Tatas launch three separate projects in Orissa
Bhubaneswar: The Orissa Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik, attended three functions on Wednesday organised by the Tata Group to mark the launch of their new projects in the State.

They were the inauguration of the JN Tata Technical Education Centre at Gopalpur in Ganjam district, the laying of the foundation stone of the TCS Global Software Development Centre and the ground breaking ceremony of the indiOne hotel in Bhubaneswar.

The JN Tata Technical Education Centre, being set up by Tata Steel in collaboration with Nettur Technical Training Foundation, will conduct courses in manufacturing technology, electronics and mechatronics, from July.

The TCS Global Software Development Centre, to be constructed at Infocity in multiple phases, will help ensure the effectiveness of IT and related services to its customers worldwide.

The indiOne hotel, to be constructed at the Jayadev Vihar locality of Bhubaneswar, will be completed by January next year. It will have 101 rooms - priced at Rs900 for a single room and Rs950 for a double room.

The Indian Hotels Company Ltd, a major player in the hospitality industry, has plans to open indiOne hotels in Paradip, Duburi, Puri and Konark, with capacities of 100 rooms each.

Top officials of the Tata Group were present at the functions.
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Tatas submit status report to Bangladesh govt.
Mumbai: Three Tata Group companies on Wednesday said they have submitted a status update on their investments in Bangladesh to the Board of Investment of that country. The three companies are Tata Chemicals, Tata Steel and Tata Power.

While Tata Chemicals plans to set up a one million tonne urea plant, Tata Steel plans to set up a 2.4 million tonne steel plant. Tata Power intends to set up a 1,000 MW power plant.
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TRAI set to cut domestic leased line tariffs
New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is all set to announce a steep reduction in domestic leased line tariffs.

The move will benefit high bandwidth users such as call centres, broadband service providers, Internet service providers and companies that rely on services like Virtual Private Network for internal communication, enabling the tariffs to come down by more than 70 per cent.

"Rapid technological advances have sharply reduced the unit cost of long-haul bandwidth. It is also observed that there is a significant decline in the cost of transmission equipment including optical fibre cable, which is the main component for setting up of leased circuit.

"Reflecting these realities, worldwide, the transmission circuit prices have fallen by about 90 per cent since 1999.

"It is, therefore, appropriate that the tariff for leased line in India come down accordingly," said a TRAI official.

The authority had recently affected a similar cut in international leased line tariffs by imposing a ceiling fee. A cut in domestic leased line prices may also have a bearing on national long distance calls.

Consumer organisations and IT-enabled services industries had approached TRAI to review leased circuit tariff to make it consistent with tariff reductions witnessed in other segments of telecom. Nasscom and Internet Service Providers Association had also requested to make price of bandwidth more affordable.

The reduction in tariffs may have a negative impact on the revenues earned by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, which is the largest provider of domestic leased line circuit in the country.

TRAI had earlier issued a consultation paper in this regard whereby it had suggested an annual rental of Rs 8.2 lakh for a 2 Mbps circuit over 500 km distance. At present it cost Rs 22 lakh to rent out a line of similar capacity.

For higher capacity bandwidth of 64 kbps, TRAI had suggested a tariff of Rs29,000 per annum compared to Rs96,000 per annum at present.
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Gulf Oil to pick up fifty one per cent in Chinese venture
Hyderabad: The Gulf Oil Corporation Ltd (GOCL) is set to acquire 51 per cent holding in the China-based Gulf Oil Yantai (Co) Ltd. with a decision to this effect being taken at the GOCL board meeting on Wednesday.

Announcing this, the company said this was its third overseas foray in the last two years, after Gulf Oil Bangladesh and PT Gulf Oil Indonesia and takes forward the company's policy of expanding into neighbouring growth markets.

With the commissioning of the Chinese plant, GOCL and its associate companies will have a total manufacturing capacity of more than two lakh tonnes in the region.

China, with a lubricant market potential of 4.3 million tonnes per annum (tpa), approximately 3.3 times India's market, is considered among the world's top five lubricant markets and is expected to grow at a rate of 5-5.5 million tpa by 2010 and to 6.3 million tpa by 2013, the company said.

GOCL expects that Gulf Oil Yantai, currently catering to some provincial markets, would be marketing all over China to corner at least five per cent of the market in the next three-four years. Gulf Oil Yantai Co Ltd was started in l996 and has manufacturing and marketing operations in Yantai city in Shandong province.

The new capital infusion would be used to build up a new manufacturing facility in Yantai with a capacity of 30,000 tpa. In a communiqué to stock exchanges, the company said that the new factory would be located in an economic zone with tax benefits.

The new factory would have a large base oil storage capacity and the company proposes to use the plant to supply to Taiwan, South Korea, Vietnam, and Japan, as well as aggressively trade in base oils in China.

