Court dismisses Enron petition
Mumbai—The Mumbai high court has dismissed Dabhol Power Company’s petition challenging the jurisdiction of Maharashtra State Electricity Regulatory Commission, MERC, to adjudicate its dispute with MSEB. It has also directed MERC to decide this issue within six weeks.
The Mumbai high court held that MERC was an expert body and competent enough to decide its own jurisdiction.
The high court stayed the order till July 10 to enable DPC move the Supreme Court in appeal.
On June 6, DPC had filed a petition in the Mumbai high court challenging the MERC jurisdiction to solve its ongoing monetary tussle with MSEB.
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Coke India to shift marketing operations to Mumbai
New Delhi—In a bid to cut costs, Coca-Cola India is shifting its entire marketing operations from its corporate headquarters in Gurgaon (Haryana) to Mumbai. The movement of the staff would happen over the next two months.

Senior Coke officials indicated that the marketing team of the company frequently had to visit Mumbai for work since the key constituents with whom the company dealt with such as film personalities, cricketers, admen, television channels, film production houses, were based in Mumbai.
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Wipro to become a $5-billion company by 2003
New Delhi—Azim Premji, chairman Wipro group, said at a CII seminar here.
that Wipro’s vision was to strive to become a $5-bn company by 2003. It would also target to become the top IT company in India and amongst the top 10 IT companies globally at the same time. Premji said that Wipro would derive more than 30 per cent of its offshore revenues from Europe, and in excess of 10 per cent from the Asia-Pacific region, while reducing its exposure to the US market to less than 60 per cent.
He said the strategy ‘03-04 was a vision and should not be interpreted as forward-looking statements. He said that the company would also invest about Rs 90 crore this year for the training and development of its employees.
He said Wipro, which was armed with $7 billion in global currency, would also seek to acquire overseas firms.
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MTNL slashes cellular rates
New Delhi—Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL)-- has slashed cellular telephone rental rates, according to telecommunications minister Ram Vilas Paswan.
While the rental for the mobile phone service has been cut to Rs 250 a month (from Rs 400), the outgoing call charge has been cut to two rupees a minute from Rs 2.70.
The former is almost the same amount which is charged for a fixed-line telephone.
MTNL, in which the government holds a 56 per cent stake, earlier this year launched cellular services in Mumbai and New Delhi.
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Lucent, LG to gain if v5.2 selected for WLL
New Delhi— If the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) decides in favour of implementing a CDMA switching standard called v5.2 for implementing WLL across the country, telecom equipment majors like Lucent and LG will be major beneficiaries, while Motorola, Samsung and Nortel might lose the chance of grabbing even a small piece of the thousands of crores of rupees worth of wireless in local loop infrastructure market.
Only Lucent and LG, can manufacture switches, base stations and other equipments compliant with the v5.2 standard and even these do not produce a large quantity of equipment based on this standard and prefer to develop equipment based on the much more widely used IS 634 standard.
In fact, IS 634 is the standard that is widely used by all CDMA equipment manufacturers, including Motorola, Nortel, Samsung, Lucent and LG. Of the 80 million CDMA subscribers in the world, only around 1 million are on v5.2 standard.
Not only telecom vendors, even basic operators who may eventually roll out WLL services are alarmed about v5.2 becoming the prescribed standard for implementing WLL across the country.
Experts say the fact that favours v5.2 in Trai’s eyes is the innate ability of this standard to limit mobility, a feature essential for any WLL system.
Otherwise, a WLL phone belonging to Delhi may very well be used in Chandigarh, and that would negate the whole concept of limited mobility.
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Compaq selected to set up IT infrastructure at Ashok Leyland
Chennai—Ashok Leyland has selected Compaq as the "most preferred vendor" in building an end-to-end IT infrastructure covering all operations of the company.

The Hinduja group company recently signed an MoU with Compaq which provides for continuous technology and other support from Compaq.

