Zee may launch direct-to-operator services by June
Mumbai: In a bid to increase its revenue streams through subscriptions, Zee Telefilms (ZTL) is planning the launch of its direct-to-operator (DTO) service by June this year. The first phase of the project would kick off by end-June with a bouquet of 10 channels. The company is said to have already pumped in $30-40m into the DTO project.

The service, which promises an encrypted bouquet of Zee channels to cable operators and individual subscribers, has been designed to give ZTL a subscription-based stream of revenue after advertising revenues have hit a plateau.

As per the current schedule, the second phase of the DTO project will go on air by January next year with as many as 18 channels. These include two yet-to-be-launched ones — Zee Education and Zee Sports. Zee is also putting together an international channel for overseas audiences.

At the same time, negotiations are on with some international channels to bring them on board the Zee platform, chief executive Mr R.K. Singh said.

Besides cable operators, the DTO package would also be targeted at individual subscribers who, Mr Singh claimed, were as many as five lakh in India. Once the DTO platform is launched all the Zee channels, including Zee Cinema, Zee News and the four regional ‘Alpha’ channels (but excluding the flagship Zee TV) will be broadcast in the digital mode, and compressed into a single encrypted signal. This means they would not be available in the free-to-air mode. ZTL’s flagship Zee TV however will continue to remain free-to-air in analogue mode for an unspecified period.
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Escorts Yamaha beefs up presence in 4-stroke bike segment
Pune: Escorts Yamaha (EYL), the 74:26 JV between Japanese motorcycle maker and Escorts, is seeking to strengthen its presence in the 4-stroke motorcycle segment with the launch of its new 125-cc bike, the YD 125.

The two-wheeler manufacturer had, earlier, discontinued the production of its popular RX100 motorcycle, since the 2-stroke bike would have required to have a catalytic converter fitted on, which would have pushed up the prices for the bike.

The new bike is priced at Rs 52,850 in Pune and should give 55-60 km to a litre, S Itoh, deputy general manager (marketing) said. Mr Itoh also said that Escorts Yamaha will expand its 4-stroke range but declined to give details.

The YD 125, launched late last month in Rajasthan, Haryana, UP and Gujarat, will now be launched in the south. The company sold 31 lakh bikes in ’99-00 and expects this to rise by 20 per cent in the current year. It will produce 100,000 new four-stroke bikes.
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Air India likely to sell 2 planes in a bid to trim cost of operation
New Delhi: In its bid to lower cost of operations and improve the efficiency of its fleet, Air India (AI) is planning to sell off its Airbus A300-B4 and Boeing B747-200 aircraft while taking in A310 and B747-400 on dry lease. The average age of the three A300-B4 that are to be put on sale is around 17.3 years. In the case of B747-200 aircraft, the average age is 23 years.

Despite the fact that the national carrier has only 26 planes on its fleet, the different variety of aircraft types -- three A300, eight A310-300, seven B747-200, two B747-300 and six B747-400 – result in the airline having to handle five engine types and 11 other types of seats & ancillary items, thereby making operations less efficient.

The AI management decided it was better to operate just two aircraft types, and the obvious choices are the comparatively younger A310-300 and B747-400. While the average age of the B747-400 aircraft is 5.1 years, the A310-300 fleet is 12.5 years old.

In view of the age of its fleet, Air India plans to lease around half-a-dozen planes. The current proposal is to take four A310 on lease so that the company would operate a dozen planes of the same type. In the case of B747-300, the current fleet size of two is considered to be uneconomical to operate.

With there being no signs of any clearance from the government for the acquisition of new aircraft, the management has gone in for the leasing option in a big way. The delay is accentuated by the disinvestment proposal, which is under consideration.

For cost cutting, the company is planning a major downsizing exercise through the revised VRS (voluntary retirement scheme), which was cleared by the AI board recently. Once it is approved by the DPE (department of public enterprises), the company plans to retire about 1,000 employees at the cost of around Rs 60 crore. Redeployment of surplus staff will be taken up and some professional agency is likely to be hired for this purpose.
Presently, AI's staff cost is around Rs 800 crore even though efforts are being made to reduce both overseas as well as local employees.

Hike in ATF (aviation turbine fuel) price has been another reason for input costs going up. During ’99-00, the national carrier's additional expenditure on ATF was Rs 135 crore, officials said. Sales tax on ATF has also been hiked in various states including Kerala and New Delhi.
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RPG sells stake in joint venture to Datacraft
Mumbai: THE RPG group, which had a 45 per cent stake in RPG Datacraft, a data networking company, has sold its stake to its foreign partner, Datacraft Asia Ltd – which has a 55 per cent stake -- for $32.5 millions. Set up in 1994, the company is currently doing business close to Rs. 100 crore. The sale has, apparently been made, since the group does not consider this as a priority at the moment.

