Anil Ambani takes RIL to court
Mumbai: Reliance Natural Resources (of the ADAG group) has filed an application in the Companies' court of Mumbai High Court seeking suitable direction to RIL to implement the court's order of December 2005 relating to gas supply according to a spokesperson for the Reliance ADAG group.

The court's order of December 2005 sanctioned the scheme for demerger of the ADAG group from RIL. The scheme of demerger contains an in-principle agreement between the two parties on supply and pricing of gas.

Industry sources say the ADAG group wants RIL to enter into contracts committing gas supply from the Krishna-Godavari basin where RIL has announced several discoveries.

This is as ADAG group is planning a pipeline from the K-G basin to Dadri (Uttar Pradesh), where its mega power project is slated to come up and unless RIL commits supply contracts, the ADAG group will not be able to show `proof of future supply' for government permission to go ahead with the pipeline, said industry sources.
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Bharti Airtel signs agreement with Adani Group
Ahmedabad: Bharti Airtel has announced an alliance with the Adani Group for setting up an end-to-end modern telecommunication network infrastructure for the latter's multi-sector special economic zone (SEZ), located near Mundra Port in Kutch district of Gujarat.

The size of the investments to be made by Bharti in the deal was not revealed.

The company would lay the optical fibre cables in the SEZ area in the next four to six months as a prerequisite for providing end-to-end telecommunication solution.

Also, Bharti will set up several points of presence (PoP) internationally for creating a world-class connectivity.

Although Bharti serves about 1,500 corporate houses across India, it would provide total telecommunication solutions to an SEZ for the first time to bridge the digital divide.
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GE Energy aims for N-plants with Indian partners
New Delhi: GE Energy is looking to set up nuclear power plants in India after the much hyped nuclear deal between India and the US comes through.

The company further added that it was in talks with a few Indian equipment suppliers to explore opportunities in working together to further their nuclear energy business from a global standpoint. This could include working with us to help build nuclear plants in countries such as the US, said Andrew C White, president and CEO of GE Energy's nuclear business.

White said GE Energy was open for either setting up new plants or participating in expansion of existing facilities. He added that GE would be able to provide new reactors with their technologies - Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) and ESBWR.

Currently on a visit to India, White held discussions with officials from the Atomic Commission and Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. He also held a meeting with the NTPC chairman.
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HLL offers golden handshake to frontline salesmen
Mumbai: FMCG major Hindustan Lever Ltd has offered a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) to its frontline salesmen.

An HLL spokesperson said about 150 salesmen from the erstwhile Brooke Bond stream took VRS recently, under a scheme introduced by the company in consultation with employee representatives.

The company said the VRS was offered not to effect any strategic change in the way we manage the customer and sales function, but to bring the deployed resources in line with the marketplace realities and our current business needs.

HLL says it is redefining the role of its frontline sales force from servicing the distributor to being a 'market activator.' This includes creating brand awareness at the point of purchase through effective merchandising within a store as well as implementing consumer schemes and promotions and watching shopper behaviour closely.

Having automated its supply chain management (SCM) to ensure monitoring and informed decisions during product replenishment, servicing distributors have become less manpower intensive, sources said. HLL's sales force included that of Brooke Bond Lipton India which merged with HLL in 1996.

Sources said the company targeted salesmen above 40 who had less-than-satisfactory performance over the last three years.
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Wipro launches service for US Health Plans market
Bangalore: Wipro Technologies and Health Sciences Institute have launched the "Accelerated Practice Improvement" service for the US Health Plans market.

"Accelerating Practice Improvement" is designed to assist Health Plans in US, implement pay-for-performance incentive (P4P) programs for primary and speciality care physician practices, a Wipro release said.

Blake Andersen, president and CEO, HealthSciences Institute and Chronic Care Group, said that by partnering with a global services leader such as Wipro, "we have created a customisable, scalable, cost-effective process and an integrated delivery platform for systematically assessing gaps and supporting physician practice performance improvement".
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IOC makes daily loss of Rs 50 crore on kerosene and diesel
New Delhi: Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) it is incurrs a loss of Rs 50 crore per day on sale of all fuel products but petrol.

