High-speed Net link for one lakh schools

In a bid to catch them young, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd is rolling out its broadband services to one lakh schools across the country by December 2008, as part of a project being embarked upon by the Ministry of Human Resource Development.

The Ministry will provide the details of the schools to BSNL for offering high-speed Internet services. The schools will be connected in four phases.

In the first phase, BSNL will cover 15,000 schools in 1,500 towns by December 2007. This will include 9,000 schools in 900 towns, where the company has its wire line based network and another 6,000 schools in 600 towns, where BSNL will set up its broadband infrastructure over the next two-four months.

Other phases

In the second phase, BSNL will add another 20,000 schools primarily located in rural areas. In the third phase, the telecom major will use wireless technologies such as Wi-Max to cover 10,000 schools in 1,000 blocks.

Minus the ads, BCCI tells players

In a move that will have far reaching consequences in cricket's commercial space, the BCCI has restricted a player from endorsing more than three sponsors at a time.

There's more; no sponsor can contract more than two players, and every deal a player signs has to be approved by the Board. This step has the potential to snowball into a major crisis.

Scores of ads featuring cricketers will now be history. The players are tightlipped, sports management agencies in a tizzy. The immediate concern of course is what happens to existing contracts?

"Say everyone has 8-10 endorsements. Which are the five we are getting rid of? What are going to be the legal remedies provided by the BCCI to keep the player out of that, because it's not the player's knee-jerk action that resulted in this kind of thing happening," Latika Khaneja the MD of Collage Sports says.

So just what is at stake? Here's an idea about the size of the pie:

• Sachin Tendulkar has as many as 14 brands to endorse which earn him close to Rs 45 crore a year; and demands 70 days of his time in a year.
• Skipper Rahul Dravid has 12 brands which take up to 60 days in a year and make him approximately Rs 13 crore.
• M S Dhoni's posterboy image earns him Rs 8 crore a year for the 15 brands that he lends his name to. It takes away 75 days a year of his time.
• Comeback man Sourav Ganguly has to spare time for seven brands, which takes up 35 days in a year and makes him approximately Rs 5 crore.

Experts believe that the BCCI may have overplayed its hand, and could have considered easier options.

"You can always limit the number of days, or in other words, the time that a player can devote to endorsements," Jeet Banerjee, the MD of Gameplan says.

The BCCI claims the decision was made on the recommendation of the seven ex-captains who attended their special meeting on Saturday. But not quite, says one of those captains.

"I think there's a little bit of a misunderstanding, a little bit of misinterpretation. Some of the recommendations given by some of the captains is that, more than anything else during the match days or before the tour, it's better that the players avoid the endorsements," former India captain Krishnamachari Srikkanth says.

So has the BCCI fired its gun from the shoulders of former captains? Will the players launch a legal challenge to this move? That is the question that has more than a million dollars riding on it.

IOC pins hopes on strong rupee

Being faced with a volatile undertone in crude and product prices leading to rise in under-recoveries, IOC (and other marketing companies) is pinning hopes on a strong rupee to ease pressure on working capital.

Though he prefers to consider the present slide of dollar as a "temporary phenomenon", Mr S.V. Narasimhan, Director (Finance) of IOC, says that a stronger rupee partially sets aside the impact of upward trends in crude prices.

"If rupee gains by 100 paise against dollar, our cost of crude comes down by 2%," he said. Naturally the working capital, which is under strain in the face of Rs 65 crore under-recovery a day by the company, gets some relief.

IT cos hit by rupee surge

Everytime the rupee goes up - the fortune of IT companies goes down.

Wipro earns over two thirds of it's revenue from the US, so do Satyam , Infosys and TCS. That's why every time the rupee appreciates, the revenues of IT companies depreciate. The last 2 quarters have been particularly tough - the rupee has gone up by almost 5 %.

On April 4, the rupee touched an 8-year high. Analysts estimate IT companies' revenues for the january to march quarter will be lower by about 1.5%. The next quarter will be worse.

"I think on account of weakness of the dollar against the rupee, you will see Infosys be the first one to come out with a muted guidance," says Ashwin Mehta, Analyst, Ambit.

