Andhranews

New Delhi, Sept. 5: Reliance on Tuesday launched the commercial operations of the Falcon submarine cable system, aimed at providing cheaper bandwidth to retail and commercial users. Falcon started commercial operations on Tuesday with the inaugural call between minister of communication and information technology Dayanidhi Maran and the communication minister of Egypt, Dr Tarek Kamel.

Built at the cost of around $400 million, the 2.56 terabit Falcon submarine cable system would connect 11 countries on its entire length of 11, 859-km route from Mumbai to Egypt. Falcon would connect India with countries in West Asia and Africa — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, UAE, Yemen, Egypt and Dubai. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Maran said that Falcon heralds a new era in the telecom landscape of the country by providing a reliable and cost-effective source of international bandwidth.

“I am confident that availability of high-quality international connectivity would catalyse the broadband revolution for the masses and at the same time boost the vistas of the burgeoning ITeS and BPO enterprises,” said Mr Maran. Mr Anil Ambani said that in a world torn by violent disagreement and conflict, Falcon will bring the calming influence of communication and dialogue. “Falcon will have an equally powerful impact on the economic front, driving higher levels of trade, commerce and global integration,” added Mr Ambani.

This new cable will be a part of Reliance Communications’ Flag Telecom Global Network, which already has cables running through 35 countries spanning four continents. Reliance had bought Flag Telecom for over $210 million a couple of years ago. Flag has various cable systems connecting Atlantic, Europe and Africa, North America and now Falcon for West Asia. Mr Maran also announced that MTNL and BSNL have also joined hands to lay a submarine cable system to connect India to southeast Asia and West Asia, to provide international bandwidth for their own as well as other commercial requirements. Mr Maran asked the ambassadors of West Asian countries, present on the occasion, to bring down the landing costs of submarine cables which will eventually lead to bringing down of bandwidth prices.

The manner in which the finance ministry is clinging to the participatory notes or PNs is very much like Linus clinging to his security blanket in the popular cartoon strip Peanuts. It’s a pity and a reflection of the quality of the Indian stock market that the finance ministry thinks that there would be a drastic fall in inflow of funds if the PNs facility is withdrawn. It is a fact that the bulk of the inflow through the foreign institutional investors comes through PNs. The reason given for investors opting to come via PNotes is that it’s faster and quicker and in the case of hedge funds, it is the only way they can invest in India.

Registering a must

Faster, quicker is hardly a reason for non-transparency. Why can’t the PNs wallas be made to register one time with Sebi and the rest of the time they can be permitted to rush in and out of the market in the way they want. But their identity should be known. The identity is everything, that is why the finance ministry, Sebi and the RBI insist on the Know-Your-Client system as being imperative. There has been an instance when the FII would not reveal the name of the client and so the argument that Sebi can always get the name does not sound reassuring.

Quality of the market

It is the quality of the market that the Reserve Bank of India has repeatedly been cautioning about. As we have asked in these columns before, why this discrimination between the Indian investors, depositors and the PNs wallas? Is it that the Indian investor and depositor is far more dangerous than those millions of dollars coming in. Every book on Mumbai’s underworld talks of how the underworld invests in India.

How can one be sure that underworld money is not coming into the stock market through PNs? The underworld network is the same network used by the terrorists to smuggle in RDX and weapons. This is a very well-known fact and is also mentioned in the book Maximum City by Suketu Mehta. The underworld and terrorists have the most savvy lawyers and investment bankers at their command as they have the money. PNs are ideal cover for recycling their ill-gotten gains.

Politicians and bureaucrats?

There is a strong perception and allegations that the people behind the PNs are largely Indian bureaucrats and politicians. And when there is such a tsunami-like effort to save the PNs, one wonders if there is some truth in this. If this is so, then what is the difference between money laundering and people making their black money white through the PNs launderette?

Consumer friendly Misra

Consumer groups are really happy with the new Trai chairman Nirpendra Misra, who for the first time, has treated them as individuals who have equal rights as the service providers. The recent order on tariff is a case in point. The Bombay Telephone Users Association chief Achintya Mukherjee and his group were pleasantly surprised when the new order gave the customers the right to choose and pay only for the channels of their choice. Earlier consumers had to take the “bouquets” that were offered at the rate of Rs 67 for 11 channels or Rs 65 for eight channels which averaged out to Rs 8 per channel.

