Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Business News, Aug 2nd,2006
SAP to invest $1bn in India
New Delhi, Aug. 2: SAP, the international business software major, has unveiled a plan to invest $1 billion in India over a period of five years. In addition to this, the company has also decided that 20 per cent of global research and product development for it would be from India.
Mr Henning Kagermann, CEO of SAP AG, who was in India to inaugurate the company’s new office in Gurgaon announced SAP’s plan to invest $1 million in India. “In the coming years, India would play a major role in research and development for the company,” said Mr Kagermann. Till now, SAP has invested some $50 million in India. A major part of the $1 billion is supposed to used for research and development related activities. SAP Labs India was founded in 1998 and has its headquarter in Bangalore.
Mr Kagermann refuted the allegations that due to rising salaries of professionals in India, the company is planning to shift some of its work to China. SAP does have a centre in Shanghai. “Till we continue to get quality people in India, we would continue doing work here,” said Mr Kagermann. Incidentally, the company has a plan to raise the strength of its employees in the country from the present 2,700 to 4,000 in five years. Even in the newly-inaugurated Gurgaon office, some 250 employees would be hired by the end of the year.
Moreover, in recognition of the fast-paced growth in the Indian market that SAP has witnessed, Mr Kagermann announced the elevation of India to the status of a strategic hub. This status will bring to more attention towards SAP India, in addition to resources and additional focus required to sustain and build upon the current momentum of SAP’s broad-based growth in the Indian sub-continent.
The company has also made plans that by the end of the year, India will make up a significant 20 per cent of the global R&D pie. SAP has also been supplying business solutions to major industries in India. Some of the recent clients of the company are Grasim Cement Manufacturing, Birla Management Centre Services Ltd, GAIL and Bajaj Steel. The company has some 1,050 customers in the country and some 31,000 certified SAP consultants.
The company seeks to add some 15,000 customers and one lakh certified consultants by 2010. SAP is also in e-governance providing services to the Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the Bangalore Development Authority. Internationally, SAP has some 34,600 customers in more than 120 countries that run SAP applications. With subsidiaries in more than 50 countries, the company is listed on several exchanges, including the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
Cognizant revamps executive team
Chennai, Aug. 2: There’s been a shake-up in Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp., an IT services provider. Lakshmi Narayanan, the long-time president and chief executive officer, is set to be become vice-chairman of the company’s board from January 1, 2007. The company’s current chief operating officer will succeed Mr Lakshmi Narayanan as president and CEO and will also become a member of the board, a Cognizant statement said here on Wednesday.
In addition, Gordon Coburn, the current chief financial officer, will be promoted to chief financial and operating officer. The Nasdaq-listed company also announced two additional appointments, effective immediately. Chandra Sekaran, an executive officer of the company since 2004, has been promoted to president and managing director, global delivery and will oversee Cognizant’s development operations around the world.
Rajeev Mehta, who has been promoted to chief operating officer, global client services and added to the executive team, will assume responsibility for the company’s sales, business development and client relationship management organisations. Meanwhile, the company has reported increased revenue of $336.80 million, 59 per cent up from the year ago quarter. GAAP net income was $55.1 million. Net income for the second quarter increased to $61.0 million on a non-GAAP basis, compared to $36.0 million, or $0.25 per diluted share, in the second quarter of 2005.
DIAL takes over Delhi airport operations
Hyderabad, Aug. 2: Delhi International Airport Private Ltd, the joint venture company (JVC) formed to develop and modernise the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, has taken over full control of operations of the airport beginning midnight Wednesday, with the ending of the three-month transition period, which began on May 3.
“As part of the transition process, during the first month, the AAI was performing all the duties observed by the JVC. During the second month, the JVC was performing the function observed by AAI. And finally during month three, JVC was operating independently, with need-based support from AAI,” a DIAL spokesman said on Wednesday.
The JVC is led by GMR group, and includes AAI, Fraport AG of Germany, Malaysia Airport Holdings and IDF. The spokesperson said that to improve the customer and traveller experience, DIAL will be improving the seating facilities, the floor and lighting of the airport and queue management. Last week, DIAL opened rapid exit taxiways to improve traffic circulation on the runway.
Wipro, Motorola JV to invest $20m
Mumbai, Aug. 2: Indian IT major Wipro Limited and Motorola Inc. will jointly invest about $20 million (Rs 92 crores) over the next three years in their newly-formed joint venture WMNetServ. “The investment will be in tools and technology and the company is expecting to generate revenues by the third quarter of the current fiscal,” said Mr A.L. Rao, chief operating officer, Wipro Limited.