Analysts estimate that every 1% rise in the rupee reduces profits by 30-40 basis points. Most IT companies buy hedges to protect against currency fluctuation. But here's where the cookie crumbles.

Brokerage house CLSA says - Wipro will be the worst hit amongst IT companies. That's because last quarter, it reduced its hedge by 50%. Infosys did so by 4%. But on the other hand, Satyam increased its hedge by 60% and TCS by 14%.

So companies like TCS and Satyam lose less if the rupee rises and if it depreciates - they only forego a premium. So if the rupee continues to appreciate, IT stocks will fast lose currency in the markets.

CAS(e) of problems?

It's time for the implementation of the second phase of the conditional access system or CAS. The TRAI has begun asking for co-operation from cable operators and Multiple System Operators (MSOs) in Ghaziabad and Thane, but CAS continues to give hiccups, reports CNBC-TV18.

 

 

It's been three months since the conditional access system was implemented in the notified areas of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. But consumers here are complaining of not getting selected channels, slow service from cable operators and poor picture quality. 

 

 

"Whenever we contact them they give us excuses. We never get the channel that we want. The earlier system was much better. However cable operators believe that these are initial hiccups and will get sorted out in due course of time," says a harried customer.

 

 

Cable operators across selected cities are now gearing up for the implementation of the next phase of CAS. But each of them has a different opinion on the time frame within which this has to complete.

 

"Its good for both consumers and operators that competition has entered in the CAS area" says Roop Sharma, Cable Operator

 

The ministry of information and broadcasting has so far set no time limit for the implementation of CAS' second phase. Though the TRAI has begun asking for inputs from MSOs and cable operators. Some operators have agreed to implement CAS within one month but many feel they would require 5 to 6 months to implement it. Though most operators agree that the notification process should be done together across all the areas. TRAI had held a meeting with the cable operators and MSOs  last Thursday and would be talking to broadcasters and consumers as well.

Small is 'Big' for car makers this summer

Higher interest rates may have been slowing down sales but the auto market is buzzing with new launches. Two new variants of existing small cars have rolled out of the Fiat and Hyundai stables. And the action seems to be in the 1.1 litre segment.

Interest rate hikes are making both consumers as well as the automakers sweat this summer. But manufacturers are betting on new launches in the small car segment to drive growth. The Hyundai Getz has a new zing in its "Prime" avataar and the Fiat's Palio rolled out a new hatchback version from its Ranjangaon plant. Both come with a 1.1 litre engine, which gives them the excise benefit. This segment makes up more than 50% of the Indian car market.

In order to reduce prices of Getz, Hyundai has launched its new version with a 1.1 litre engine, which is the same as the one used in Santro. Hyundai will also launch the diesel versions of both Getz and Santro. HS Lheem, Managing Director, Hyundai Motor India, says, "We will lauch the diesel version of Getz in the early in second half of 2007."

Getz 'Prime' is priced at Rs 3.89 lakhs, while the price of Fiat's Palio 1.1 is Rs 3.49 lakh. Palio Stile 1.6  is priced at Rs 4.31 lakh. But that is not all - the small car segment will see GM launch the Chevy Spark, while Hyundai plans to drive in the Santro twin model, code-named PA. Exciting times, right?

American H1 B visa shortage causes panic

Applicants for American Work Visa H1-B are facing an unusually tough situation this year.That is because the Congressionally mandated visa quota of 65,000 has already been exhausted with more than 200-thousand applicants filing their petitions in record time

 

The phones are ringing off the hook at the law offices of Joe Nesari. It is a nervous time for H1 B hopefuls. Around 2,50,000 H1 B applicants are fighting for a small visa quota that is just one fourth that number.

Even seasoned attorneys like Jennifer Verghese are surprised at how quickly the quota filled up this year. Immigration Attorney Jennifer Verghese, says, "Never seen anything like this before. To give you a perspective, last year it took under eight weeks for the cap to be reached, this year one day. This was shocking to immigration experts all over the country".

