Revenue sharing row keeps IPL matches off big screen

The chances of enjoying IPL matches on 75 mm screen is almost ruled out after Multi Screen Media Pvt Ltd (the new name of Sony Entertainment) and the major multiplex players couldn't settle the revenue sharing arrangement. The talks fell flat when Sony refused to grant telecast rights to multiplexes for anything less than 60% of the revenue earned through screening of IPL matches, according to industry sources.

In earlier stages, Sony had insisted on charging the multiplexes around 65 to 70% of the revenue, which the industry players found difficult to concede. Additionally, the multiplex owners would have had to pay a tax on a full house for showing the event. "Such is the tax structure, that in case of category of special event sunder which the IPL format falls, we have to pay taxes for a full house even if only five people turn up. After sharing 60% of revenue with Sony and paying a tax to government for full occupancy, what would we be left with?" said a source.

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Indian Oil Corporation to start rationing fuel supplies

Crore a day on the sale of petrol, diesel, LPG and kerosene and has posted a net loss of Rs 414.3 crore in the fourth quarter of fiscal2007-08, against a profit of Rs 1,609.67 crore in same period the previous year.

Despite recording a new high of Rs 2.5 lakh crore in sales in FYO8,up 2.1% from FYO7's Rs 2.21 lakh crore, IOC's PAT fell by 7.1% to Rs 6,963 crore in 2007-08. Crude prices are ruling at over $130 a barrel in the international market, and the company loses Rs 16.34 a litre on sales of petrol, Rs 23.49 on diesel, Rs 28.72 on kerosene and Rs 305.90 a cylinder on LPG. It's alarming now. There are reports of oil shortage coming in from some parts of the country And what's worse is it's only the tip of the iceberg. With soaring international crude prices, bleeding oil marketing companies (OMC) Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) have sent out a missive to petrol pumps across the country that they will not import until and unless there is an emergency. Besides, these companies have decided to close down with immediate effect loyalty and discount programmes offered to consumers. On top of it, the present crisis has forced supplies from OMCs.

In some cases, petrol dealers have started providing petrol and diesel in a limited quantity to vehicle owners against their requirement while some of them have been providing auto fuel after certain intervals. In Navi Mumbai, dealers have facing fuel scarcity and thus have been forced to sell it in a limited quantity to vehicle owners. Similarly, serpentine queues were seen in Nashik which is fast growing industrial city.

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Deadlock may delay Central Sales Tax phase out

In a fresh set back to the phase-out of the central sales tax (CST),the Centre and states have once again been unable to work out an adequate and agreeable compensation package for the planned 1% cut in the tax. The reduction in the CST rate was originally slated to be notified from April 1, 2008, as had been announced in this year's Budget and would have brought it down from 3% to 2%.

The stalemate has come up despite the empowered committee in its meeting earlier this month re-iterating its promise to reduce the rate of CST from 3% to 2%. Sources close to the development said the phase out process of the tax may now in fact get temporarily postponed, if a compromise is not worked out soon enough.

"While this would not be an ideal situation,and we hope that things get back on track, we can not completely rule out a delay in the phase out of CST,"an official source said.

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Kolkata airport modernisation plan gets on track

Days after the exchange of words between the Planning Commission and the civil aviation ministry, the process of Kolkata airport modernisation is all set to start with the Public Investment Board meeting here later this week to give its nod to the Rs 2,000 crore project.

The work on Chennai airport is still to be cleared at the pre-PIB level to iron out differences in approach, if any, which concerned ministries may have on the project.

The Airports Authority of India (AAI), which would under take modernisation work at both airports, has already approved consultants for the Kolkata project, which include Aeroport de Paris Internationale and RMJM of Hong Kong. Civil aviation minister Praful Patel had recently blamed the Planning Commission for delaying the projects at the two major metros.

This was followed by stinging criticism of the plan body by the parliamentary standing committee with its chairman Sitaram Yechury shooting off a letter to the Prime Minister alleging that "certain arms" of your government were "deliberately delaying the process in order t o privatise the modernisation of airports through the back door."