According to officials, the plan was to have strategically located manufacturing plants across the Asia-Pacific region to cater to the growing lubricant market. The company is also looking into the possibility of further forays into the regional markets to consolidate the position of the Gulf brand in the Asia-Pacific region with India as the hub, he added.
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Centre refers IOC complaint against RIL to Maharashtra
New Delhi: The Centre has passed on the Indian Oil Corporation complaint against Reliance Industries on marketing of diesel through retail outlets in and around Nagpur to the Maharashtra Government.

Giving out this information in the Rajya Sabha today, the Petroleum Minister, Mani Shankar Aiyar, said that since the issue related to alleged evasion of sales tax, the matter had been brought to the notice of the Maharashtra Government for appropriate action.

IOC had reported to the Central Government last November that RIL was bringing products from the Jamnagar Refinery on stock transfer basis to its retail outlets in the Nagpur marketing area without any tax implications.
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BHEL's R&D develops new coal-grinding mills
Hyderabad: The BHEL's Ramachandrapuram unit and its corporate research and development (R&D), Hyderabad unit, have jointly developed the largest vertical coal-grinding mill in the country. The mills will meet the upcoming super thermal power stations of 660 MW and 800 MW ratings.

The first of the 'BHEL 280 Mills' has been commissioned recently at the Chandrapur Thermal Power Station of the Maharastra State Electricity Board (MSEB). It has a capacity to grind 91 tonnes/hour of coal, compared to the existing one, which can grind 77 tonnes/hour.

BHEL has incorporated several features into the bowl mill, which will ensure less wear and tear of grinding elements, reduced consumption of power, less wasteful rejects and uniform output.

Normal bowl mills have single stage classification, which consists of a static classifier, which separates the coarse coal particles from the fine ones in the pulverised coal. In the newly designed mills, a set of rotating blades, which provide the necessary force separate the particles, and allows the fine ones to reach the burner.

This facilitates less power consumption. Further, the size of the particle can be controlled, which helps in cutting down on unwanted environmental emissions, a problem with power plants.

Another significant innovation from the R&D this year has been the Gravimetric Feeder Control System to deliver coal. It marks a major milestone in the indigenisation of power plant control system, explained BHEL officials.

The system gives the total weight of the coal fed during any interval of time and enables performance calculations. Developed in collaboration with BHEL, Tiruchi, the system has been installed at the Vijayawada Thermal Power Station (VTPS), Unit 3 of the Andhra Pradesh Generation Corporation (APGenco) in February 2005.

Based on the feedback from VTPS, an order for twelve units of the feeder system has been placed by BHEL, Tiruchi for the New Parli Thermal Power Plant and the Paras Thermal Power Power Plant.
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KEC awarded Rs.231 crore order from Ethiopian power corporation
Mumbai: Power transmission and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) company, KEC International Ltd has been awarded four contracts worth $52.9 million (Rs231 crore) from the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation. Three of the four contracts are related to construction of power distribution networks.

Funded by the African Development Bank, these projects are of 33kV/400 voltage distribution lines for rural electrification throughout Ethiopia, a news release said. The total length of the 33kV lines is over 2000 route kilometres, while the low-voltage lines are for over 450 route kilometres. The scope of the project also includes installing 180 low-voltage substations. When completed, the lines will electrify over 40,000 rural households.

The fourth contract is for a 230-kV single circuit transmission line project, over 243 km and also involves laying fibre optic cables.

Apart from India, KEC is also engaged in executing orders in the UAE, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Lebanon, Zambia and Ethiopia.
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Gigabyte in joint venture with D-Link
Mumbai: Gigabyte Technology Co Ltd of Taiwan, a billion-dollar computer hardware company, has drawn up major plans for India, through its joint venture with D-Link India Ltd. The company will launch laptops, LCD monitors and an entire range of computer peripherals. The company has already launched its motherboards, graphic cards and optical disk drives in India.

D-Link, which holds a majority stake in the joint venture company, Gigabyte Technology India Ltd, will continue to manufacture the Gigabyte motherboards.

According to the company, the Indian market for notebooks alone is expected to grow at over 100 per cent year-on-year for the next three years. Headquartered in Taipei, Gigabyte has two manufacturing facilities.

D-Link has business units in 26 countries.
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MCI to launch SQL Server 2005 later this year
New Delhi: Microsoft Corporation India has announced that it would launch the next version of its database and analysis offering, SQL Server 2005, in the second half of this year.

A company release said that the SQL Server 2005 product family has been redesigned to better meet the needs of each customer segment. It will include four new editions - the SQL Server 2005 Enterprise, Standard, Workgroup, and Express Editions.

The company says that with the SQL 2005 product line, it has increased the functionality offered by the Enterprise and Standard offerings, and with the Workgroup and Express Editions it will be extending the platform to additional customer segments.
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Quarterly Results: Gujarat Ambuja, Biocon, Wockhardt, Western Coalfields, Infotech, Helios & Matheson
Gujarat Ambuja Q3 net down marginally
Mumbai: Gujarat Ambuja Cements Ltd, which reported a marginal drop in third quarter results on Wednesday, said its board has recommended issue of bonus shares in the ratio of one equity share for every two held.