 

So what triggered the sudden rush? Experts say, anticipating a shortage of visas for potential, it hires, many big companies like Microsoft and Oracle filed tens of thousands of applications. Calling for an increase in the Congressionally mandated cap of 65,000 visas, Oracle issued a statement saying.

 

For now the US Center for Immigration Services, or USCIS will use a random lottery system to pick visa recipients from a pool of applications received by Tuesday this week. The rest will be rejected.

 

Nobody knows for sure, but it could take the CIS weeks just to figure out how to draw the lottery. For now all that applicants can do is hope that they are one of the lucky ones.

Will Tata's Rs 1-lakh car be named 'Jeh'?

The most watched car in the Indian car space — the Rs 1-lakh offering from the Tata Motors stables — is still unnamed, but company sources here believe that `Jeh' is emerging as the 'most favoured name'.

"It has always been our Chairman Mr Ratan Tata's dream to name one of the cars after J.R.D. Tata," says one official, and what better tribute to the late patriarch of the Tata Empire, than naming the car project that symbolises the realisation of yet another dream, after him?

The car, the prototype of which is ready at the Pune plant, is a four-seater with a 630 cc, four-stroke, two-cylinder rear engine and is scheduled for roll out from the Singur plant in West Bengal in 2008. Both petrol and diesel variants are on the cards with a one-year phase out for the latter.

Other launches

Meanwhile, the company's first launches in the new fiscal will be the Sprint, a pick-up van that is slated for an April SOP (start of production) followed by the soft-top, passenger version of the Ace, variously described as a `tum-tum' or a variant of Maruti's Omni.

The Sprint, a derivative of the original Tatamobile, and the current Telcoline, is a diesel vehicle with CRDi technology that will comply with Euro III norms, and come in two configurations — single cab and double cab. According to company sources the vehicle is also tipped for manufacture in Thailand from next year, and at Fiat's plant in Cordoba, Argentina, where it will be produced with a Fiat engine and sold in Brazil and Argentina through the Fiat dealer network. The target, here is reportedly 20,000 units annually.

Zee launches Rs 100-crore cricket league

New Delhi April 3 If you can't get a share of the game, create your own. And that's what Zee Group's gone ahead and announced, the Indian Cricket League waving a prize-money of $1 million (Rs 4.28 crore).

Mr Subhash Chandra, Chairman, Zee Group announcing the new league, a joint venture between Essel Group and Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd (IL&FS), committed a corpus fund of Rs 100 crore, about a tenth of its failed bid in 2004 for the television rights of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

"A professional league is the need of the hour as is a killer instinct in the players," said Mr Chandra. "It is time for some or one of us in the private and public sectors to step up and partner together to commit the financial resources necessary to help the sport which is a national obsession," he added, stating that the league was not in conflict, but complementary to the BCCI. The BCCI meanwhile has acknowledged receiving a letter from Mr Chandra "seeking permission to start the Indian Cricket League". The Board is however yet to take a decision on the matter, clarified the BCCI Secretary, Mr Niranjan Shah.

Taj checks into California

The Taj Group of Hotels has bought the Hotel Campton Place in San Francisco - its first on the West Coast, reports CNBC-TV18.

It's another property that will carry the Taj emblem. The Campton Place is a 95-year-old, 110-room standalone boutique luxury hotel in San Francisco that will now belong to the Taj. Taj has tied up with investors to acquire it for USD 60 million. The transaction is expected to be complete by April 30.

This will be the Taj's third acquistion in the US after the Pierre in New York and Ritz Carton in Boston. The hotel fits in with the Taj strategy of being in the luxury segment in international markets. This would be the Taj's fourth overseas acquistion in the past two years.

The group's target has been to add about 10 properties internationally this year either through acquistions or management control or by building them itself. So we understand that Taj might buy another property in the US soon. It is, after all, an acquisition with a view to the future.

ICICI Bank gives green push to debit cards

In the coming months,ICICI Bankwill strive to establish a connection in the minds of its customers between using their debit cards and saving the planet.

Today, most people use debit cards to draw money from ATMs and spend the money at shops and restaurants. ICICI Bank wants its customers to use debit cards straightaway in shops and restaurants and thereby minimise the use of paper currency.

