Calcutta High Court stays UB - Jumbo deal
Kolkata: The UB Group and the Shaw Wallace & Co's arrival at an understanding for the sale of stake from the latter to the former on Monday was stayed by Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta of the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday.

Justice Sengupta passed an interim order directing Shaw Wallace to maintain status-quo with regard to the usage of the brand name and trade mark. This order was passed because Shaw Wallace is yet to complete the terms of the settlement with one R.R. Modi.

In the proposed terms of settlement Shaw Wallace was supposed to transfer two flats at Worli, Mumbai to R.R. Modi towards part payment of a settlement amount of Rs57 crore. It was proposed in the settlement that the residual amount was to be paid to Modi after the sale of beer business of Shaw Wallace. The payment was supposed to be made after selling the beer business of the company within seven days.

Shaw Wallace is expected to file its reply before the appeal court on Wednesday.
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Eveready to set up battery unit in Uttaranchal
Kolkata: Eveready Industries India Ltd, the flagship company of B.M. Khaitan Group, has announced the setting up of a project to manufacture batteries in Uttaranchal. The announcement has been made by Deepak Khaitan, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of Eveready Industries.

The cost of the project would be Rs75 crore and it would be funded through internal accruals and a project financing programme.

The capacity of this plant would be 400 million pieces per annum and it would produce only AA batteries. With this plant, the total battery production capacity of Eveready Industries would increase to 1.7 billion pieces per annum from the existing level of 1.3 pieces billion per annum.

Eveready Industries has recently undergone a corporate restructuring exercise. The company has been demerged and its bulk tea business has been shifted to a newly created company by the name of McLeod Russel India Ltd.

Apart from battery and flashlights, Eveready Industries also runs a packet tea business. In the current year, Khaitan said, the packet tea business is likely to register a 40 per cent growth. In the flashlight sector, the company is expecting a 25 per cent growth.
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LG's GSM plant begins operations in Pune
Pune: LG's, and the country's, first GSM plant for manufacturing mobile handsets has started operations in Ranjangaon near Pune.
Company officials said that LG Electronics India Ltd (LGEIL) is set to hit the domestic market with 1.2 million mobile handsets. LG Electronics has a target turnover of Rs9,000 crore for the current calendar year and is estimating at least 10 per cent of this turnover to come from its Indian operations.

The company is in the process of setting up another new facility, exclusively for producing GSM handsets and would be ready by August. LG Electronics was looking at the production of two million CDMA handsets for the year 2006 and three million units by 2007. He said it was looking at SAARC, West Asia and the African countries for the export of GSM handsets.

The company services Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. The target was to export close to five lakh units for the current year and double it on a year-on-year basis. He said it would introduce all new technology in a phased manner.
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JK Industries sees ten per cent growth in turnover
New Delhi: JK Industries has said that it expects a 10 per cent topline growth during the current fiscal, ending September 30. During 2003-04, JK Industries had reported a turnover of Rs2,300 crore, clocking a growth of around 10 per cent over the previous fiscal.

Company officials said that the demand for tyres was expected to grow between 6 and 8 per cent this year resulting in higher sales during the year.

While natural rubber was being exported from the country, the tyre industry was also seeing a flood of cheap finished products dumped by China, officials said.
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TRAI asks VSNL to stop selling international calling cards
New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has asked Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd to stop selling pre-paid international long distance calling cards in the country.

The order was passed on grounds that the calling card violated licence conditions, since VSNL, as an international long distance operator, did not have the permission to sell directly to the end-consumer.

TRAI has asked VSNL to show compliance with the order within three days. The regulator has also said that the calling cards violated the Access Deficit Charge and the Interconnect Usage Charges (IUC) norms. The notice was sent to VSNL on Monday.

TRAI had earlier issued a show-cause notice to the company but found VSNL's response "unsatisfactory." In its response, VSNL said that it was not violating any licence norms since it was selling the cards through Tata Teleservices and not directly to the end-consumer.

"It is denied that the selling of international calling cards is not in consonance with the licence and IUC Regulations and it is further denied that there has been any violation of licence conditions of IUC regulations," VSNL's response to the show-cause notice said.
TRAI had also said that the calling cards posed security concerns since the called number could not be provided to the security agencies. Denying the allegation, VSNL said that it had to issue calling cards because TRAI had not enforced the Carrier Access Codes (CAC), which would have allowed the end-consumer to choose the long distance operator.
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TRAI: Mobile tariffs down by 58 per cent in Oct.-Dec. quarter
New Delhi: The average per minute charge for mobile service declined by 58 per cent to Rs1.20 per minute during the quarter ended December in comparison to Rs1.90 during the previous quarter.