According to Mr Rao, the company will be headquartered in Europe and will have two offices in India which include Bangalore and Delhi. Wipro will have majority stake and the JV is aimed at taping the large-scale outsourcing in network and communication space. The venture is expected to be operational by the end of this month.
The company is targeting $8-$10 billion outsourced telecom services market worldwide, which is expected to touch $48 billion over the next five years. The JV, WMNetserv, will host a Global Network Operation Centre (GNOC) platform that will integrate seamlessly with Motorola’s existing NOCs in North America and
Europe to provide uninterrupted network monitoring capabilities to customers. Moreover, the company will set up a network operations centre in Delhi and initially employ 50 engineers. WMNetserv will have a Wipro official as the head, while the board of directors will have representation from Wipro’s and Motorola’s senior management.
Essar offers Rs 1,600cr deposit payback
Mumbai, Aug. 2: Corporate giant Essar is understood to have offered to pay back Rs 1,600 crore by this week to its telecom joint venture Hutchison-Essar taken by it as deposit in lieu of the sale of BPL Mobile, a deal that was called off on Tuesday.
Sources in the know of the development said that the offer to refund the money within five days of the termination of the deal was made on Tuesday by Essar immediately after it called off the deal to sell BPL Mobile (Mumbai) cellular operations citing that it did not get necessary approval by due date.
However, Hutch moved the Mumbai High Court, which on Wednesday adjourned the hearing for Thursday.Hutch officials could not be contacted, while Essar officials declined comment saying the matter was sub-judice. Hutch is seeking to restrain Essar from the sale of BPL shares while disputing the termination of the agreement, sources said, adding that Essar is also likely to challenge the HEL as the termination notice service by it was well within its legal rights as per the agreement.
Essar recalled that HEL had earlier entered into a purchase agreement with Aircel which was conditional on receipt of government approvals under the intra circle merger guidelines.That deal was also called off because approvals were not received and subsequently Aircel was sold to Maxis of malaysia at a much higher price, sources said, adding that in this case HEL did not go to court and allowed the agreement to lapse.
Essar expressed concern over Hutch’s decision to move to court in the BPL sale deal. Quoting the terms of agreement, sources said that both the parties had the option of terminating the deal that was signed by the two in September 2005. The agreement provided that the transaction should be completed before June 30, 2006, a deadline which was later extended by a month.
In digital imaging, facial recognition is new frontier
Hyderabad, Aug. 2: Barring photographers, both pro and amateur, few people would have heard of Steven J. Sasson, probably because his work involves developing technology for digital imaging, not shooting pictures. Mr Sasson, 56, invented the digital camera, while working for the Eastman Kodak Company, in 1975. Back then, he says, the digital camera prototype weighed nearly four kilograms, was the size of toaster, and it took 23 seconds to record an image.
“The idea was to develop a camera that could store images in electronic format, not on conventional film, so we had to engineer the entire thing from the ground up, to enable the viewing of the image on the TV screen. The PC had yet to be invented,” Mr Sasson, who now works for the intellectual property division of the Eastman Kodak, said in an interview on Wednesday.
In 31 years, the digital camera has evolved into a gadget that has a megapixel camera, which can fit into the pocket. And the images can be downloaded into a PC, or transmitted between mobile phone handsets using Bluetooth technology. “Apart from the digital camera, Kodak invented the colour-filter array, which is used by digital camera manufacturers around the world, and the company had a major role to play in arriving at the JPEG standard,” says Mr Sasson. Looking to the future, Mr Sasson says that Kodak was working technology that will recognise facial features in a picture, automatically, to bring them into sharper focus.
“We are experimenting with the technology that will kick in once the button on the digital camera is switched on. The lens will automatically focus on the facial characteristics in the frame, no matter that the person being photographed is in a profile, and sharpen the image for a clear facial shot,” he says.
“We are developing the technology because a whole lot of consumers we spoke to say that at times the image they click does not have people’s faces in sharper or crisper focus,” says Peter Labaziewicz, director of Innovation and Advanced Development for Digital Capture at Kodak.
Mr Labaziewicz led a team of Kodak engineers and the company’s partners to invent the dual-lens digital camera. “Consumers wanted a lot more zoom and a 180-degree angle lens in cameras which they could slip into their pockets. This required us to reduce the camera by a factor of five, but conventional technology was giving us only incremental improvements.