Now, Misra has laid down a tariff of a maximum of Rs 5 per channel. If the channels want the customers to take more channels, they will now have to compete and prices could come down further. Our demand had been for a la carte and it has happened says Mukherjee. Also for the first time Misra had a meeting with the consumer bodies on a one-to-one basis. Earlier, they were lumped with the 40 or so service providers, who always managed t get decisions their way.

New Delhi, Sept. 5: India’s largest passenger car maker Maruti Udyog Limited (MUL) on Tuesday said that it wants to achieve sales of one million cars by 2010. MUL’s ambition was voiced during its 25th annual general meeting. MUL also said that it will invest Rs 6,000 crores for its new car plant, diesel engine and transmission facility, upgradation of the existing plant and for launching new models.

The company said that its new car plant in Manesar will start operations in the next few weeks. “Your company is aiming at sales of one million cars per year in 2010. Investment in new facilities and in research and development are both part of the strategy to achieve the ambitious sales goal,” Maruti chairman S. Nakanishi told shareholders.

He said that the state-of-the-art facility, located at Manesar in Haryana, will begin with an initial capacity of 100,000 units per year. This will be over and above the capability of over 600,000 units a year in the existing facility in Gurgaon, Haryana.
“The new car plant at Manesar, together with Suzuki Motor Corporation’s new plant in Sagara, Japan, has been designed to meet the Suzuki group’s global aspirations in the future,” said Mr Nakanishi. He said that it will introduce five new cars in the domestic market is a few years.

“This will be over and above face-lifts of any existing models and launch of new variants,” Mr Nakanishi said, adding that the company will also expand its network of sales outlets and service workshops. He also said that it wanted to remain debt-free as it planned to fund the expansion plans through internal accruals. On the company’s diesel engine plant, it said production would begin this fiscal. Maruti said that the diesel engine plant will manufacture 1.3-litre diesel engines for cars. It will start with an initial capacity of 1,00,000 diesel engines per year. Mr Nakanishi also said that the company will launch a new export model during 2008-09.

New Delhi, Sept. 5: The Rs 750-crore appliance division of the Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing Company Limited (GBMCL) is setting up a new plant for frost-free refrigerators at Shirwal near Pune, where it already has two plants. An investment to the tune of Rs 80-100 crores is expected. Godrej said that the new facility will be operational by late next year. “We would invest Rs 80-100 crores to set up a new frost-free refrigerator manufacturing facility which would double our existing capacity for the product,” Godrej & Boyce chief operating officer George Menezes said here on Tuesday at the launchof the EON range of frost-free refrigerators.

The present capacity of the plant at Shirwal is that of 3.5 lakh frost-free refrigerators per annum. With the new capacity in frost-free refrigerators, the annual capacity in this segment of refrigerators for the company will touch seven lakh units per annum, said Mr Menezes.

“The frost-free market is expected to almost double by 2009 and would occupy a dominant position in the refrigerator market. This upswing has motivated us to set up the new unit which would help us cater to the increased demand for such a product,” Mr Menezes said. The company also has a production facility at Mohali in Punjab, which makes refrigerators (this one is for direct-cool refrigerators). Apart from the existing frost-free refrigerator facility in Shirwal, the other existing plant in Shirwal is that of washing machines.

Mumbai, Sept. 5: Tata AIG Life Insurance Company Limited (Tata AIG Life) and Tata AIG General Insurance Company Limited (Tata AIG Life) on Tuesday announced their strategic partnership with the Sangli Bank Limited (Sangli Bank), the oldest private sector bank in western Maharashtra. The bank will make the wide range of Tata AIG (life and general) insurance products and services
available to its customers through its network of 189 branches across the country.

“We are extremely pleased to embark on this bancassurance tieup with Sangli Bank. The partnership will not only help us leverage the inherent synergies in the rural areas but also bolster our commitment to serving the rural community. Together with the Sangli Bank, we are well positioned to provide for the growing rural market for life insurance,” said Mr Trevor Bull, managing director, Tata AIG Life Insurance Company Limited.

According to the company, the relationship will enable both insurance companies to leverage the strong India network of the Sangli Bank and boost the distribution reach of their products in the semi-urban and rural parts of the country. “To maintain top service standards, the bank has trained 75 people in this new area for marketing the various products of Tata AIG. The products offered for sale will suit the requirements of our customers and we are confident about the grand success of this partnership,” said Mr S.R. Godbole, general manager, Sangli Bank.

