell basic groceries. Reliance Industries, had announced in June this year that it would invest $5.6 billion in retail, selling everything from food to clothes to travel services in convenience stores and supermarkets across the country.

Senior company officials said Reliance Retail would have 100 stores very soon, but declined to give a precise timeframe.
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Essar restructures shipping, logistics business
New Delhi: Corporate house Essar has restructured its shipping, terminalling and logistics businesses, under which it has set up a wholly-owned subsidiary in Cyprus.

As per the re-organisation plan, Essar would have three operating companies under it - Essar Shipping Ltd, Essar Logistics Ltd and Vadinar Oil Terminal Ltd. It would hold 77 per cent in Essar Shipping Ltd and 100 per cent stake in the other two companies.

The re-organisation would make Essar a leading integrated logistics provider for steel mills, oil refineries and thermal power generation companies across the world, it said.

Essar Logistics Ltd would carry out the business of logistics management, trans-shipment and port services, while Vadinar Oil Terminal Ltd (VOTL) would focus on ports and terminals.

VOTL has set up a 32 million tonne terminal facility in Vadinar, Gujarat, which would be ready by September this year.
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Dell India revenues rise 63 pc: outpaces global growth
New York: The Indian operations of Dell Inc the largest PC maker worldwide, have registered a 63 per cent growth in sales in the second quarter this fiscal year on the back of 82 per cent growth in shipments, out pacing its worldwide sales growth of 5 per cent.

The US-based computer giant said its total revenue rose 6 per cent to 14.1 billion dollars in the quarter ended August 4, from 13.4 billion dollars a year ago.

The company's net income dropped 51 per cent to 502 million dollars in the second fiscal quarter, from 1.02 billion dollars in the year ago quarter.

Dell's India revenue growth was higher than 31 per cent rise in China revenue, while shipment growth in the country was biggest among the three emerging markets -- China, Brazil and India.

The company expects to gain about 2 share points overall and 4 points in the notebook segment in the country in the current quarter.

Dell moved to the second position both in Japan and for the Asia Pacific region in total on the back of strong unit growth in emerging markets like China, Brazil.
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Bajaj Hindustan wins case against tax authorities after 26 yrs
New Delhi: Bajaj Hindustan - the country's largest sugar producer - has finally won a case against tax authorities after more than two decades over the payment of additional excise duty.

The Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) has quashed the orders of Lucknow circle excise officials to the company for paying differential duty of Rs30 lakhs for the period March 1978-November 1980. The tribunal order comes 13 years after a Supreme Court judgement on a similar issue gave benefits to other sugar companies.

Bajaj Hindustan, which has most of its units in Uttar Pradesh, had challenged the claims of excise authorities regarding payment of additional taxes.

In the late 1970s, sale and distribution of sugar was largely under the control of the Central government. However, as per an agreement between producers and the government, the sugar companies were allowed to sell some part in open market at their discretion. This was known as 'free-sale' sugar.

But the government remained the major buyer and fixed a statutory price for purchase of 'levy-sugar', which was sold through the public distribution system.

Opposing the levy price fixed by the government as uneconomical, the company moved the High Court and obtained relief. Even after winning the case, the company continued to pay excise duty on the basis of 'levy-sugar' - that is, on lower prices fixed by government.
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Consumer forum summons Anil Ambani
New Delhi: Anil Ambani, chairman of Reliance Communications has been summoned by a city consumer forum to personally appear before it on August 30 in connection with a complaint accusing the telephone major of "unfair trade practices". The summons was issued on the basis of a complaint lodged by a resident of the national capital accusing the company of fraudulently de-activating his mobile phone taken under the 'Khazana' promotional scheme.

The company was also directed to activate the phone connection with immediate effect.

The forum said that if the respondent fails to comply with either the summons or the direction on re-activating the phone, all bank accounts of the company would be frozen.
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DaimlerChrysler may tie-up with Indian firms for making buses
Frankfurt: German-US auto maker DaimlerChrysler is considering tying up with a number of Indian groups, including Sutlej Motors and other companies, for possible cooperation in bus manufacture.
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Air Sahara to launch new flights
Air Sahara will launch 66 new flights connecting 14 new destinations within the country and abroad in the next four months said the Air Sahara president, Alok Sharma.

He said the airline planned to operate daily flights on several new routes including Delhi-Kochi-Thiruvananthapuram and Delhi-Kolkata-Port Blair and will also start services to tourist destinations such as Jodhpur, Khajurao and Udaipur from different cities across the country. The airline will also strengthen its position on the Delhi-Hyderabad and Delhi-Kolkata sector and aims to be the largest airline operating on these routes. In addition, the airline would be launching daily non-stop flights on the Delhi-Colombo-Male, Delhi-Kolkata-Dhaka and Delhi-Guangzhou sectors shortly.