It was our Mission: Impossible. We needed to come up with something radical, and the solution was a camera with a dual lens, which had two charge coupled device and two sensors. This which helped in reducing its size,” he says. Kodak launched two products with dual- lens cameras, the V570 and the V610, in India this year.
“The front-end of the digital camera, that is the camera itself, has received a lot of time and money, but in future storage and archiving and retrieval of the images automatically, which will require a lot of research,” says Mr Sasson.
How does one save on capital gains tax?
Tax matters: By Kamal Rathi
My father bought a house for Rs 25,000 in 1968 and registered it on my name and my brother’s. In 1977, he added another floor. The details of constructions and investments undertaken in 1977 are not available. My father expired in 1980 and we sold this house for Rs 22 lakhs in 2005. My brother and myself got Rs 11 lakhs each. This amount has not been invested in any other property. What shall be my liability to capital gain tax? Is there a possibility of saving the capital gain tax?
D.K. Narsimhan, Salem
For computing the capital gains tax liability, it is necessary to now the fair market value (FMV) of the property as on 01-04-1981. You shall be eligible to claim the benefit of cost inflation index on the FMV determined above. The cost inflation index for FY 1981-1982 is 100 and for FY 2005-2006 is Rs 497. Hence, the indexed cost of acquisition shall be worked out as under.
Fair Market Value (FMV) * 497/100.
The amount of sale consideration received in excess of the indexed cost of acquisition shall be taxed as long-term capital gains. The tax liability on long-term capital gains is taxed at 20 per cent. However, the actual tax liability on the above income may vary depending on the other income assessed in your hands.
The long-term capital gains tax liability arising out of the sale of the residential house can be avoided by making the investment of the long term capital gains by purchase of residential house within a period of 2 years.
The long-term capital gains tax liability can also be avoided if it is invested within 6 months in the capital gain bonds specified u/s 54 EC of the Income Tax Act, 1961. The exemption on such bonds made after April 1, 2006 shall be available only if such investments are made in capital gain bonds issued by the National Highways Authority of India and Rural Electrification Corporation.
However, the board has extended the time limit for making investments for the transfer of long-term capital asset between September 29, 2005 and December 31, 2005 up to September 30, 2006. The extended time is available irrespective of the fact that the 6 months period from the date of transfer is over.
For the transferred long-term capital assets between January 1, 2006 and June 30, 2006, the investments in the said bonds can be made before December 31, 2006.
Kamal Rathi represents Rathi & Malani, a Hyderabad-based chartered accountancy firm. The views expressed here are those of the author. They do not reflect the views of this newspaper. Readers can send their personal income-tax queries to Mr Rathi at tax@decca-nmail.com, or write him at Tax Matters, C/o Deccan Chronicle, 36, Sarojini Devi Road, Secunderabad-500003, Andhra Pradesh
Intel’s new flash chip to power low-priced cellphones
IT Today
Even as it is grappling with declining sales of semiconductor chips and competition from a resurgent Advanced Micro Devices, Intel Corporation, purveyor of Moore’s Law and other exotic formulations for the chip industry, appears to have bet on the emerging low-cost cellphone segment. The company has introduced its first NOR flash memory products.
Intel says the new products have a new pin sharing package to minimise pin count and are configured to work with low-cost, single-chip baseband and RF solutions from chipset suppliers. Major handset vendors are expected to start introducing low-cost cellphones based on Intel flash products this quarter. Intel is introducing these products in response to increasing market demand for low-cost phones.
The cellphone industry’s GSM Association estimates that only 20 per cent of the world’s population use cell phones, largely because of cellphone costs. “We’re expanding Intel’s proven leadership in NOR flash memory for handsets to the emerging low-cost handset market segment,” says Darin Billerbeck, vice-president and general manager of Intel’s Flash Products Group.
“We view the low-cost handset market segment as an ongoing growth opportunity and we have a migration path in place to transition our products from 130nm and 90nm process technology to 65nm process technology in 2007,” Mr Billerbeck added. According to Intel, its NOR flash memory products have lower density from 32Mb to 256Mb with optional RAM in a multi-chip package.
Windows Live Spaces
Meanwhile, in cyberworld, Microsoft, fighting in a rearguard action against the likes of Yahoo! and Google, has begun rolling out Windows Live Spaces, the self-styled next generation of its blogging service, MSN Spaces. The new service includes social networking features designed to help users discover and connect with friends through their trusted contacts and allows customers to personalise their Windows Live Spa-ces with gadgets.