New Delhi, Sept. 5: The Union government has overruled objections on the appointment of a Greek national as the chief operating officer (COO) of the Delhi airport on the grounds that clearance from the intelligence bureau (IB) was obtained prior to the appointment. The appointment of Mr Ionnis Papastiefanou as the COO was made earlier by the Delhi International Airport Private Ltd (DIAPL), the private-led joint venture company managing and operating Delhi airport.

The government’s stand is that the security clearance of Mr Papastiefanou, regarding the airport entry pass (AEP) and photo identity card (PIC), was taken from the IB by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), the body responsible for aviation security. Besides this, all members of the private GMR Group consortium, who are members of the joint venture company, have also received security clearances, according to the government.

The government’s view is also that the DIAPL is anyway headed by an Indian national, Sriniwas Bommidala, and that Mr Papastiefanou is a subordinate of Mr Bommidala and, therefore, working under his control. During the recent Monsoon session of Parliament, the CPI(M) had objected to a foreign national being appointed as COO of Delhi airport. CPI(M) MP Tapan Kumar Sen, who raised the issue in the Rajya Sabha, had contended that appointment of a foreign national from a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) member-state as chief operating officer (COO) of Delhi airport has national security implications that cannot be ignored.

Mr Sen had contended that the appointment would pose a security threat as the COO will have “undeniable access to sensitive information” about movement of VVIPs and foreign dignitaries. But obviously, the government does not share this viewpoint. The GMR Group is also hesitant to get involved in the controversy in the wake of the green signal from the government.

Seoul, Sept. 5: At 10.43 pm on one recent Saturday, in a smoky basement gaming parlour under a bank in this sprawling city’s expensive Daechi neighbourhood, Yoon Chang Joon, a 25-year-old orc hunter known online as Prodigy, led his troops into battle. “Move, move!” he barked into a microphone around his neck as a strike team of some 40 people seated at computer terminals tapped at keyboards and stormed the refuge of the evil plague lord Heigan, fingers flying.

As Mr Yoon’s orders echoed from speakers around the room, Heigan reeled under an onslaught of spells and swords. In six minutes he lay dead. The online gaming guild called the Chosen had taken another step in World of Warcraft, the online fantasy game whose virtual, three-dimensional environment has become a global entertainment phenomenon among the cybersavvy and one of the most successful video games ever made.

Less than two years after its introduction, World of Warcraft, made by Blizzard Entertainment, based in Irvine, California, is on pace to generate more than $1 billion in revenue this year with almost seven million paying subscribers, who can log into the game and interact with other players. That makes it one of the most lucrative entertainment media properties of any kind. Almost every other subscription online game, including EverQuest II and Star Wars: Galaxies, measures its customers in hundreds of thousands or even just tens of thousands.
And while games stamped “Made in the USA. have often struggled abroad, especially in Asia, World of Warcraft has become the first truly global video-game hit since Pac-Man in the early 1980’s.

The game has more players in China, where it has engaged in co-promotions with major brands like Coca-Cola, than in the United States. (There are more than three million players in China, and slightly fewer than two million in the United States. And as with most video games, a clear majority of players worldwide are male.)
There is a rabid legion of fans here in South Korea, which has the world’s most fervent gaming culture, and more than a million people play in Europe. Most World of Warcraft players pay around $14 a month for access.

“World of Warcraft is an incredibly polished entertainment experience that appeals to more sorts of different players than any game I’ve seen,” said Rich Wickham, who heads Microsoft’s Windows games unit. “It’s fun for both casual players and for the hard-core players for whom the game is more just than a game: it’s a lifestyle. Just as important, Blizzard has made a game that has a broader global appeal than what we’ve seen before.”

Perhaps more than pop music or Hollywood blockbusters, even the top video games traditionally have been limited in their appeal to the specific regional culture that produced them. For example the well-known series Grand Theft Auto, with its scenes of glamorised urban American violence, has been tremendously popular in the United States but has largely failed to resonate in Asia and in many parts of
Europe. Meanwhile many Japanese games, with their distinctively cutesy anime visual style, often fall flat in North America.

One of the main reasons Western software companies of all kinds have had difficulty in Asia is that piracy is still rampant across the region. Games like World of Warcraft circumvent that problem by giving the software away free and then charging for the game service, either hourly or monthly. Since the game’s introduction in November 2004 the company has expanded to more than 1,800 employees from around 400. Almost all of the additions have been customer-service representatives to handle World of Warcraft players, helping them with both technical advice and billing concerns.