Less paper use is more environment-friendly.

The Reserve Bank of India's figures say that in 1935, India had 100 million pieces of currency notes in circulation. As at the end of March 2005, the notes in circulation were 36,985 million — or, about 370 times more.

"Imagine how much of energy, how much ink would be consumed in making the paper," says Dr Nachiket Mor, Deputy Managing Director, ICICI Bank.

Insurance cos wary of ayurveda treatment claims

Patients going in for Ayurvedic or other alternative treatments may find it more difficult to get health insurance, as insurers have restricted the scope of covers for these methods.

New India Assurance and Oriental Insurance Companies, two leading health insurers in the country have restricted the cover, recognising only claims made from Government hospitals.

Currently, Ayurveda, Homeopathy and Unani are accepted as alternative methods, though Acupuncture and Acupressure are seen as being unproven and experimental.

New India Assurance, which is soon to launch its new health insurance policy, has also imposed a ceiling of 25 per cent on the total amount insured if alternative systems of medicine are used. Most private players do not insure any alternative treatments.

Difficult to predict 2007-08 outlook, wait & watch: Bankers

llan Pereira, Executive Director at Oriental Bank of Commerce and
B Sambamurthy, Chairman at Corporation Bank comment on the RBI move on Friday.

Pereira says that the hike will affect the liquidity of his bank but that it will rebalance the credit portfolios and look into further mobilizing low-cost deposits. On the PLR side, he hinted at some action in due course and that the bank would not like to rush into a rate hike right now.

Sambamurthy says that due to the interest rates, his bank could see a drop in the net interest margins by about 10-12 basis points, while for 2007-08 it was wait and watch.

Interest rate hikes hurting builders too Hoooooooo!!!!

Higher interest rate are hurting not just borrowers but property developers as well. That is because builders might be forced to cut prices,

Home Loans are dearer. But now even builders feel the pain. Most developers were holding on to high prices and putting up a brave face for the past three to six months despite interest rate hikes and transactions slowing by up to 25%. Developers now admit it is a tough battle to win and feel they must compromise on prices to boost sales.   

 

"Yes definitely that is a business call that all developers will have to take when he feels that there is something pinching him he will definitely look at a way out," says Mayur Shah, MD, Marathon Realty.

 

With demand decreasing, developers are left with a substantial stock of apartments especially in extended suburbs of the metros. ICICI Bank , India's largest private sector bank, anticipates a slowdown in home loan growth by 10% and that means more pain for the property market.

 

"They will either work on compressed margins or will be in a hurry to sell so that the investment comes home fast," feels Pranay Vakil, Chairman, Knight Frank.

 

While consultants say there may not be a steep slide in property prices, builders who made land transactions at very high prices have turned cautious. Cooling land prices will translate into more affordable housing in the medium term.

Intel inside India in the sixties!

After Intel recently announced its intention to build a $2.5 billion semiconductor plant in China, doubts have been aired whether India has missed the chip bus.

Mr Paul Otellini, Intel's president and chief executive officer has been cited in a March 26-dated story on http://news.xinhuanet.com thus: that Intel chose Dalian (a port city in northeast China's Liaoning Province) over a dozen other sites, including cities in Israel and India, because China is Intel's fastest growing market and the cost of production is lower; and that infrastructure, education, adequate power, water and logistics in Dalian were all factors in securing the deal.

One also learns, "It took Intel and the Dalian government three years of negotiations before the deal was sealed."

No tears are being shed in India, because two days after Intel took its chip factory to China, we had Infineon Technologies and Hindustan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation announce a $4.5 billion investment to manufacture chips in India.

Crude near 6-mth highs amid supply disruption concerns

Crude prices continued to trade near 6-month highs amidst heightened concerns about possible disruption to oil shipments due to a stand-off between the UK and Iran over the capture of British naval personnel.

In after hours access trading, crude is trading at USD 65.89, up 2 cents on the Nymex.

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Bill Gates' 11 rules of life

Bill Gate's 11 Rules of Life

Rule 1: Life is not fair — get used to it!

Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect You to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping — they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and Very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your Own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

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