Ashok Leyland will be a beta site of Compaq for their technological innovations, which will help Compaq in establishing the technology in real time scenario and will also, in that process, upgrade the technology level of IT in ALL, according to a statement issued by ALL.
Explaining the significance of the tie-up, R Seshasayee, managing director, ALL, said that as part of a comprehensive, on-going IT initiative to convert the company into an IT-driven, customer-focused company, Ashok Leyland was in the process of creating a state-of-the-art data centre at its Chennai headquarters with links to all company locations, besides point-to-point connectivity with vendors and dealers and ultimately with customers.
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IBM launches fastest silicon transistor
New York—International Business Machines (IBM) announced it had built the world’s fastest silicon-based transistor, which should make it possible to develop within a few years to make microchips five times faster than current ones.
The company said it expected the new transistor to drive communications chips to speeds of 100 gigahertz within two years — five times faster and four years sooner than those recently announced by its competitors.
The transistor uses a modified design and IBM’s silicon germanium technology and IBM’s proven silicon germanium technology to reach speeds of 210 ghz while drawing just a milliamp of current.
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India Cements net up 6.3 percent inspite of depressed market
Chennai—India Cements, the South-based cement giant has reported a 6.26 per cent rise in net profit for 2000-01 at Rs 48.15 crore against Rs 45.31 crore in the previous year.
The board has declared a dividend at 18 per cent on a paid up capital of Rs 138.48 crore.
Net sales rose to Rs 1,441.87 crore (Rs 1,406.45 crore).

Operating profit increased to Rs 324.35 crore (Rs 291.51 crore). Even after absorbing higher interest cost of Rs 190.20 crore (Rs 170.41 crore) and depreciation charges of Rs 83 crore (Rs 73.79 crore), profit before tax was higher at Rs 51.15 crore (Rs 47.31 crore).
EPS stood at Rs 3.48 (Rs 3.27). ICL shored up its reserves to Rs 602.51 crore (Rs 579.51 crores).

