TN-Goverment's Cable TV Corporation

Chennai:The Cable TV Corporation to be formed by Tamil Nadu Government would function under the Information Technology Department. A GO has been issued to this effect.According to an official press release, the Finance Secretary, the Information Technology Secretary, the Managing Director of the ELCOT and the Chairman of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board would function as Directors of the newly formed Corporation.

TATA Project-Public opinion contucted

Tuticorin: The high-level team appointed by the State Government to elicit public opinion on the proposed titanium dioxide project began its two-day tour of villages in Sattankulam and Tiruchendur taluks on Monday.The team, comprising Minister for Higher Education K. Ponmudy, Minister for Tourism N. Suresh Rajan, Minister for Animal Husbandry P. Geetha Jeevan, Secretaries to the Government for Industries and Revenue Shaktikanta Das and Ambuj Sharma, and Commissioner for Mines and Minerals E. Dasaradhan, conducted public hearing at Kulasekarapattinam, Arasoor-I, Arasoor –II, Naduvakurichi and Sasthavinallor revenue villages.

The public, by and large, welcomed the setting up of the plant at Sattankulam. Most of the residents in the proposed project area expressed their willingness to give their land for the project. They requested the Government not to take away the lands at low prices.Mr. Ponmudy said the Government would ensure that the farmers got the price as per guideline values set by the Government for lands in revenue villages. “The Government will don the role of a negotiator to help the public get attractive prices for their land from the Tata group.” The acquisition would be carried out with the consent of the people and according to the Tamil Nadu Land Acquisition Act for Industrial Purposes.The police arrested 22 persons, including Selvaraj, a councillor of the Sattankulam panchayat union, who tried to disrupt the public hearing at Naduvakurichi.

Sago and starch manufacturers agree to open factories

Salem:Agricultural Minister Veerapandi S . Arumugam holding talks with starch and sago tapioca manufacturers and farmers in Salem on Monday.The tripartite meeting organised by the State Government under the presidentship of Agricultural Minister Veerapandi S. Arumugam here on Monday has decided to sort out the issues that have been confronting the sago industry and tapioca farmers.The farmers have accepted to resume their tubers harvest, which they had suspended some 15 days ago while the manufacturers of sago and starch, whose factories remained closed for a week, have agreed to open them immediately.

The Minister, while summing up the three-hour session that brought the representatives of sago and starch industry and tapioca farmers under one roof, pointed out that he would insist on the Government to fix a price for tapioca as in the case of sugarcane and rice and also organise loans for farmers through cooperative societies.The middlemen, who hold farmers to ransom, will be sternly dealt with, he warned.He asked the manufacturers to strict to quality control norms and utilise the services of Sago Serve, a cooperative body functioning for the development of industry and for farming community. A few demands concerning with the quality guidelines and remunerative price will be sorted out.

The final decision in these issues will be taken after another round of the tripartite meeting, he said.Namakkal District Collector G. Sundaramurthy pointed out that many of the factories in his district never adhere to the rules, causing heavy environmental pollution with untreated effluent thus affecting the farm lands. Salem Collector N. Mathivanan said that Tamil Nadu was the State where the average production of tapioca was high in the world (38 tonnes per hectare). Out of total 800 sago factories in Tamil Nadu, 700 were functioning in Salem and Namakkal districts alone, he said.

Tapioca farmers said that the factory owners were not paying them the remunerative price for their produce. They claimed that the Starch-Point assessment was differing from factory-to-factory thus causing losses to them. Middlemen were controlling the trade they said and charged that the factory owners never adhered to the decisions taken at an earlier tripartite meeting.Similar to the Spices Board, a separate Board for Tapioca should be formed, they urged.Sago and starch manufacturers, however, said that they were open for any inspection with regard to the point assessment.

While accepting that a few manufacturers had been permitting the middlemen to thrive, they insisted that the Government should come to the rescue of the industry in this issue. They also claimed that stringent quality control measures of Sago Serve had caused severe hardships causing them heavy losses.Farmers including Govindarajan, G.N.Periyasamy, Krishnamurthy and C. Vaiyapuri spoke while Thangavel, T. R. Palanivel and others expressed the manufacturers’ views. Senior officials from Agricultural and Horticultural departments took part.

Allsec Tech to Open its center at Trichy ..