According to IOC chairman Sarthak Behuria the corporation was making a profit of Rs 4 per litre on sale of petrol but continued to lose Rs 1.50 per litre on the sale of diesel and Rs 12 per litre on kerosene. The company was also losing Rs 114 per cylinder of Liquefied Petroleum Gas.

The gross refining margin of the company, at present, stood at 424.5 dollars per barrel.
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TCS acquires Australian consultancy firm for A$15mn
Mumbai: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has acquired TCS Management (formerly called Total Communication Solutions), a privately-owned boutique consulting company in Australia, for an up-front cash payment of A$ 1.7 million plus performance payments for a total consideration of A$ 15 million over five years.

According to TCS, TCSM is privately owned, and has over 35 senior consultants with a total turnover of A$5.5 million for the financial year ended June 30, 2006.

"Neville Roach, chairman of TCS-owned FNS, will be the chairman of TCSM. Key personnel, most of whom have over 15 years of industry experience, including the current management team will remain with the company," the release added.

"The acquisition of TCSM is part of the strategy to substantially grow our Australian business and provide high-end business and IT consulting to our large Australian client base. Local knowledge and domain consulting expertise brought by TCSM will complement TCS' global capabilities in consulting, IT services and BPO to provide greater value to Australian business," Girija Pande, TCS Head of Asia-Pacific, said.
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China's Huawei, ZTE get orders from BSNL, MTNL
New Delhi: Chinese telecom equipment companies Huawei and ZTE have received large orders from State-owned telecom companies, Mahanagar Telecom Nigam Ltd and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. Huawei has won a Rs 220-crore order from MTNL to supply broadband equipment for 5 lakh subscribers and ZTE has received part of a 6-million line broadband project from BSNL.

Till now both the companies were struggling to get large contracts in the Indian telecom market dominated by Nokia, Ericsson, UTStarcom and Siemens.

There is currently a debate going on within the Government on doing business with unfriendly countries, including China.

The proposals from ZTE and Huawei to start trading in India were earlier put on hold by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board while Huawei was in trouble, with BSNL blacklisting it after the company failed to deliver CDMA equipment on time.

Lin Yan Qing, director (marketing), Huawei India said, "We are proud and happy at being selected by MTNL. Huawei is a global leader in providing broadband solutions. The products offered to MTNL have been deployed worldwide. The contract signifies our long-term commitment to the Indian market, which is a strategic market for us."
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Reliance puts in bid for BP's Belgium refinery
Mumbai: Reliance Industries is said to have put in a $2 billion bid for the refinery and petrochemicals facility of BP Plc in Belgium.
Reliance has been in talks with BP for the Belgium unit for over a year.

There was, however, no official confirmation on this from Reliance.

This deal will mark the first major acquisition of Reliance Industries, which generates surplus cash of over Rs 17,000 crore a year, in the exploration sector. Reliance's networth stands at Rs 54,000 crore.

The Reliance board will meet tomorrow to consider raising $2 billion (nearly Rs 9,000 crore) to fund investments in oil and gas exploration and production business. The instrument for the fund raising could be foreign currency convertible bonds.
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ONGC not keen on Hinduja JV for oilfield buys
New Delhi: Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is not keen on forming a joint venture with the Hinduja Group for acquisition of oil fields abroad saying such a venture would only create competition for its overseas arm ONGC Videsh (OVL) and its successful venture with Mittal Steel.

ONGC yesterday signed a pact with Hinduja Group to form a joint venture for sourcing liquefied natural gas (LNG), but deferred an agreement for floating a separate venture for acquisition of oil and gas fields abroad.

OVL has properties in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Qatar and Libya, and is actively pursuing opportunities in Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia and UAE. These are the same countries in which the ONGC venture with Hinduja Group firm Ashok Leyland Project Services (APLS) would scout for LNG.
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