BSNL to invest Rs.75,000 crore in three years
New Delhi: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has said that it has planned an investment of around Rs75,000 crore over the next three years in order to expand its telecom services across the country. The State-owned company said that it will expand its broadband footprint to another 200 cities next month through infusion of fresh equipment.

"We aim to take our total subscriber base to 125 million during this period taking mobile, basic and broadband services together," A.K. Sinha, Chairman and Managing Director, BSNL, said at a press conference.

Sinha said that BSNL is likely to register a net profit of about Rs7,000 crore for 2004-05, up from Rs5,972 crore in 2003-04. The BSNL chief said that profitability was hit by the revision of the Access Deficit Charges and any further downward revision in the deficit charge would have a severe impact on the company's finances. BSNL is expecting revenues of Rs37,000 crore in 2004-05.

Sinha said BSNL would meet most of its requirements from internal accruals, and may also raise debt from the market.

On cellular telephony, BSNL was aiming at cornering more than 4.1 million new users. BSNL is the second largest cellular operator in the country with nearly nine million mobile users.
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Reliance's $2.49 bn development plan in KG basin approved
New Delhi: The Government has approved a $2.49 billion investment plan by Reliance Industries' (RIL) to develop its huge gas find in Krishna Godavari basin, off the east coast. RIL will produce 40 million standard cubic meter per day of gas from the Dhirubhai-1 and Dhirubhai-3 fields from end 2007 or early 2008, said Vinod K. Sibal, director general, Directorate General of Hydrocarbons.

The company has found gas in 9 out of the 12 wells drilled so far in deep-sea block KG-DWN-98/3 (also known as KG-D6) but only the first three discoveries - Dhirubhai 1, 2 and 3 have been declared commercial. Of these, Reliance proposes to develop Dhirubhai 1 and 3 in the first phase of development.

Reliance will produce 40 million standard cubic meters gas per day for 7.5 years from discoveries Dhibuhai 1 and 3 from a total of 34 development wells.

First gas will now land in March 2008 as against earlier August 2007 at a gas processing facility near Kakinada through a 35-km, 24-inch diameter pipeline.

Reliance holds 90 per cent interest and Niko Resources of Canada the remaining 10 per cent.
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New furnace to hike TISCO capacity
Mumbai: The Tata Iron and Steel Company Ltd (TISCO) has said that the production of hot metal will increase to 5.2 million tonnes (MT) from 4.35 MT due to the upgradation of its 'G' blast furnace.

The furnace, with a capacity of 1.80 MT per annum and a planned life of 15 years, was upgraded at a cost of Rs580 crore with the help from SMS-Demag, Germany, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange. The company is expecting to produce better quality hot metal at a lower fuel rate after the furnace upgradation, it added.

The G-Furnace, with an initial capacity of one million tonnes per annum and a planned campaign life of 10 years, was shut down on December 3, 2004 last for upgradation. The furnace had blown out after producing a record 14 million tonnes in its first campaign, it said.
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Shaw: Biocon being positioned as global hub
Bangalore: Biocon chief Kiran Mazumdar Shaw has said that the biotechnology company was being positioned as a global biotech hub. She also said that Biocon will soon be venturing into the area of new molecule development.

She said that the company would look at ADRs at some stage. The company's discovery pipeline was also beginning to develop well, she said, but ruled out acquisitions, by way of generating revenues, as a company strategy.
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Motorola to invest $17 mn every year in Indian R&D centre
Bangalore: Motorola is setting up its applied research lab in India, and plans to grow India as a strategic R&D hub for engineering and product development. The company also plans to invest $17 million a year in its Indian R&D activity over the next few years.

Motorola believes India is the ideal region for applied research and software development, company officials said. The country would be a focus for soft manufacturing for the time being, although the company was looking at investment options for handset manufacturing. Motorola's investments in the past couple of years in India have amounted to $85 million in technology and R&D, taking its total investment to $150 million. The company said it plans to grow this investment by 10-20 per cent per year.

Motorola, which has 2,000 of its 4,600 R&D staff in India said it would ramp up headcount by 500 people and 25 per cent people growth per year.

The company is also setting up a campus in Hyderabad this year.
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Ground water dispute: Kerala HC rules in favour of Coke
Kochi: A division bench of the Kerala High Court has held that the Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Private Ltd is entitled to draw five lakh litres of groundwater a day at its plant in Plachimada in Palakkad without any right for accumulation in case of non-use.

The Bench comprising Justice M. Ramachandran and Justice K.P. Balachandran also held that the Perumatty Grama Panchayat was not justified in rejecting the company's application for renewal of licence well before a successful assessment was made.

