Bulk of rural cellular project goes to RCom, BSNL
New Delhi: Reliance Communications and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd have bagged the majority of the Universal Services Obligation (USO) fund-sponsored rural cellular project.

By the end of the third and final round of bidding, Reliance had access to 72 clusters of villages while BSNL received the contract to roll out cellular services in 58 clusters of villages.

Bids were invited by the Department of Telecom for offering mobile services across 2.5 lakh villages, divided into 81 clusters.
Seven telecom companies entered the fray while DoT selected three operators per cluster.

As per the bids quoted by the operators, the Government will get about Rs10 lakh a year with most cellular companies quoting negative amounts. While this amount may be insignificant, what is interesting is that the Government was willing to give away Rs800 crore annually to the winning operators at the beginning of the bidding process.

Idea Cellular, Hutchison Essar and Aircel have also bagged about 15-20 clusters. The operators who have won the bids will get the benefit of using the passive infrastructure, set up with support from the USO fund, without paying any rental or fee to offer mobile services in the rural market. Passive infrastructure comprises land, tower, power connection, and associated civil and electrical works that enable operators to offer cellular service.

A majority of this infrastructure will be set up by BSNL, which bagged 80 per cent of the rural project, winning contract for setting up 6,125 mobile towers out of the total 7,871 passive cell sites envisaged by the Government.

Currently cellular networks cover 60 per cent of the more than one billion population, the USO project will cover another 270 million people who have not had any telecommunication facilities till now.
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Starwood ties up with ITC to launch its brand to India
New Delhi: Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc has tied up with the hotels division of ITC to bring the Luxury Collection brand to India.

Starwood awarded the franchise to Kolkata-based ITC as it is trying to double the number of upmarket hotels in the country bearing one of Starwood's brands from the current 19.

Seven ITC-managed hotels in major business and tourist cities across India will be under the Luxury Collection brand, allowing the company to charge higher room tariffs. Starwood will also market the hotels overseas.

Starwood aims to bring eight of its brands to India within the next two years in partnership with local companies.

As part of a new 10-year deal, ITC will continue to operate hotels under Starwood's Sheraton brand, as it has done for nearly 30 years. Financial details of the tie-up were not disclosed.

An additional ITC hotel will be brought under the Sheraton brand, bringing the total to four.
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L&T to expand operations in China
Chennai: Larsen & Toubro (L&T) which recently commissioned its $11 million switchgear manufacturing facility in Wuxi province of China is all set to start operations at two other plants in the country by the end of this quarter.

Including the three manufacturing facilities, L&T operates five broad businesses in China including sourcing raw materials and supplying coal gasification equipment.

US real estate developer to invest $6bn to set up hotels in India
New Delhi: Royal Indian Raj International Corporation (RIRIC), a US-based real estate developer, will invest $6 billion in India over the next seven years to develop hotels and residential resorts.

Initially three types of projects would be developed in India - Royal Garden City, Royal Garden Villas as well as hotels chains, with an investment of $6 billion.

According to a study, India's hotel sector is facing a shortage of 1,10,000 rooms. The government has allowed 100 pc foreign direct investment in the hotel sector.

The company is planning an IPO in New York or London and the projects would be funded both through debt and equity.
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Alembic to invest Rs600mn in new plant
Vadodara: Drug maker Alembic is planning to set up a drug manufacturing facility in Vadodara, with an investment of Rs 600 million over two years. The new facility will cater to the demands from the domestic as well as international market.

For 2007/08, the company has planned a capital expenditure of Rs 400-500 million, including investment in the new unit and on research and development.

Having completed the acquisition of Dabur Pharma's domestic non-oncology business Alembic has obtained full rights to market the 24 brands it acquired from the latter.

The acquired business posted sales of about Rs75 crore for the financial year ending March 31, 2007, in Dabur Pharma.

Of the brands acquired most come under high-growth lifestyle therapeutic segments of cardiology, diabetology and gynaecology. Alembic has created a new marketing arm named 'Summit' to cater to the needs of these speciality segments of customers.
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Hinduja TMT reduces paid-up capital
Mumbai: Hinduja TMT plans to halve its share capital to Rs20.53 crore, from Rs41.07 crore earlier. The board of directors has approved the resolution to reduce issued and subscribed capital of the company by reducing the face value of each equity share to Rs5 each from Rs10 each and simultaneous consolidation of two such reduced shares into one share having a face value of Rs10, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.