The airline, which may start operations to Colombo on October 31 and to China from November 7, has also shown an interest in operating to Pakistan.
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Ranbaxy introduces urology drug Soliten in India
New Delhi: Ranbaxy Laboratories has launched its Soliten brand (solifenacin) in the Indian market for the management of chronic urological disorders for the first time in the Indian market. Soliten will be sold in 5 mg and 10 mg dosage tablets. Soliten is a formulation for providing relief from chronic problems of overactive bladder. According to a company release, the product is documented to have fewer side effects and greater effectiveness.

The company said the introduction of Soliten will strengthen the options available to urologists in treating the symptoms of this highly uncomfortable and annoying medical condition. One out of every eleven individuals above 40 is believed to suffer from an overactive bladder and the condition is equally common among men and women and more dominant among the urban population.
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Reliance Ind hopes for Govt compensation on sales of diesel
New Delhi: Even though the Government has refused to extend compensation for private sector oil retailing companies, Reliance Industries (RIL) still hopes to get Government support on selling petroleum products at below import cost in local markets. The company says it has invested almost Rs5,000 crore in the domestic oil sector and some solution would have to be found.

Reliance has sought Government support, similar to those given to State-owned oil marketing companies, to offset revenue loss it incurs on selling petrol and diesel below actual cost.

Reliance Industries has temporarily suspended commissioning of new retail stations as it was suffering huge revenue loss on sale of petroleum products.

The company currently operates 1,280 retail outlets in the country and has an additional 400 retail fuel outlets ready for commissioning. RIL is also providing support to its dealers to overcome cash flow problems.

Reliance's diesel sales have fallen to 50,000 tonnes from five million tonnes in April, while petrol sales have dropped to 300,000 tonnes from 760,000 tonnes.
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3G spectrum fee put at Rs425-cr per circle
New Delhi: Telecom regulator TRAI is said to be looking at auctioning, a practice followed in Europe, to set the price of 3G spectrum. Telecom operators have opposed this as it could cost a mind-boggling Rs10,000 crore per operator for an all India 3G roll-out.

3G services, a high-end valued added service, will allow operators to offer mobile broadband services like high speed internet, video, video streaming, audio among others.

According to sources, the regulator brought up the idea for consultation among the operators that calls for extending the same model to India where Rs85 crore could be charged per 1 Mhz per operator per service area (psa).

Since a minimum 5 Mhz of spectrum is to be allocated to each operator, the cost per operator psa to avail this much spectrum will be about Rs425 crore per service area.

The total cost per operator would come around a whopping Rs10,000 crore for any player who applies for an all India 3G license if TRAI's model is put to action on auctioning.

This was strongly opposed by operators who said that in a poor country like India this is not at all affordable.
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Swaraj Mazda asks warring promoters to go for arbitration
New Delhi: Swaraj Mazda has asked promoters of Punjab Tractors (PTL) and Japan-based Sumitomo Corporation, which are engaged in a legal battle for control of the company at the Company Law Board, to resolve the issue through "arbitration".

The company, however, denied PTL's allegations of mismanagement and suppression of the facts saying all the decision regarding appointment of senior executives was taken by the directors on the board.

Stressing on the JVA, Sumitomo said CLB would have to first decide on whether the matter would go first for arbitraion or not before commencing the case.
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Reliance Retail to stock global brands
New Delhi: Reliance Retail, the Rs25,000 crore retail initiative of Reliance Industries that will start operations next month in Hyderabad, will introduce global brands in India, according to Raghu Pillai, president and chief executive – operations and strategy, Reliance Retail.

Pillai did not throw any light on how these global brands would enter India. As for partnering a foreign retail partner, Pillai said he was personally against any such move as it was unnecessary.

He said Reliance Retail is likely to have a turnover of Rs1,25,000 crore as investment to output ratio is 5:6. He refused to confirm on the timeframe for this investment. He also declined to comment on Reliance Retail's initial public offering plan.

Reliance is also looking at pharma retailing. This would be rolled out separately. When asked about helping government cooperative stores, Pillai said Reliance was open to help such cooperatives in upgrading their supply chain and services.
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Siemens IT subsidiary opens center of excellence (CoE) in Kolkata
Kolkata: Siemens Information Systems (SISL), the IT subsidiary of Siemens India has opened a center of excellence in Kolkata for managed services. The division would cater to telecom companies and integrated service providers.

The company plans to hire 1,000 professionals over three years for its newly launched high-end BPO operations in Kolkata.

Anil Laud, managing director, SISL said the CoE would focus on offering end-to-end application management and operations, performance management, remote network operations and maintenance solutions.

SISL has taken a 40,000-sq ft space in Millenium Tower at Salt Lake, the IT hub of West Bengal, for its operations. The company would primarily invest Rs50 crore for the BPO operations in Kolkata.

The company initially plans to employ 35-40 people in the BPO operation and gradually ramp it up to 1,000 in 3-4 years. The company has targeted a Rs100-crore turnover from the Kolkata operations by the end of 2008. Currently, the firm has earned Rs46 crore turnover from operations in the city.
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