The court, while allowing the appeal filed by the company and disposing of a petition and other appeals, directed the Panchayat to consider the application of the company seeking renewal of licence for the coming year or any block years, if such application was filed within two weeks.

The panchayat was directed to grant the licence in two weeks if the company satisfied the other statutory conditions such as the licence under the Factories Act and the pollution certificates from the Kerala State Pollution Control Board.

The court observed that the drying of ordinary wells was not a phenomenon specific to Plachimada. As could be gathered from the expert committee appointed by the High Court, substantial shortage in rainfall was a contributory factor. By natural seepage during the rainy season, on its own, water travelled down to the lower level.

The expert committee headed by Mr E.J. James, Executive Director, and Centre for Water Resources Development and Management (CWRDM), Kozhikode, was appointed to investigate into the allegation of excessive drawing of groundwater by the company.

In its final report, the committee recommended that the company be allowed to draw 5 lakhs litres of water a day under the normal rainfall conditions.

The court further said that the very fact that the wells were drying up in summer at Plachimada, notwithstanding the stoppage of extraction of water by the company after March 2004, and keeping the plant idle had led to the assumption that the allegation of over-exploitation and consequent shortage of water were not true.
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Taj Hotels in tie up with ETA Star to develop luxury resort
Mumbai: Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces has entered into a strategic tie-up with ETA Star Property Developers, LLC, for the development and management of the Taj Exotica Resort and Spa, a luxury resort at the Palm Island Jumeirah crescent in Dubai.

An official statement quoting Raymond Bickson, Managing Director, Indian Hotels Company Ltd, said, "This is part of IHCL's strategy of expanding into the key gateway cities of the world.

Dubai is fast emerging as a leisure destination in addition to being the commercial hub of the region. A second hotel in Dubai is proof of the vast potential that it holds. This new luxury resort will reinforce Taj's dominance of the region."

To be unveiled in 2007, the Taj Exotica Resort & Spa, Dubai, will be targeting the premium leisure and business travellers. The resort will offer part views of the ocean, Burj Al Arab and the Dubai skyline.

The resort will commence operations with 220 rooms including deluxe guestrooms and luxurious suites, providing guests with all the modern-day facilities and services including specialty F&B outlets, extensive banquet areas, a spa, an entertainment club and car parking. It is proposed to draw inspiration from the palaces of India and weave in influences that have characteristics of West Asian region.

The Palm Island Jumeirah is a man-made island that has increased the shoreline of Dubai by 120 km. The palm-shaped island has been developed as a commercial cum residential project with spectacular homes, waterfront resorts, boutique hotels, shopping, spas, marinas and dynamic canals dotting it.

Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces' current portfolio in West Asia includes the Taj Palace Hotel in Dubai; the Taj Sheba Hotel, Sana`a in Yemen and the Sohar Beach Hotel in Oman.

ETA Star Property Developers LLC is the property development arm of the ETA - Ascon Group. The prime objective of the company is to harness the growing commercial opportunity in Dubai's freehold market.
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Taj Business Hotels to increase footprint across the country
Chennai: Taj Business Hotels plans to increase its footprint in the country with at least two hotels in all major metros, the Taj Group, has said. The company wants a larger presence for its business hotels in the central business districts of Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai.

In Chennai, besides the GVK Taj hotel, the company plans another hotel either near the airport or near the IT corridor, officials said.

The company has gone in for renovation of all its business hotels and has also launched new hotels in this segment. It launched new rooms at the Taj Residency, Bangalore; the Taj Blue Diamond, Pune; the Taj Residency Visakhapatanam; and the Taj Connemara, Chennai. This year, new rooms will be thrown open in Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune and Chandigarh.

Further, the company has invested Rs50 crore in relaunching its restaurants and bars. All food and beverage outlets such as the coffee shops, bars, specialty restaurants and pastry shops have been given a more contemporary and cosmopolitan look.
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BHEL Hyderabad targets Rs.2,675 crore turnover for current fiscal
Hyderabad: Notching up its highest ever profit (PBT) of Rs308 crore, recorded during the fiscal ended March 31, 2005, Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL), Hyderabad, has set a target of Rs2,675 crore turnover for the current fiscal. The new target works out to a growth of 52 per cent over the turnover of Rs1,755 crore achieved during the fiscal 2004-05.

Officials said the company now has a healthy order book of Rs3,666 crore for the current fiscal, which was again the highest ever. It started last fiscal with an order book position of Rs2,518 crore and booked fresh orders of Rs2,683 crore during the year.

For the fiscal 2004-05, BHEL unit achieved a PBT of Rs308 crore against Rs158 crore in the previous fiscal. According to officials the productivity improvement activities have resulted in a saving of Rs82 crore (Rs48 crore).