The company has offices in seven cities besides Mumbai, and has plans to expand to other centres, the official said. ``We have several MNCs as customers and our business is growing.''
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Telco to concentrate on domestic markets before going global
Mumbai: Domestic car and truck major, Tata Engineering, which was recently reported abroad as a potential candidate for acquiring British car manufacturer Rover, has stated that it prefers instead to focus on building up its share in the domestic market.

According to Mr. Rajiv Dube, general manager (commercial), while the company would like to grow globally, they would first like to attain a strong position in the domestic market before venturing outside the country.

The company’s Indica car project is expected achieve break-even in the current fiscal. The project's break-even was pegged at 85,000-90,000 units. The car project was formally cast into a separate business unit (SBU) in March. Though Phase 1 plant capacity is 75,000 units, current fiscal's target of 90,000 Indicas can be met without enhancing capacity, according to Mr. Dube.

The recently launched Indica 2000 marks Tata Engineering's first foray into MPFI petrol engines. The Hitachi system (16 bit processor) used, is imported. Tata Engineering has plans to indigenise it, though it would be a tough call. LMM of France, which collaborated in the Indica's carburetor-fitted petrol engine, is believed to have helped in MPFI as well. The petrol versions are now projected to corner 20 per cent share in total Indica sales.
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Hyundai chooses Shah Rukh Khan for sequel
New Delhi: Despite the new ad agency the company has, Hyundai Motor India, is sticking with a tried and tested face. The company has renewed its contract with Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan -- reportedly at a much higher price.

The bollywood actor launched the promotional campaign for the Korean car and was directly responsible for making the Santro a major brand in a short time. In his second innings with the company, Khan will be doing a series of peppy advertisements —both print and audio-visual ads —that will be part of an ad blitzkrieg to push up sales for the car maker.

HMIL is launching a sportier version of its 20-month old Santro. Christened "Santro Zip Drive", Hyundai has made some vital cosmetic changes to the new version, which will be endorsed by the super star. Within the next couple of days, Hyundai will phase out the existing versions of the Santro and launch Santro with a horizontal front grill (and some other minor changes) through out the country.
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UK-based Bass group eyes HCI properties
New Delhi: International hotel majors, UK-based Bass Hotels & Resorts and Marriott, have evinced keen interest in Hotel Corporation of India properties in New Delhi and Mumbai, which it operates under the Centaur brand name.

The UK-based Bass Hotels, owners of brand names like Holiday Inn, Intercontinental and Crowne Plaza, is also understood to have lined up direct investments of approximately $ 25 million to be made in India, hotel industry sources said.

Apart from the international hotel majors, other hotel companies, which have expressed their intention to acquire HCI-run properties, include the Taj Group, The Oberoi Group, the Leela group and Le Meridien.

HCI, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Air-India, is the owner of Centaur chain of hotels and two properties in Mumbai and one each in Delhi and Srinagar. HCI also runs two chef Air flight kitchens as well as a Buddhist inn at Rajgir.

The sale of HCI properties will be used to retire the high cost debt of the national carrier and HCI's own losses.

But in the meanwhile, the civil aviation ministry has announced that HCI is likely to spend about Rs 50 crore in renovation of Centaur hotels in Mumbai and Delhi. Reason: help in obtaining better valuation and realisation during the sell-off.
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IBM to launch world’s smallest notebook computer in India
Bangalore: The ThinkPad 240 – also known as the Little Genie --, one of the world's smallest notebook computers from IBM, will be hitting the Indian market next week.

It is being introduced in the Indian market to capitalise on the boom – growing at 22 per cent annually -- that the notebook market in India has witnessed during the last 12 months. The launch is also strategic in terms of IBM trying to retain and grow on its leadership position in the notebook computer segment.

With the Indian notebook market estimated to be around 28,000 pieces annually, the 240 is expected to help IBM retain and build on its 32 per cent market share of notebook computers.

Weighing just 1.3 kg the new ultra portable IBM 240 is targeted primarily at individuals who rank mobility and weight as a priority. This will be the 5th in the range of IBMs ThinkPad series available in India and will be sourced from its global plants in Mexico and Japan.

Sales for IBM as far as the ThinkPad series are concerned have been growing at a rate which have been far higher than the average 22 per cent growth rate the notebook industry as a whole has witnessed in India.

The new ThinkPad 240 has state-of-the-art features like a USB (universal serial bus) enabling users to connect to multiple ports like scanners and printers, and also an infrared port for synchronised wireless data transfer.
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