Though there was a 7.5 per cent fall in demand in the South in 2000 due to which ICL’s production dropped to 52.85 lakh tonnes (59.69 lakh tonnes) and sales dipped to 53.16 lakh tonnes (58.82 lakh tonnes), the company improved its gross sales realisation of Rs 2,695 per tonne (Rs 2,379 per tonne), cement sales increased to Rs 1,435.62 crore (Rs 1,399.09 crore).
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Bajaj Auto launches another VRS in bid to shed 40 percent staff
New Delhi-- Bajaj Auto has launched another voluntary retirement scheme to cut its 3000-strong junior management staff by a staggering 40 per cent as part of efforts to boost profitability.
Officials say that though 3,000 people fall in the junior management staff category only 1,300 people are eligible for the VRS. The new VRS scheme, the second within a year, was launched on Monday and would run till July-end.
Reportedly the VRS would cover both the company's plants at Akurdi and Waluj in Maharashtra.
It would be for the junior management staff above the age of 40 and those who have completed 10 years of service," the official said over phone from Pune.
He said several clauses had been included in the VRS, subject to a maximum outgo of Rs 5 lakh for each employee.
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Balmer Lawrie to be demerged after IBP divestment
Kolkata— As per the proposal mooted by the inter-ministerial group set up on the issue of disinvestment of IBP, Balmer Lawrie, which is a subsidiary of IBP, would be demerged along with the disinvestment of the latter due in September, 2001 and a shell company would be formed which would be the controlling unit for Balmer Lawrie.
IBP and the rest by the public hold sixty per cent of the Balmer Lawrie equity. After the demerger, the shell company will control 60 per cent of the shares, while the public will continue to hold the remaining 40 per cent.
According to original plans on IBP divestment, Arun Shourie, minister in charge of divestment had said that government shares in IBP would be either transferred to Bharat Petroleum Corporation or Hindustan Petroleum Corporation.
On the status of IBP disinvestment, senior officials said the data room of the PSU had been kept open from June 18 so that interested parties could obtain information regarding financial, legal and physical matters.
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Indian Rayon; much is in a name
Mumbai—The Aditya Birla Group is planning to change Indian Rayon’s name in sync with its position an investment vehicle for the group’s diversification into knowledge-based segments such as insurance and software.
According to Kumar Mangalam Birla, AV Birla group chairman, "Right now, Indian Rayon is a conglomerate with little to link the textile, garment and carbon black businesses. However, it is our vehicle for entry into industries in which knowledge and brands were important. To reflect this, we may change its name," Birla said.
Other major group companies, Hindalco, Indo Gulf and Grasim Industries would continue to rely on a strategy of focusing on their core businesses.
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Philips wants a bigger slice of flat TV market
Hyderabad—Philips India— which has a marketshare of 6 to 8 per cent in the flat television segment — wants to increase it to around 15 per cent by the end of this year, said Mr Suresh Sukumaran, senior general manager (marketing), consumer electronics, Philips India.
In sync with these plans the company is going all out to introduce newer models in the flat TV segment. It recently introduced five new models in its Matchline European Designer Series in the 29" range in Hyderabad. The 29" flat screen TV models have several unique features such as 100 HZ digital natural motion (DNM), progressive scan, integrated DVD video player, and digital crystal clear black matrix real flat tube.
Since it’s a premium product, the company plans to market it through a limited number of dealers who generally attract high-end consumers.
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MasterCard in tie-up with Mascon
New Delhi--MasterCard International announced that it has entered into a 49:51 joint venture with Mascon Global called Mascon- MasterCard Global Technology Services, to develop processing software.
The joint venture company would develop and maintain proprietary software for MasterCard's core processing functions like clearing and settlement.
Jerry McElhatton, senior executive vice-president, MasterCard Global Technology and Operations said, "The JV will engage Mascon's expertise in financial services with MasterCard's sophisticated processing platform. It creates an expert knowledge base that will help ensure continued delivery of the industry's most advanced processing platform,"
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StanChart’s ERS gets low response
Mumbai—The early retirement scheme offered by the Standard Chartered Group for non-management employees has found middling success as out of 1,365 eligible employees in the group, about 566, (41 per cent) have accepted it. The total payout by the group towards the ERS is expected to be about Rs 110 crore.
The ERS offer closed on Monday.
Of Standard Chartered Grindlays Bank’s 1,116 employees that were eligible for the ERS, about 547 (49 per cent) accepted the offer, while at Standard Chartered Bank, only 19 of the 249 eligible employees took the offer.
Bank officials said the response from StanChart had not been very high because of its early separation scheme in 1999, which found 1,122 takers constituting about 40 per cent of the bank’s entire staff strength, bringing the head count down to about 1,600.
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RBI tightens up BoI on Madhavpura scam
Mumbai--The Reserve Bank of India has laid the blame for the Rs 137-crore Madhavpura Cooperative Bank pay order scam at the door of Bank of India management. When contacted, BoI chairman-cum-managing director KV Krishnamurthy refused to comment on the issue.
Sources in the RBI said BoI has been maintaining that the Rs 137 pay order scam was not the result of failure of risk management in the bank but the fallout of a settlement risk. The clearing house returned 13 pay orders worth Rs 137 crore in two batches in March under Rule 11, which implied that Madhavpura Bank did not have the funds to honour the pay orders.
In an earlier letter in April, RBI had blamed the bank for giving unlimited powers to its branch managers for discounting bankers’ receipts.

The stock market branch of BoI had reportedly discounted Rs 6,550 crore worth of pay orders, 65 per cent of which were drawn in favour of Madhavpura Bank.
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BPL talks to cellular companies for fourth licence
Mumbai--The BPL group said that it was negotiating with at least three cellular players and expected to finalize a deal by June 29.
The internal deadline has been set for June 29 as BPL would like its prospective partner to have enough time to reconsider the bidding strategy in the forthcoming auction for fourth cellular licences.
BPL Mobile, the cellular operator in the Mumbai Metro circle, will bid for Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, the official said.
The board of BPL Mobile will meet on Wednesday to consider the investment plans, a top BPL official said.
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Essar Steel reduces losses by Rs 235 crore in 2000-01
Mumbai--Essar Steel has cut losses for 2000-01 to Rs 345.9 crore against a historic-high of Rs 581.24 crore in the previous year.
Net sales for the year increased to Rs 2,518.83 crore compared with Rs 2,421.84 crore in 1999-00.
In the last one year the company shifted focus to value-added grades and higher sales and production volumes, due to which it posted a 64 per cent jump in operating profit to Rs 607.7 crore compared with Rs 370.07 crore in the previous year.