The board of directors also approved a stock split, in which the Rs10 face value equity share will be split into shares of face value Rs2. The company's scrip closed on Wednesday at Rs 423.85, up Rs 5.65 from Tuesday.

GACL posted a net profit of Rs143.11 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2005, marginally down from Rs145.23 crore in the corresponding quarter last year, even as net sales, at Rs667.42 crore, registered a 19-per cent growth during the period under review, against Rs559.29 crore in the corresponding previous quarter. GACL has also announced an interim dividend of 60 per cent (Rs6 per equity share of Rs10 each).

The company sold 3.18 million tonnes of cement during the period, up from 2.77 million tonnes the previous third quarter. However, the company said its net profit, excluding non-recurring exchange rate differences was up 24 per cent during the period, at Rs146.79 crore (Rs118.53 crore).

On the consolidated front, the cement major posted a net profit of Rs155.6 crore, marginally lower than Rs158.63 crore in 2004. Net sale was at Rs898.92 crore (Rs690.56 crore), showing a Rs208.36-crore rise.

However, this includes the figures for the erstwhile Ambuja Cement Rajasthan Ltd, which merged with the company in June 2004.

Biocon net at Rs198 crore
Bangalore: Biotech firm Biocon has announced a net profit of Rs198 crore during 2004-2005. Compared to the net figure of Rs139 crore in the previous fiscal, the company has clocked a forty two per cent increase in its profit.

The total income during the year surged by 34 per cent to Rs728 crore from Rs542 crore in 2003-2004. The company has declared a dividend of Rs2 per share of Rs5.

Wockhardt consolidated Q1 net slips
Mumbai: Wockhardt Ltd's consolidated net profit for its first quarter ended March 31, 2005 dipped by six per cent to Rs41.7 crore as against Rs44.4 crore for the corresponding period last year.

The company's consolidated total income surged by 9.4 per cent to Rs318.7 crore as against Rs291.1 crore for the first quarter of last fiscal, the company has informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Net profit on a standalone basis dipped by seven per cent to Rs38 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2005 as compared to Rs41.1 crore for the corresponding quarter last year. Total income increased from Rs198 crore in Q1-04 to Rs212.1 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2005, it added.

Western Coalfields turnover up at Rs4,477 crore
Hyderabad: Western Coalfields Ltd has reported a provisional turnover of Rs4,477 crore during fiscal 2004-05, an increase of Rs595 crore over the previous year's Rs3,882 crore.

The Nagpur-based public sector unit surpassed previous production figures to reach an all-time high of 41.41 million tonnes during the year, which is four lakh tonnes higher than the revised target of 41 million tonnes. The original production target was 38 million tonnes.

The growth in Western Coalfields' performance has resulted in higher earnings for the State exchequer in the form of royalty and taxes, totalling Rs536 crore during fiscal 2004-05 compared to Rs495 crore the previous year. Western Coalfield made capital investments of Rs200 crore on development of mines and allied infrastructure.

Besides the ongoing nineteen projects, with a total capacity of 10.24 million tonnes at a capital cost of Rs740.82 crore, four new extension projects were approved during 2003-04, according to a company press release. These projects contributed 1.15 million tonnes out of the production of 41.41 million tonnes.

The total despatch during the year was the highest ever, reaching 40.31 million tonnes. Last year, it was 39.20 million tonnes.

Thermal power and steel plants were the main consumers.

Infotech Q4 net up 203 per cent for the fiscal
Hyderabad: Infotech Enterprises Ltd has reported that its net profit after tax (PAT) for the fiscal 2004-05 rose to Rs27.38 crore, up 203.8 per cent from Rs9.01 crore in the previous fiscal.

For the last quarter of the fiscal, the company earned a net profit of Rs8.92 crore, a massive jump of 334.9 per cent from Rs2.05 crore in the previous corresponding period. As for revenues, the company recorded Rs65.17 crore (Rs55.38 crore), a jump of 17.7 per cent.

The overall turnover increased by 37.2 per cent to reach Rs257.13 crore compared to Rs187.47 crore in the previous corresponding year, according to the audited financial results announced today.

The Infotech board, which met here to take on record the financial results, has recommended a dividend of Rs1.50 per share (15 per cent). The diluted EPS for the year stood at Rs18.53 per share.

Helios & Matheson net for fiscal at Rs.18.57 crore
Chennai: Helios & Matheson Information Technology Ltd, a services company, has posted a profit after tax of Rs5.98 crore on an income of Rs36.26 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2005, against a net profit of Rs86 lakh on Rs23.34 crore for the same period last year.

For the year ended March 31, 2005, the company's net profit was Rs18.57 crore on an income of Rs122.12 crore, against a net profit of Rs7.96 crore on income of Rs75.54 crore for the previous year.

In a press release, the company said its income for the quarter ending June 30, 2005 was expected to be in the range of Rs38.21 crore to Rs38.47 crore and the net profit in the range of Rs6.38 crore to Rs6.42 crore.
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