As a result of the move, the issued, subscribed and paid-up capital of the company accordingly stands reduced to Rs20.53 crore consisting 2.05 crore shares of Rs 10 each from Rs41.07 crore consisting of around 4.10 crore shares of Rs10 each, Hinduja T MT said.

Meanwhile, pursuant to the Scheme of Demerger and transfer of the company's IT/ITeS undertaking to HTMT Global Solutions, the shareholders would receive one HTMT Global equity share of Rs 10 each for every two equity shares of HTMT held on the record date of April 9.
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Polaris opens super specialty centre at Mumbai
Bangalore: Polaris Software Lab has opened a super specialty centre for risk and treasury solutions at Mumbai.

This centre will provide sharp focus to technology modernisation services in treasury departments of banks and multinational corporates, besides offering specialised products and components for trading, operations and liquidity management.
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Ranbaxy receives marketing nod for Cefprozil tablets in Canada
Mumbai: Indian pharma company Ranbaxy Laboratories said it has received approval from Health Canada to manufacture and market Cefprozil tablets in two dosages and Cefprozil powder for oral suspension.

The company said according to IMS-MAT figures the total market size for Cefzil in Canada was put at 28.2 million Canadian dollars.

Cefprozil tablets and powder for oral suspension are indicated for the treatment of upper respiratory tract infections, uncomplicated skin and urinary tract infections, Ranbaxy informed the BSE.

With this approval, the company would be able to make and market Cefrozil tablets in 250 and 500 mg strengths. The oral suspension would be available in 250mg/5ml, it added.
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BHEL to foray into advanced signalling equipment, locos
Chennai: Bharat Heavy Electricals has drawn up plans for getting into the manufacture of advanced signalling equipment and high horse-power (HP) locomotives.

BHEL recently received a Rs1,000-crore order from the Indian Railways for the supply of 150 locomotives.

Towards this end, BHEL has signed two Memoranda of Understanding with overseas companies, one for modern signalling equipment and the other for production of high HP locomotives.

Company officials said signalling equipment will become important in the future, both to increase the throughput of trains on a track and increased safety and reliability. Under the present signalling system, the train will have to leave the track, at least partially, so that the next train is given the green light to move on to the track. Modern systems have sensors that can tell when the last bogie of the train has left and wave in the next train.

BHEL is also developing advanced traction motors for the existing engines (4,000 HP to 6,000 HP), so that the locomotives have a higher starting torque capacity.

The Indian Railways has recently placed a trial order of 30 such motors with BHEL, for which prototypes have been supplied. The project shall be completed by November 2009 said Railway sources.
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IOL Broadband to enter e-Learning
Mumbai: IOL Broadband plans to launch interactive broadband services catering to students.

The company has signed an exclusive broadband access deal with ABAN Informatics, a Chennai-based company, part of the multi-million dollar ABAN Group, IOL Broadband informed Bombay Stock Exchange.

It is estimated that over 300 million citizens of India are below 20 years age group and represent a huge opportunity for the e-Learning initiative.

In line with the human resource ministry's recent announcement to promote online education all over India, the Government has promised full support and encouragement, the company added. The company promises to deploy cutting edge technology including, fast connectivity.

The company is partnering with some of the leading e-Learning content providers including, IL&FS ETS, Educational Initiatives, W3Varsity.

ABAN Informatics is the only firm offering curriculum specific web enabled content for CBSE and ICSE board exams.
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Satyam partners with US firm for software testing
Mumbai: Satyam Computer Services is partnering with US-based testing software company iTKO, to facilitate the establishment of a SOA testing practise within Satyam's application testing practise, QEdge.

iTKo would provide its testing technology 'LISA' to deliver SOA test planning and test execution services. LISA would also be applied during SOA migration projects that require maximum functional integrity and high service levels.

The US-based company has agreed to equip QEdge teams and train them to optimally apply the LISA software package.

The agreement would help the US company gain access to the Satyam's global reach and support which would help solve the large-scale, complex quality challenges and risks of SOA migration.
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