However, a high interest cost of Rs 647.07 crore, up from the previous year's Rs 588.09 crore, and depreciation of Rs 239.1 crore saw the company stay in the red.
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Microsoft to launch Windows XP in India by Oct
Seattle--Windows XP (experience), the latest version of Microsoft Corporation's PC operating system, will be launched in India in October.

While senior officials of the company were silent about the details of the launch, the US-based company has indicated that it would be spending millions of dollars to market the worldwide launch of its new operating system.
According to IDC, Windows XP, which is expected to be the fastest-adopted version of Windows and is considered to be the most important product since the launch of Windows' 95 and the biggest operating system release the software giant, has ever done. To start with all shortcut icons have been removed from the desktop. The new redesigned green start menu has sharper-looking icons and uses colours to signify different actions. At present, Windows operating systems are slightly tougher for users to set up and use their own configurations. User configurations address each user's special interface and programmes needs. All this gets changed with Windows XP. With Windows XP, a wizard makes creating and accessing these configurations easier.
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Nine L&T subsidiaries declare losses
New Delhi—Nine subsidiaries of Larsen & Toubro (L&T) operating in infrastructure, cement and new economy sectors including L&T Trade.com have declared losses to the tune of Rs 61.24 crore during the year ended March 2001.
These include two overseas companies — L&T Ceylinco in Sri Lanka and L&T-ECC Construction (M) Sdn. Bhd. in Malaysia — which put together suffered a loss of Rs 15.11 crore for the year ended December 2000.
On the positive side, information technology subsidiaries L&T Information Technology and L&T Infocity and power generating subsidiary HPL Cogeneration contributed the bulk of the total Rs 119.57 crore profit after tax posted by its various other subsidiaries.
Four subsidiaries, including L&T Trade.com, posted losses in their first year of operation. These are L&T Ceylinco (Rs 12.56 crore), India Infrastructure Developers (Rs 8.29 crore), L&T Trade.com (Rs 6.38 crore) and L&T Western India (Rs 17.89 lakh).
Other companies which suffered losses include LTM Ltd (Rs 1.41 crore against a profit of Rs 9.19 crore in 1999-2000), L&T ECC of Malaysia (Rs 2.55 crore against a profit of Rs 3.38 crore in previous year), L&T Transportation (Rs 6.35 crore) and Narmada Infrastructure (Rs 2.98 crore). The other profit-making subsidiaries include L&T Finance (Rs 8.94 crore) and its German subsidiary L&T Information Technology GmbH (Rs 1.68 crore).
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Nocil’s project Lotus comes to naught
Mumbai—National Organic Chemical Industries’ (NOCIL) project Lotus seems to have fizzled out. Recently Basell Polyolefins, the new entity formed after the merger of a Shell company Montell with BASF, informed the BSE that it would not participate in Nocil’s petrochemical project Lotus.
The Nocil board will take up the matter on June 28.
Last year three international companies — Montell, Elenac and Targor — belonging to the Shell and BASF groups merged to form Basell Polyolefins which was to pursue the Nocil petrochemical project.
Shell had agreed to pay Rs 250 crore for a 49 per cent stake in Nocil Petrochemicals and indicated that it would bring in another Rs 1,000 crore during the implementation of the expansion project.
Later in December 2000, Nocil’s executive director VR Gupte had stated that Basell would pick a 76 per cent in the petrochemical company instead of the 49 per cent that Shell was originally supposed to have picked up.
The petrochemical unit, located near Mumbai, has a capacity to manufacture 60,000 tonnes of polypropylene. The plans were to implement a $1.2 bn ethylene cracker project with a capacity of 4.5 lakh tonnes per annum.
The project was targeted to be on stream by 2003, with a further expansion to six lakh tonnes by 2006. It also included a 100 mw power project.
The Shell-Montell combine was supposed to directly invest about Rs 1,000 crore in the equity of NPL over five years to enable it to implement a expansion programme. The Shell group was also to arrange a debt of Rs 2,000 crore of NPL for funding its $1bn (Rs 4,200 crore) project.
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