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Bhel, Alstom Power get nod for NTPC bid

A no loss proposition has finally been approved by the government for the state-owned equipment manufacturer Bhel Ltd. The government has cleared a proposal where in Bhel and its partner Alstom Power will participate in the bulk tendering by NTPC Ltd for as many as seven units of 660 mw super critical sets and another six units of 800 mw sets by submitting a competitive bid.

That does not say it all. The catch is that if Bhel is the lowest bidder it will orders for all units and even if Bhel is not the lowest, it will still get assured orders for three units of 660 mw sets and two for 800 mw units by matching the lowest bid.

According to a recent memorandum issued by the power ministry, "NTPC may go in for bulk tendering of seven units 660 mw each with the clear understanding that the lowest bidder will get order for four units and Bhel will also participate and give a competitive bid.

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Oil firms push f or price hike

A hike of Rs 2 a litre each on petrol and diesel at the pumps appears imminent. Petroleum minister Murli Deora said he would be meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday to discuss raising retail prices, among other measures, to bail out oil marketing companies (OMCs), reeling under a severe liquidity crunch on account of the high crude oil prices.

With global crude touching $137 a barrel, the Indian oil basket has crossed the $125-a barrel price and the government is under enormous pressure from state owned OMCs to increase consumer prices of petrol and diesel.

Against a price hike of Rs 5 a litre each in the price of petrol and diesel proposed by the OMCs-Indian Oil, HPCL and BPCL-to tide over the current crisis following the unprecedented increase in the price of global crude, sources said the government may accede only to a hike of Rs 2-3 a litre.

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Indian cos eye Hollywood pie

The world's the stage for major Indian media firms, with some of them set to make a global mark by joining the Hollywood band wagon.

Recently, at the Cannes film festival, Anil Ambani-led Reliance ADAG inked a deal with eight Hollywood production houses, and the projects will feature actors including Nicholas Cage, Tom Hanks, Jim Carrey and others.With this,Reliance BIG Entertainment now steps into every department of film trade - production, distribution, exhibition, and post production. Billionaire investor George Soros recently paid $100 million for a minority stake in Reliance Entertainment, which the company said valued it at $ 3 billion.

Entertainment industry analysts say this trend is going to gain momentum in the coming days. Says Farokh Balsara, head - media and entertainment,Ernst&Young,"Indian companies are making waves in Hollywood and many more companies will join in. for Reliance ADAG, it makes sense to do this as they are already into broadband, DTH and radio. However,the whole project will take three to four years to be completed."

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Airlines look to new revenue streams as fuel prices soar

In a bid to combat shrinking profits owing to rising fuel prices, airlines in India have started looking at newer revenue generating streams, as well as beefing up their business through new promotional activities. Air India is studying the cargo market in various countries to generate over 10% of its revenues from this new line of business. Go Air, too, is planning to enhance its cargo capacity.

Meanwhile, private carrier Jet has introduced special holiday packages for its passengers, while Kingfisher is in the process of designing a similar strategy. Cargo operations of Air India, at present, contribute 6% to the airline's revenues. The company is now studying the South East Asian market to ascertain the potential of cargo operations to that region, which normally has a high cargo offtake from India, especially in perishable goods. Says an aviation analyst with a Mumbai based broking firm, "Airlines looking at alternative revenue streams assumes significance since it comes at a time when jet fuel prices are getting steeper each day."

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Food Corporation of India faces cash-flow crunch with Rs 20k-crore outstanding

At a time when state owned food grain procurement agency Food Corporation of India (FCI) needs financial muscle to carry out its record buying of wheat, rice and other commodities, it faces a significant cash-flow crunch. The reason: the ministries of rural development and human resources development haven't sett1ed FCI bills of more than Rs 20,000 crore, some of which have been outstanding for up to five years.

The delay in the settlement of these bills is putting pressure on FCI's cash credit limit. The agency operates through a cash credit limit of Rs 35,000 crore, provided by a consortium of 44 banks headed by State Bank of India.

"Out of Rs 35,000 crore, more than half is blocked due to debts owed to us by the two ministries," Alok Sinha, FCI chairman & man- aging director, told FE. "The supporting banks charge penal interest above Rs 35,000 crore and if FCI overdraws, then the interest outgo shoots up. As our debts go up, our expenditure goes up, " he added.

