Reliance Industries net profit dips 11.5 percent

The net profit of oil-to-petrochemicals major Reliance Industries dropped 11.5 percent to Rs.3,636 crore ($759 million) for the quarter ended June 30, compared to the Rs.4,110 crore it netted in the corresponding period last fiscal.

In a regulatory statement Friday, the company also said it has clocked a turnover of Rs.33,309 crore ($7 billion), an increase of 22.6 percent from the Rs.43,050 crore it earned in the year-ago period.

Bill Gates sheldom logs out

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates Friday said he seldom logs out, rarely feels drained and finds social networking sites irritating.

"I am a 24-hour technology person," said Gates, on a visit here for overseeing the philanthropic activities of the foundation he has formed with his wife Melinda.

"I am not that big at text messaging and I am impressed with the young people doing that," he said at a conference on using technology for transformation here.

However, Gates said, he reads random articles in silence whenever he feels drained.

Calling social networking sites "irritating", Gates said he is flooded by "friend requests" everyday on Facebook.

"I get 10,000 friend requests everyday. It gets so irritating."

To this, Minister of State for Communication and IT Sachin Pilot, who shared the dais with the Microsoft co-founder, asked jokingly: "How many Bill Gates are there on Facebook?"

Gates is in India to receive the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development on behalf of his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, being recognised for "pioneering and exemplary philanthropic work around the world and in India in health".

Sun Direct ties up with IBM India

Direct-to-home (DTH) service provider Sun Direct has tied up with software major IBM India to implement and manage customer relationship management services, it was announced Tuesday.

"As we continue our aggressive growth plans, we will rely on IBM to help us tackle key issues surrounding billing and customer relationship management, as well as develop ways to get better insights to customer behaviour," Tony D'Silva, chief operating officer of Sun Direct, said.

Earlier, Sun Microsystems was providing these services to Sun Direct.

The city-based company, which has over three million subscribers, is planning to expand its subscriber base to 10 million by 2010.

The financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

Rediff.Com Reports Results for the 1st Quarter

"A sequential growth in overall revenues for the quarter ended June 30, 2009 of 11% in US Dollar terms (7% in Indian Rupee terms) makes us cautiously optimistic but it is important to note that on a year-on-year basis revenues are lower than in the corresponding quarter in the previous year by 40% in US Dollar terms (31% in Indian Rupee terms). India revenues were up 15% quarter over quarter (40% lower on a year-on-year basis) in US Dollar terms. The economic environment for online advertising in India continues to be challenging. Indian advertisers in the credit card, home loan, online travel, jobs, matrimony, shopping and real estate segments who normally account for about half of all online advertising in India continue to face difficult business conditions" said Ajit Balakrishnan, Chairman and CEO, Rediff.com.

"We have recently completed a number of initiatives to strengthen our business and enhance our user base. We have enforced a common data model and adopted a RESTful architecture across all our services. Key benefits of this are improved performance and scalability and ease of adding newer features to existing products to keep pace with this fast evolving industry. Our services are now accessible with equal ease over both PC and Mobile Phone. We have improved our Search technology and have introduced social and collective intelligence features across all our services.

These and other initiatives will likely require us to increase our investments in product development and brand building over the next two to three quarters. We thus expect an increase in our operating expenses from current levels by an average of about $1.0 to 1.5 million per quarter over this period. We believe that these investments are necessary to grow our user base and preserve our leadership position in the Indian online space and secure the long term future of our business."

Only three operators can offer 3G services in Delhi

Only three telecom operators can roll out third generation (3G) services in Delhi due to a spectrum crunch, Communications and IT Minister A. Raja said Monday.

"Delhi has only 15 Mhz of spectrum available making it possible only for three telecom operators to offer such services," Raja told Lok Sabha in a written reply.

The minister also told parliament that an Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) had been constituted to look into matters concerning 3G spectrum auctions, scheduled to happen this year.

Each telecom operator (successful bidder) will be allocated 5 MHz of 3G spectrum once the auctions are over.

In Delhi, only two private players will be able to offer this high-end services as one slot is already reserved for the state-run telecom operator Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL).

The minister said West Bengal will get only 10 MHz of spectrum, while Gujarat will have 15 MHz.

Such a crunch may lead operators to make crazy bids to acquire spectrum in maximum number of telecom circles, industry officials worry.

The government is expected to earn about Rs.35,000 crore from the 3G auctions.

HDFC Bank cuts lending rate by 25 basis points

The country's second largest private lender HDFC Bank Monday cut its benchmark lending rate by 25 basis points to 15.75 percent.

"The benchmark prime lending rate has been reduced to 15.75 percent per annum with effect from July 20," the bank said on its website.

"The cut in lending rate follows the reduction in the fixed deposits rate effective from May 18."

The bank had reduced its lending rate 50 basis points to 16 percent in December 2008.

DishTV hikes price of set-top box by Rs.100

The country's leading direct-to-home (DTH) service provider DishTV Monday hiked the price of set-top boxes (STB) by Rs.100 each, passing on a rise in customs duty to customers.

Now the STBs will cost Rs.1,590.

"It was a necessary step due to increase in input cost as there has been an escalation in the cost of STBs due to 5 percent increase in customs duty on the import of STBs," said Salil Kapoor, chief operating officer of DishTV.

The government imposed a 5 percent customs duty on STBs in the union budget for 2009-10.

"The business model of DTH is based on subsidy and the component cost has also gone up considerably due to the rise in dollar exchange rate in the last one year," Kapoor added.