“Windows Live Spaces, the next generation of MSN Spaces, is the most widely used blogging service in the world today. There are over six million photos uploaded everyday and 120 million unique visitors each month. Indian users will now be in control through Windows Live Spaces which offers complete choice and customisation for their online experience,” says Jaspreet Bindra, country manager, Windows Live & MSN India said. Mr Bindra says Windows Live Spaces will allow “consumers to tell their story and customise their site with blogs, photo albums, music lists and more.”
ATF prices take toll on SpiceJet
Posts net loss of Rs 13cr
Hyderabad, Aug. 2: Saddled with rising aviation turbine fuel (ATF) costs and intense competition among airlines, low-cost carrier SpiceJet Ltd on Wednesday reported a net loss of Rs 13 crores in the fourth quarter ended May 2006.
The total income during the period stood at Rs 151 crores. For the full year ended May, the net loss for SpiceJet was Rs 41 crores, while the operating income during the year stood at Rs 421 crores. Spice Jet’s results come four days after market leader Jet Airways Ltd suffered a net loss of Rs 45 crores during the first quarter of the current financial year. However, SpiceJet officials remain upbeat about the potential of the Indian aviation industry and growth plans.
Announcing the results in New Delhi, SpiceJet chairman Sidhant Sharma said, “SpiceJet’s average load factor is the highest in the industry, coupled with better yield management and strict cost controlling have resulted in better than the industry financial performance.”
Mr Sharma said the company hopes to breakeven in current financial year, or maybe log in marginal profits with strict cost controls and operational efficiencies. Revenues for the year stood at Rs 453.15 crores while SpiceJet carried over 1.6 million passengers during the year with an average load factor of 86 per cent.
As per the latest data, SpiceJet has garnered a market share of 7.8 per cent with a fleet of six aircraft, the company stated in a press statement. With 12 airlines aiming for a slice of the aviation market and IndiGo scheduled to take off on August 4, yields remain under pressure for the industry and staff costs spiralling market players are hit harder with numerous discount ticket offers.
What came as another jolt for the industry was the hike in ATF prices announced on Tuesday which may again trigger another round of hike in air fares. ATF prices have risen 31 per cent in the last 12 months to hit an all-time high of Rs 47,691 a kilolitre on Tuesday.
Shining’s new firm to focus on SMEs
Hyderabad, Aug. 2: Shining Emotional Surplus, a consulting firm involved in “corporate transformation”, will be setting up a new company to focus exclusively on the small and medium enterprise sector, Mr Shombit Sengupta, the firm’s founder and creative strategist, said. Scale-up, the company Shining, which has worked with brands like Britannia and Berger Paints, is setting up will be working with SMEs with revenues of below Rs 50 crores.
“Scale-up will be working with SMEs who have issues of transforming their organisations into sustainable and profitable enterprises. Many SMEs have little or no idea on how to grow to the next level,” Mr Sengupta, dressed in a green shirt, green pants, a rainbow-colour tie and bright socks, told reporters here.
According to Mr Sengupta, Indian companies had yet to get a true measure of globalisation, and would take a long time to build a global brand. “We take a spiritual view of brands and businesses, and a lot of Indian companies are complacent about the competition, when what is required is a professional approach to brand building,” he said. Asked whether Indian companies had arrived on the global scene, he said.
Sensex zooms 124 pts in late surge
Mumbai, Aug. 2: The Sensex surged by nearly 140 points in pre-close trading on Wednesday following massive buying by foreign funds and retail investors. Also stead buying across sectors saw the index break out of a narrow range and rally to 10,891 — up 161 points from the day’s low. The Sensex finally settled with a smart gain of 124 points at 10,876. Similarly, the Nifty was up by 34 points at 3,182.10.
The BSE mid-cap and the small-cap indices were up 1.3 per cent each to 4,338 and 5,178, respectively. The market breadth was fairly positive as out of 2,499 stocks traded, 1,532 advanced, 879 declined and 88 were unchanged on Wednesday. Stocks of auto and cement companies were major gainers on sizeable purchases by funds, contributing significantly to the rise in the benchmark index.
Bajaj Auto, a index-related stock shot up by Rs 77.10 and Tata Motors gained Rs 22.45. Other gainers were Bhel, Dr Reddy’s Lab, Larsen and Toubro, State Bank of India, ACC, Tata Steel, Reliance Industries, ONGC, Infosys Technologies and Reliance Energy.