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High Court clears cheaper gas for Dabhol project

The power-starved Maharshtra has received a respite as the Gujarat High Court has upheld the government's notification to provide re-gassified liquefied natural gas (RLNG) to the Ratnagiri power project at the pooled cost.

With this order, the RLNG would be available to the Ratnagiri Gas & Power Pvt Ltd (RGPPL) at $4.3272 per million British thermal unit (mBtu) instead of the current market price of $16 to 19 mBtu. Moreover, due to the HC order, RGPPL would be able to sell power at Rs 3 to the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company (MahaVitaran) as per their power purchase agreement. Had the court rejected the notification, the per unit tariff would have increased to Rs 7 per unit.

The HC gave 2:1 order wherein two of the three member division bench upheld the notification. The petition was filed way back in July last year by the Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) wherein the HC had given an exparte stay to the GoI's notification.

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The 2010 games is big business

Sports events have become big business in recent years. Mega events such as the Olympics and the Commonwealth Games generate huge opportunities in terms of requirements for infrastructure, services, manufacturing, human skill development and related areas. For small and medium companies, the chance to leverage these business opportunities is away to scale up and expand their horizons.

Sports are no longer limited to the people who take part in them. It is estimated that the sports industry in the US for example runs in excess of $200 billion annually, more than the auto or film industries. The London Olympics 2012 are expected to hand out 7,000 contracts, creating business down the supply chain for 75,000 enterprises. The Delhi Common wealth Games (DCG) will require spending several thousand crores on sports infrastructure as well as upgradation of city facilities. Besides,tourism and hospitality industries get a big boost through these events.

SMEs have a special role to play as they are adaptable, flexible, and can fill in niche gaps in supply of goods and services. For example, the FIFA World Cup boosted orders for footballs in Jalandhar, raising the wages of 40,000 workers, mostly women, employed in small enterprises. Australia,which has recently hosted large events including the Sydney Olympics, has set up a special business club for participation of Australian companies in the Beijing Olympics. The London Olympics organisers are also actively courting businesses, especially SMEs, to participate in tenders.

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Cultural and technical integration remains a challenge for Hewlett-Packard: experts

As global IT player Hewlett-Packard(HP) takes over Electronic Data Systems (EDS) for $13.9 billion, experts in the industry are clearly concerned over the synergy of the two giants. EDS and HP have largely different cultures, EDS largely looks into products maturity, replicable transformation solutions, and scalable delivery methods. While on the other hand, HP's core still resides in the legend of 'the garage' in Palo Alto, where its founders turned engineering acumen into a global business.

Pradeep Udhas, head - markets, KPMG, says, "It's a huge acquisition and the integration of the companies will be a big challenge,as both of them have quite a different culture."Interestingly, industry observers feel that if HP overcomes the cultural challenges, it will give significant scale to HP services and the company will become much more competitive against IBM. The combined entity will have services in hardware, software, services, BPO, and R&D. EDS has a presence in about 70 countries and has one of the most robust service delivery engines in the business. Udhas adds,"Globally,EDS has a huge number of government clients, especially in the US. HP will now be able to leverage on these existing clients."

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Rs 35,000 crore bonds to bail out oil cos

The finance ministry will issue around Rs 35,000 crore worth of oil bonds to partially cover the total under-recoveries of the oil marketing companies on domestic sales of petroleum products (petrol, diesel, LPG and kerosene) during 2007-08. The compensationworksouttobe50%,as against petroleum ministry's demand of 57.1%, of the total under-recoveries of the oil marketing firms for 2007-08, pegged at Rs 77, 303 crore. As of now, oil bonds of the face value of Rs.20,333 crore, covering the period April-December 2007, have been issued to the oil companies.

The decision was taken at a meeting between finance minister P Chidambaram and his petroleum ministry counterpart Murli Deora on Tuesday. "We have asked 57.1% oil bonds. And they (the Finance Ministry) are not ready for it. So we have requested him (Chidambaram) to issue as much as possible," Deora told reporters after meeting the Finance Minister.