Having invested Rs30 crore on expansion-cum-modernisation during last fiscal, BHEL has firmed up capital investments of Rs140 crore for the next two years, which includes facilities for manufacturing and testing of advanced class gas turbines.

With recent gas finds in the country and the revival of interest by National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), the business in large size gas turbines was expected to catch momentum. According to officials, large and advanced class gas turbines (240MW class) ordering process has already started.
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Bharti displaces Reliance as top operator
New Delhi: The Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) based mobile user base in the country has dipped by over five lakh subscribers in March. The total subscriber base has decreased from 11 million in February to 10.5 million in March. This is the first time that the operators have reported a decline in the subscriber base.

The slide in subscriber base has been on account of nearly 9.8 lakh disconnections reported by Reliance Infocomm on account of `customer credit worthiness' and subscriber data verification. The disconnections nullified the impact of 3.7 lakh new subscribers added by the company in March. With this Reliance's subscriber base stands at 10.3 million including 1 million GSM subscribers. This has enabled Bharti, with 10.6 million cellular subscribers as on February, to be the new market leader.

The Global System for Mobile (GSM) based cellular operators will release their subscriber numbers in a day or two. The two technologies have been adding nearly two million subscribers every month for the last one-year with GSM accounting for the majority of the additions.

Reliance also reported a dip in its Wireless in Local Loop fixed (WLL-F) subscribers by 84,003. In effect, Reliance's subscriber base dipped by 6.06 lakh in one month. The company had shown an increase of 4.4 lakh subscribers in February.

Other CDMA operators reported sluggish growth. Tata Teleservices added only 10,415 mobile subscribers during the month while its fixed wireless subscriber base increased by 1.8 lakh users. Tata Teleservices added a total of 1.98 lakh subscribers in March compared to 3.68 lakh in the previous month.
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Quarterly Report: Tata Motors
Tata Motors' sales up 27 per cent in 2004-05
Mumbai: Tata Motors has reported a 27.2 per cent growth in total vehicle sales for 2004-05 to 3,99,566 units, including export, as against the previous corresponding 3,14,258 units.

Domestic sales of commercial vehicles increased by 24.8 per cent to 1,89,994 units (1,52,195 units for the year-ago period). This included a 25.3 per cent gain in M&HCV sales to 1,29,245 units and a 23.9 per cent rise in LCV sales to 60,749 units.
The company's sale of passenger vehicles was up 27.9 per cent at 1,79,076 units.

"At 1,05,521 numbers for the fiscal, the Indica emerged as the largest selling compact car in the Rs3-5 lakh price category for the first time," an official statement said. Full-year sales of the Indigo family touched 39,306 units, a growth of 40.5 per cent.

According to the statement, the Indigo was the year's largest selling sedan not only in the entry mid-size segment but also across all segments of the industry. The Indigo Marina was the largest selling estate in the country. Total sales of the Sumo and the Safari gained by 7.5 per cent to 34,249 units, highest in the last seven years.

Full-year exports increased by 38.3 per cent to 30,496 units (22,046 units). Total sales for March grew by 28 per cent to 44,433 units (34,725 units). Commercial vehicle sales increased 17.1 per cent to 20,474 units (17,792 units), including a 16.2 per cent rise in M&HCV sales to 14,248 units (12,267 units). LCV sales registered a rise of 12.7 per cent to 6,226 units (5,525 units).

Passenger vehicle sales during March was up 32.7 per cent to 19,995 units with the Indica at 11,056 units and the Indigo family at 4,584 units. In UVs, the Sumo and Safari sold 4,355 units. Exports for the month amounted to 3,964 units (1,863 units), an increase of 112.8 per cent.

Record Rs.8,181 crore turnover for RINL
Visakhapatnam: Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd has achieved a record turnover of Rs8,181crore, 32 per cent higher than last year's, and expects a 20 per cent hike in net profit during 2004-2005.

Officials said that RINL had faced coking coal scarcity during the first few months and the hot metal production had suffered a little, but at the end of the year there was no slump in saleable steel. The liquid steel production was 3.56 mt, finished steel 2.89 mt and saleable steel 3.17 mt. He said the plant had produced and sold 8.8 lakh tonnes of value-added steel during the year and the net profit may rise by 20 per cent from last year's Rs 1,547 crore.

The company had cut down on exports during the year to meet domestic requirements. The lower exports at Rs249 crore (Rs769 crore) did not have any effect on the bottom line.

RINL had submitted to the Union Government its plans to expand the capacity to 6.5 mt of hot metal, 6.3 mt of liquid steel and 5.7 mt of saleable steel by 2007-08.
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