According to the performance indicators for the quarter October-December 2004 launched by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the subscriber base of Internet users has increased by six per cent during the quarter, with the number of subscribers increasing from 5.14 million to 5.45 million in December 2004.

While broadband users base reaching 46,638, Internet telephony recorded a usage of 43 million minutes. Average minutes of use per month for dial up Internet subscribers was of the order of 275 minutes and the average revenue per user for Internet service was Rs167.

The gross subscriber base of the fixed and mobile services reached 92.88 million at the end of the quarter from 86.86 million in September 2004, an increase of around seven per cent. The growth on annual basis is more than 31 per cent.

The subscribers of fixed service (fixed line and WLL-F) increased from 43.87 million to 44.87 million and that for mobile services (GSM + CDMA) from 43 million to 48 million.
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Air Deccan tickets on sale through HPCL outlets
Bangalore: Air Deccan has signed a deal with the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd to sell airline tickets through the petrol stations of the oil company. Initially, the facility will be rolled out in ten outlets in Bangalore and later 2,000 more will be added across the country in a year's time.

HPCL says that retail outlets would get a five per cent commission on sale of tickets. The customer can either pay by cash or through credit cards or even through HPCL branded cards. Each retail outlet will also need a computer to log on to the Web site of Air Deccan to book the tickets.

Air Deccan officials said that about 40 per cent of ticketing was carried out through the Internet. Officials also said that the airline had flown one million passengers since it started operations nearly two years ago. The airline expects to fly three million more passengers by the end of 2005.
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Pizza Corner to retail through HPCL outlets
New Delhi: Pizza Corner has forged a strategic tie-up with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) to open Express and Delivery format outlets at HPCL fuel stations across North India.

According to Pizza Corner officials, the Express outlets in the fuel stations cater to people on the move, who would have limited time and would prefer a quick tasty bite. The outlets will offer pizzas, appetisers and pastas within six minutes.

The company has already short-listed 3 HPCL Petrol fuel stations in Delhi and the Express stores will be operational by the month end.

Pizza Corner India (Private) Ltd was launched in August 1996 by Global Franchise Architects (GFA).
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Baazee.com re-brands as eBay.in
New Delhi: Marking the completion of its integration process with the online marketplace eBay, auction site Baazee.com has re-branded itself as eBay.in. This will enable buyers and sellers in India access to eBay's global trading community of 135 million users in 32 markets.

The announcement entails integration of the two technology platforms, and is expected to facilitate cross-border trade on the site.

Indian users can use their single eBay India identity to trade globally. They can sell their products to international buyers by listing them on any of the 32 eBay market sites. "They now have more robust platform and tools that allows them to trade higher volumes without investing in IT infrastructure," officials said.

The company sees a huge potential for Indian entrepreneurs to trade globally, especially in categories such as apparel, leather, collectibles, handicrafts and jewellery. Sellers would require an export licence, and need to pay a `listing fee' to get their items listed on eBay's global sites.

eBay India trading platform offers auctions, quick buy and classifieds modes of person-to-person trading. The range of products listed on eBay India includes art and antiques, apparel, books and magazines, automobiles, computers, loans, music, jewellery, real estate and travel.

eBay completed the acquisition of Baazee.com and its subsidiary Baazee.com India Pvt Ltd in August 2004, for about $50 million in cash, plus acquisition costs.
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Nestle unveils 'Atta' variant of Maggi
New Delhi: Nestle India has announced the launch of Maggi Vegetable Atta Noodles, containing "whole wheat and vegetables". The company has said in a statement that the new Maggi variant is targeted at consumers who want to include health and wellness in their food in a convenient manner.

It said the product has been developed to address the concern that children as well as many adults do not eat sufficient fibre in their diet.

It is universally acknowledged that eating foods made from whole grains provides nutritional benefits such as phyto-chemicals (protective plant substances), vitamins, minerals and fibre.

Each 100 gm pack of Maggi Vegetable Atta Noodles gives nutrition (energy, fiber, protein and calcium) equivalent to three rotis, the statement claimed.
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