It may be recalled that the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) had considered the matter in its meeting held on February 14, 2008. While approving the group of minister's decision for a marginal price increase in respect of petrol and diesel, the ministers of finance and petroleum were authorized to decide in consultation with each other on the portion of the under-recoveries for 2007-08 to be covered by oil bonds.

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UAE's Etisalat to join bid for MTN

Emirates Telecommunications Corp of UAE (Etisalat) on Monday became the second international bidder after Bharti Airtel to join the race to pick up a stake in South Africa's MTN. Etisalat, which has operations in Pakistan among 16 countries, confirmed its intent to news persons at a telecom conference in Cairo.

Meanwhile, according to industry sources, Bharti Airtel, if successful in acquiring MTN, is looking at merging the two companies instead of keeping them as two independent entities.

"We are always looking for expansion in Africa," Etisalat chairman Mohammed Omran was quoted as stating by international wire agencies. "We are evaluating MTN, among other companies. I see that within three-to-four years revenue from Africa will not be less than 25%," Omran said.

This is the first time after Bharti that any global telecom player has stated on record its interest in acquiring MTN, which has 68 million subscribers from operations spanning 21 countries of South Africa and Middle East.

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Vodafone may enter MTN race

The bidding war for South African telecom major MTN may have just started, with the largest telecom company by revenues, Vodafone, too eyeing MTN. According to foreign media reports, the company is examining a £20 billion ($39.02 billion) bid for MTN.

However, a Vodafone spokesperson told a foreign news agency in London that, “we have no intention of pursuing a bid for MTN.” Vodafone is the second largest mobile operator with about 250 million subscribers worldwide and acquisition of MTN would add the latter’s 68 million users to its fold, taking it closer to China Mobile, which is the world’s largest mobile company by subscriber base close to 400 million.

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Personal Computer to Phone Calls in Offing

Removing the last barriers in seamless connectivity, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) will soon allow connectivity between PC and fixed and mobile phones. This would mean that telephone calls could be made from a personal computer to a fixed phone or a mobile phone. These are currently not allowed.

The move would bring about a steep fall in STD rates and redefine the national long distance(NLD)regime.

Sources said Trai would release a consultation paper on the issue on May 12. Currently,voice over Internet protocol(Internet telephony) is permitted by licensed Internet service providers (ISPs), but such calls can only be made from PC-to-PC. For terminating such calls to phones, a special device has to be attached.

There's a big market for PC-to-phone calls, as can be gauged by the traffic in the international long distance sector, where it's allowed, the usage is about 300 million minutes in a quarter.

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India game for some serious business

How about helping Bappi Lahiriin recovering gold jewellery, or playing Bipasha in challenging the worlds' best to an adrenaline pumping jet-ski ride across exotic circuits? Or, may be, accompanying Hanuman in his mission to rid the world of evil forces? Well, these are some of the popular ideas grabbing the attention of mobile gaming enthusiasts.

And it is not just mobiles that are attracting gamers. Slowly but surely Indians are begin wooed by exciting gaming options across platforms-be it online, consoles or just plain old PCs. Mobile devices, to being with, have a huge reach and opportunity in India. With 261 million cellular subscribers, and growing rapidly, the gaming industry has barely scratched the surface of this vast opportunity.Analysts say that the market share of mobile gaming could reach 68% by 2009. As for the gaming themes, cricket and Bollywood sell best in India. It is true of mobile gaming as well. A game on Indo-Pak series by Jump Games saw 2.5 million downloads.To keep up the sensation, Jump Games and Zapak.com have tied up with cricketer Ishant Sharma to create online and mobile games on him.

Besides, new trends are emerging advergaming, for example. These are games on the mobile platform that revolve around brands. Experts say this would become a popular advertising medium, primarily because the cost for developing an advergame is pretty low, ranging from Rs 3-6 lakh. "Thums Up Everest Challenge, an advergame on Reliance network, saw more than 350,000 downloads a week," says Salil Bhargava, CEO, Jump Games.

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Oil price heat burns private retailers

The unprecedented increase in crude oil prices, by almost 75% in the last one year, has virtually wiped out the private sector's presence in domestic fuel retailing. Global crude prices rose to $120 a barrel on Monday. This has pushed up the cost of India's import basket to an all time high of $112.56 a barrel, compared to last fiscal's lowest price of $62.91 on May9,2007.