New Delhi, Aug. 2: SAP, the international business software major, has unveiled a plan to invest $1 billion in India over a period of five years. In addition to this, the company has also decided that 20 per cent of global research and product development for it would be from India.
Mr Henning Kagermann, CEO of SAP AG, who was in India to inaugurate the company’s new office in Gurgaon announced SAP’s plan to invest $1 million in India. “In the coming years, India would play a major role in research and development for the company,” said Mr Kagermann. Till now, SAP has invested some $50 million in India. A major part of the $1 billion is supposed to used for research and development related activities. SAP Labs India was founded in 1998 and has its headquarter in Bangalore.
Mr Kagermann refuted the allegations that due to rising salaries of professionals in India, the company is planning to shift some of its work to China. SAP does have a centre in Shanghai. “Till we continue to get quality people in India, we would continue doing work here,” said Mr Kagermann. Incidentally, the company has a plan to raise the strength of its employees in the country from the present 2,700 to 4,000 in five years. Even in the newly-inaugurated Gurgaon office, some 250 employees would be hired by the end of the year.
Moreover, in recognition of the fast-paced growth in the Indian market that SAP has witnessed, Mr Kagermann announced the elevation of India to the status of a strategic hub. This status will bring to more attention towards SAP India, in addition to resources and additional focus required to sustain and build upon the current momentum of SAP’s broad-based growth in the Indian sub-continent.
The company has also made plans that by the end of the year, India will make up a significant 20 per cent of the global R&D pie. SAP has also been supplying business solutions to major industries in India. Some of the recent clients of the company are Grasim Cement Manufacturing, Birla Management Centre Services Ltd, GAIL and Bajaj Steel. The company has some 1,050 customers in the country and some 31,000 certified SAP consultants.
The company seeks to add some 15,000 customers and one lakh certified consultants by 2010. SAP is also in e-governance providing services to the Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the Bangalore Development Authority. Internationally, SAP has some 34,600 customers in more than 120 countries that run SAP applications. With subsidiaries in more than 50 countries, the company is listed on several exchanges, including the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
Cognizant revamps executive team
Chennai, Aug. 2: There’s been a shake-up in Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp., an IT services provider. Lakshmi Narayanan, the long-time president and chief executive officer, is set to be become vice-chairman of the company’s board from January 1, 2007. The company’s current chief operating officer will succeed Mr Lakshmi Narayanan as president and CEO and will also become a member of the board, a Cognizant statement said here on Wednesday.
In addition, Gordon Coburn, the current chief financial officer, will be promoted to chief financial and operating officer. The Nasdaq-listed company also announced two additional appointments, effective immediately. Chandra Sekaran, an executive officer of the company since 2004, has been promoted to president and managing director, global delivery and will oversee Cognizant’s development operations around the world.
Rajeev Mehta, who has been promoted to chief operating officer, global client services and added to the executive team, will assume responsibility for the company’s sales, business development and client relationship management organisations. Meanwhile, the company has reported increased revenue of $336.80 million, 59 per cent up from the year ago quarter. GAAP net income was $55.1 million. Net income for the second quarter increased to $61.0 million on a non-GAAP basis, compared to $36.0 million, or $0.25 per diluted share, in the second quarter of 2005.
DIAL takes over Delhi airport operations
Hyderabad, Aug. 2: Delhi International Airport Private Ltd, the joint venture company (JVC) formed to develop and modernise the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, has taken over full control of operations of the airport beginning midnight Wednesday, with the ending of the three-month transition period, which began on May 3.
“As part of the transition process, during the first month, the AAI was performing all the duties observed by the JVC. During the second month, the JVC was performing the function observed by AAI. And finally during month three, JVC was operating independently, with need-based support from AAI,” a DIAL spokesman said on Wednesday.
The JVC is led by GMR group, and includes AAI, Fraport AG of Germany, Malaysia Airport Holdings and IDF. The spokesperson said that to improve the customer and traveller experience, DIAL will be improving the seating facilities, the floor and lighting of the airport and queue management. Last week, DIAL opened rapid exit taxiways to improve traffic circulation on the runway.
Wipro, Motorola JV to invest $20m
Mumbai, Aug. 2: Indian IT major Wipro Limited and Motorola Inc. will jointly invest about $20 million (Rs 92 crores) over the next three years in their newly-formed joint venture WMNetServ. “The investment will be in tools and technology and the company is expecting to generate revenues by the third quarter of the current fiscal,” said Mr A.L. Rao, chief operating officer, Wipro Limited.
According to Mr Rao, the company will be headquartered in Europe and will have two offices in India which include Bangalore and Delhi. Wipro will have majority stake and the JV is aimed at taping the large-scale outsourcing in network and communication space. The venture is expected to be operational by the end of this month.
The company is targeting $8-$10 billion outsourced telecom services market worldwide, which is expected to touch $48 billion over the next five years. The JV, WMNetserv, will host a Global Network Operation Centre (GNOC) platform that will integrate seamlessly with Motorola’s existing NOCs in North America and
Europe to provide uninterrupted network monitoring capabilities to customers. Moreover, the company will set up a network operations centre in Delhi and initially employ 50 engineers. WMNetserv will have a Wipro official as the head, while the board of directors will have representation from Wipro’s and Motorola’s senior management.
Essar offers Rs 1,600cr deposit payback
Mumbai, Aug. 2: Corporate giant Essar is understood to have offered to pay back Rs 1,600 crore by this week to its telecom joint venture Hutchison-Essar taken by it as deposit in lieu of the sale of BPL Mobile, a deal that was called off on Tuesday.
Sources in the know of the development said that the offer to refund the money within five days of the termination of the deal was made on Tuesday by Essar immediately after it called off the deal to sell BPL Mobile (Mumbai) cellular operations citing that it did not get necessary approval by due date.
However, Hutch moved the Mumbai High Court, which on Wednesday adjourned the hearing for Thursday.Hutch officials could not be contacted, while Essar officials declined comment saying the matter was sub-judice. Hutch is seeking to restrain Essar from the sale of BPL shares while disputing the termination of the agreement, sources said, adding that Essar is also likely to challenge the HEL as the termination notice service by it was well within its legal rights as per the agreement.
Essar recalled that HEL had earlier entered into a purchase agreement with Aircel which was conditional on receipt of government approvals under the intra circle merger guidelines.That deal was also called off because approvals were not received and subsequently Aircel was sold to Maxis of malaysia at a much higher price, sources said, adding that in this case HEL did not go to court and allowed the agreement to lapse.
Essar expressed concern over Hutch’s decision to move to court in the BPL sale deal. Quoting the terms of agreement, sources said that both the parties had the option of terminating the deal that was signed by the two in September 2005. The agreement provided that the transaction should be completed before June 30, 2006, a deadline which was later extended by a month.
In digital imaging, facial recognition is new frontier
Hyderabad, Aug. 2: Barring photographers, both pro and amateur, few people would have heard of Steven J. Sasson, probably because his work involves developing technology for digital imaging, not shooting pictures. Mr Sasson, 56, invented the digital camera, while working for the Eastman Kodak Company, in 1975. Back then, he says, the digital camera prototype weighed nearly four kilograms, was the size of toaster, and it took 23 seconds to record an image.
“The idea was to develop a camera that could store images in electronic format, not on conventional film, so we had to engineer the entire thing from the ground up, to enable the viewing of the image on the TV screen. The PC had yet to be invented,” Mr Sasson, who now works for the intellectual property division of the Eastman Kodak, said in an interview on Wednesday.
In 31 years, the digital camera has evolved into a gadget that has a megapixel camera, which can fit into the pocket. And the images can be downloaded into a PC, or transmitted between mobile phone handsets using Bluetooth technology. “Apart from the digital camera, Kodak invented the colour-filter array, which is used by digital camera manufacturers around the world, and the company had a major role to play in arriving at the JPEG standard,” says Mr Sasson. Looking to the future, Mr Sasson says that Kodak was working technology that will recognise facial features in a picture, automatically, to bring them into sharper focus.
“We are experimenting with the technology that will kick in once the button on the digital camera is switched on. The lens will automatically focus on the facial characteristics in the frame, no matter that the person being photographed is in a profile, and sharpen the image for a clear facial shot,” he says.
“We are developing the technology because a whole lot of consumers we spoke to say that at times the image they click does not have people’s faces in sharper or crisper focus,” says Peter Labaziewicz, director of Innovation and Advanced Development for Digital Capture at Kodak.
Mr Labaziewicz led a team of Kodak engineers and the company’s partners to invent the dual-lens digital camera. “Consumers wanted a lot more zoom and a 180-degree angle lens in cameras which they could slip into their pockets. This required us to reduce the camera by a factor of five, but conventional technology was giving us only incremental improvements.