Private sector majors in the fuel retailing space-Reliance Industries Ltd and Shell-have, therefore, begun shutting down most of their petrol pumps across the country. Fuel sales at these outlets have dropped to almost nothing given the huge difference between their prices and those of government subsidised fuel sold at pumps belonging to public sector oil marketing companies IOC, BPC and HPCL.

These three public sector retailers currently sell petrol at a loss of Rs 13.97 a litre and diesel at a discount of Rs 20.97 a litre. However, part of this revenue loss is made up by the government through oil bonds and subsidy share from upstream firms like ONGC and GAIL.

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United States food grain intake growth exceeds India's

Destroying the claims of President George Bush, UN body FAO's data show food grain consumption by Americans has grown at a much faster rate during 2007-08 than just about 2% by Indians and the Chinese.

Growth in the cereal consumption in the US was the highest in the world in 2007-08, according to the Global Food Market Report of the Food and Agricultural Organisation. The food grain consumption in the US is estimated to have increased to 310.4 million tonne in 2007-08 from 277.6 million tonne in the previous year, showing 11.81 % jump.

In contrast, the consumption in India is estimated to have grown by mere 2.17% to 197.3 mt from 193.1 mt. In China the growth was 1.8% to 389.1 mt from the previous 382.2 mt. The growth in food grain consumption is quite low in China and India, compared to the scorching pace at which their economies have been expanding.

The Chinese economy has consistently been growing at 1011% while India has average over 8.5% GDP growth for the last four years.

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Microsoft withdraws offer for Yahoo

Microsoft Corp walked away from its bid to buy Yahoo Inc on Saturday after the Internet company turned down its offer to raise the price by $5 billion to $47.5 billion.

Microsoft's offer was for $33 a share but Yahoo would not lower its demand below $37, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said. The software company initially bid $31 per share for Yahoo more than three months ago.

"We believe the economics demanded by Yahoo do not make sense for us, and it is in the best interests of Microsoft stockholders, employees and other stakeholders to withdraw our proposal," Ballmer said in a statement. Analysts say Yahoo has overplayed its hand and they expect the Web pioneer's shares to fall a smuch as 30% to $20 levels when Nasdaq trading resumes on Monday. The stock rose nearly 7% to $28.67 on Friday on hopes of an agreement between Microsoft and Yahoo.

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Reliance Power buys 3 coal mines in Indonesia

Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group firm Reliance Power on Friday announced the acquisition of three coal mines in Indonesia through its subsidiary Reliance Coal Resources Pvt Ltd (RCRPL). The Reliance Power arm plans to invest Rs 2,400 crore in mine and related transportation infrastructure to take the capacity of these mines to over 25 million metric tonne per annum. The mines have total reserves worth two billion metric tonne.

A Reliance Power release said, "Reliance Power's wholly-owned subsidiary RCRPL has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire 100% economic interest in three coal concessions in Indonesia."The mines are Srivijaya Bintangtiga Energy, Bryayan Bintangtiga Energy and Sugico Pendragon Energy in the South Sumatra area of Indonesia spread over an area of 40,000 hectares.

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Multi Commodity Exchange of India to launch jet fuel futures as prices soar

There's good news for both domestic airlines beleaguered by burgeoning jet-fuel bills as well as passengers forced to paya disproportionately higher fuel surcharge on their air tickets.In a move that would offer carriers away to hedge more effectively against spiralling prices, the Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) will launch aviation turbine fuel (ATF) futures in the country soon.

Permission by commodity market regulator Forward Markets Commission to operate such a platform will allow carriers to hedge their fuel-price risk on a domestic commodity exchanger at her than an overseas one, as they do at present. MCX has said it would launch futures trading once it finalises a contract for jet-fuel. The green signal came on the same day that ATF prices rose again on Thursday.

Spice Jet hedges 10% of its jet-fuel consumption on the Sing Kero exchange in Singapore. But airlines are currently allowed to hedge only a part of their fuel needs on overseas exchanges. Domestic jet-fuel futures trading will allow airlines like Spice Jet and others to significantly increase the amount of ATF that they hedge.

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