It was our Mission: Impossible. We needed to come up with something radical, and the solution was a camera with a dual lens, which had two charge coupled device and two sensors. This which helped in reducing its size,” he says. Kodak launched two products with dual- lens cameras, the V570 and the V610, in India this year.
“The front-end of the digital camera, that is the camera itself, has received a lot of time and money, but in future storage and archiving and retrieval of the images automatically, which will require a lot of research,” says Mr Sasson.
How does one save on capital gains tax?
Tax matters: By Kamal Rathi
My father bought a house for Rs 25,000 in 1968 and registered it on my name and my brother’s. In 1977, he added another floor. The details of constructions and investments undertaken in 1977 are not available. My father expired in 1980 and we sold this house for Rs 22 lakhs in 2005. My brother and myself got Rs 11 lakhs each. This amount has not been invested in any other property. What shall be my liability to capital gain tax? Is there a possibility of saving the capital gain tax?
D.K. Narsimhan, Salem
For computing the capital gains tax liability, it is necessary to now the fair market value (FMV) of the property as on 01-04-1981. You shall be eligible to claim the benefit of cost inflation index on the FMV determined above. The cost inflation index for FY 1981-1982 is 100 and for FY 2005-2006 is Rs 497. Hence, the indexed cost of acquisition shall be worked out as under.
Fair Market Value (FMV) * 497/100.
The amount of sale consideration received in excess of the indexed cost of acquisition shall be taxed as long-term capital gains. The tax liability on long-term capital gains is taxed at 20 per cent. However, the actual tax liability on the above income may vary depending on the other income assessed in your hands.
The long-term capital gains tax liability arising out of the sale of the residential house can be avoided by making the investment of the long term capital gains by purchase of residential house within a period of 2 years.
The long-term capital gains tax liability can also be avoided if it is invested within 6 months in the capital gain bonds specified u/s 54 EC of the Income Tax Act, 1961. The exemption on such bonds made after April 1, 2006 shall be available only if such investments are made in capital gain bonds issued by the National Highways Authority of India and Rural Electrification Corporation.
However, the board has extended the time limit for making investments for the transfer of long-term capital asset between September 29, 2005 and December 31, 2005 up to September 30, 2006. The extended time is available irrespective of the fact that the 6 months period from the date of transfer is over.
For the transferred long-term capital assets between January 1, 2006 and June 30, 2006, the investments in the said bonds can be made before December 31, 2006.
Kamal Rathi represents Rathi & Malani, a Hyderabad-based chartered accountancy firm. The views expressed here are those of the author. They do not reflect the views of this newspaper. Readers can send their personal income-tax queries to Mr Rathi at tax@decca-nmail.com, or write him at Tax Matters, C/o Deccan Chronicle, 36, Sarojini Devi Road, Secunderabad-500003, Andhra Pradesh
Intel’s new flash chip to power low-priced cellphones
IT Today
Even as it is grappling with declining sales of semiconductor chips and competition from a resurgent Advanced Micro Devices, Intel Corporation, purveyor of Moore’s Law and other exotic formulations for the chip industry, appears to have bet on the emerging low-cost cellphone segment. The company has introduced its first NOR flash memory products.
Intel says the new products have a new pin sharing package to minimise pin count and are configured to work with low-cost, single-chip baseband and RF solutions from chipset suppliers. Major handset vendors are expected to start introducing low-cost cellphones based on Intel flash products this quarter. Intel is introducing these products in response to increasing market demand for low-cost phones.
The cellphone industry’s GSM Association estimates that only 20 per cent of the world’s population use cell phones, largely because of cellphone costs. “We’re expanding Intel’s proven leadership in NOR flash memory for handsets to the emerging low-cost handset market segment,” says Darin Billerbeck, vice-president and general manager of Intel’s Flash Products Group.
“We view the low-cost handset market segment as an ongoing growth opportunity and we have a migration path in place to transition our products from 130nm and 90nm process technology to 65nm process technology in 2007,” Mr Billerbeck added. According to Intel, its NOR flash memory products have lower density from 32Mb to 256Mb with optional RAM in a multi-chip package.
Windows Live Spaces
Meanwhile, in cyberworld, Microsoft, fighting in a rearguard action against the likes of Yahoo! and Google, has begun rolling out Windows Live Spaces, the self-styled next generation of its blogging service, MSN Spaces. The new service includes social networking features designed to help users discover and connect with friends through their trusted contacts and allows customers to personalise their Windows Live Spa-ces with gadgets.
“Windows Live Spaces, the next generation of MSN Spaces, is the most widely used blogging service in the world today. There are over six million photos uploaded everyday and 120 million unique visitors each month. Indian users will now be in control through Windows Live Spaces which offers complete choice and customisation for their online experience,” says Jaspreet Bindra, country manager, Windows Live & MSN India said. Mr Bindra says Windows Live Spaces will allow “consumers to tell their story and customise their site with blogs, photo albums, music lists and more.”
ATF prices take toll on SpiceJet
Posts net loss of Rs 13cr
Hyderabad, Aug. 2: Saddled with rising aviation turbine fuel (ATF) costs and intense competition among airlines, low-cost carrier SpiceJet Ltd on Wednesday reported a net loss of Rs 13 crores in the fourth quarter ended May 2006.
The total income during the period stood at Rs 151 crores. For the full year ended May, the net loss for SpiceJet was Rs 41 crores, while the operating income during the year stood at Rs 421 crores. Spice Jet’s results come four days after market leader Jet Airways Ltd suffered a net loss of Rs 45 crores during the first quarter of the current financial year. However, SpiceJet officials remain upbeat about the potential of the Indian aviation industry and growth plans.
Announcing the results in New Delhi, SpiceJet chairman Sidhant Sharma said, “SpiceJet’s average load factor is the highest in the industry, coupled with better yield management and strict cost controlling have resulted in better than the industry financial performance.”
Mr Sharma said the company hopes to breakeven in current financial year, or maybe log in marginal profits with strict cost controls and operational efficiencies. Revenues for the year stood at Rs 453.15 crores while SpiceJet carried over 1.6 million passengers during the year with an average load factor of 86 per cent.
As per the latest data, SpiceJet has garnered a market share of 7.8 per cent with a fleet of six aircraft, the company stated in a press statement. With 12 airlines aiming for a slice of the aviation market and IndiGo scheduled to take off on August 4, yields remain under pressure for the industry and staff costs spiralling market players are hit harder with numerous discount ticket offers.
What came as another jolt for the industry was the hike in ATF prices announced on Tuesday which may again trigger another round of hike in air fares. ATF prices have risen 31 per cent in the last 12 months to hit an all-time high of Rs 47,691 a kilolitre on Tuesday.
Shining’s new firm to focus on SMEs
Hyderabad, Aug. 2: Shining Emotional Surplus, a consulting firm involved in “corporate transformation”, will be setting up a new company to focus exclusively on the small and medium enterprise sector, Mr Shombit Sengupta, the firm’s founder and creative strategist, said. Scale-up, the company Shining, which has worked with brands like Britannia and Berger Paints, is setting up will be working with SMEs with revenues of below Rs 50 crores.
“Scale-up will be working with SMEs who have issues of transforming their organisations into sustainable and profitable enterprises. Many SMEs have little or no idea on how to grow to the next level,” Mr Sengupta, dressed in a green shirt, green pants, a rainbow-colour tie and bright socks, told reporters here.
According to Mr Sengupta, Indian companies had yet to get a true measure of globalisation, and would take a long time to build a global brand. “We take a spiritual view of brands and businesses, and a lot of Indian companies are complacent about the competition, when what is required is a professional approach to brand building,” he said. Asked whether Indian companies had arrived on the global scene, he said.
Sensex zooms 124 pts in late surge
Mumbai, Aug. 2: The Sensex surged by nearly 140 points in pre-close trading on Wednesday following massive buying by foreign funds and retail investors. Also stead buying across sectors saw the index break out of a narrow range and rally to 10,891 — up 161 points from the day’s low. The Sensex finally settled with a smart gain of 124 points at 10,876. Similarly, the Nifty was up by 34 points at 3,182.10.
The BSE mid-cap and the small-cap indices were up 1.3 per cent each to 4,338 and 5,178, respectively. The market breadth was fairly positive as out of 2,499 stocks traded, 1,532 advanced, 879 declined and 88 were unchanged on Wednesday. Stocks of auto and cement companies were major gainers on sizeable purchases by funds, contributing significantly to the rise in the benchmark index.
Bajaj Auto, a index-related stock shot up by Rs 77.10 and Tata Motors gained Rs 22.45. Other gainers were Bhel, Dr Reddy’s Lab, Larsen and Toubro, State Bank of India, ACC, Tata Steel, Reliance Industries, ONGC, Infosys Technologies and Reliance Energy.