Business process outsourcing firm, Allsec Technologies has reported 32 per cent decrease in net profit at Rs 4.57 crore for the quarter ending June 30, compared to Rs 6.77 crore during the same period last year.

The decline in revenue and profitability was mainly on account of appreciating rupee, a release said here today. Gross revenue for the quarter stood at Rs 26.99 crore, compared to Rs 28.75 crore last year, falling six per cent.

The company was setting up a new 200 seater facility at Trichy, which was expected to become operational in the second quarter of 2007-08, it release said.

In time for the discount season

Wooden dolls from Udaipur on display at the exhibition in Madurai on Friday.If the month of ‘Adi’ is here, can exhibitions be far behind? Expos vie with one another to drain the wallets of Maduraities, who never mind to spend on handicrafts and attractive designer materials.Now, the Craft Bazaar, an exhibition-cum-discount sale, has come to the city to cash in on the ‘month of discounts.’

There are 40 stalls selling handicrafts of varied kinds from all over the country. Craftsmen from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and from West Bengal to Rajasthan exhibit their wares and ensure that visitors buy authentic and ethnic pieces.The items on display are real stone (precious and semi precious) silver setting jewellery, Bandhini suits, chaniys choli, kotta saris, 100 gm rajai from Rajasthan, phulkari hand woven dress material, jutti from Punjab, colourful bangles from Jaipur, jackets and shawls from Kashmir, Udaipur wooden carvings, handloom bags from Panipath, designer fashion jewellery from Delhi, jute handicrafts and handbags from Kolkata, and Poochamapalli bed spreads.


The colour embroidered and chikkan worked churidars come in the price range of Rs. 200 to Rs.750. White and black coloured bottoms with handwork are available in the price range of Rs.150 to Rs 550 and tops, Rs.160 to Rs 280. Touch of opulence is evident in the vast treasure house of gems and bead ornaments on display. Ear studs made of stones such as jade, pearls, are available for Rs.40. The shining Kanpur leather sandals add grandeur to the show.As part of the expo, there is also a Kala Silk Festival-2007, featuring a wide range of party wear and wedding collections. It exhibits Kancheevaram, Banaras, printed silk, Kolkata ethnic and thread work saris, bandini and banadage shiffon, kantha work saris, super net Manipuri kota saris and Mangalgiri cotton saris. The saris are priced at Rs.99, Rs. 165, Rs.265, Rs.365, Rs.465, Rs.665 and above.The seven-day expo organised by Maharashtra Handloom Handicraft Development Centre is being held at Vijay Mahal, K.K. Nagar. It will remain open from 10 a.m. and 9 p.m. It offers 20 per cent discount on all purchases.

Intensive Cotton Development Programme at Tuticorn

Tuticorin: The Department of Agriculture will implement an Intensive Cotton Development Programme (ICDP) on an outlay of Rs.24.56 lakh during the current fiscal to augment cotton production in the district, which was on the decline in the last two decades.Official sources said that the area coverage under cotton in the district plummeted from 43,878 ha in 1986-87 to 5,830 ha during the last financial year.

The ICDP was envisaged under the Mini Mission-II of the Technology Mission on Cotton.The project will provide assistance for extension development activities like technology transfer by means of demonstrations, training in the latest farming practices, supply of critical inputs like seeds, pheromone traps, bio agents and sprinklers, all with an aim to enhance production as well as lint quality of cotton.

M. Mohanados, Joint Director of Agriculture, said that as part of the project, a total of 39 kilograms of breeder seeds would be multiplied at select farmers’ holdings at Ottapidaram, Kovilpatti, Kayathar, Vilathikulam, Pudur and Tuticorin blocks under the project, to produce 7,000 kilograms of high yielding varieties of certified seeds.The certified seeds will then be distributed at subsidised rates, for which the Department of Agriculture has allocated Rs.1.4 lakh from the total project cost.

Mr. Mohanados said that assistance would be provided to the farmers to treat the seeds with bio agents like trichoderma virudi to enhance its resistance to seed-borne pathogens.To counter pest attacks on the cotton plants, pheromone traps will be supplied at subsidised rates.“We will give a maximum of 12 numbers of traps for every hectare of cultivation,” the Joint Director said.
Besides, power sprayers totalling 450 numbers and hand operated sprayers totalling 350 numbers too will be supplied at 50 per cent subsidy.Mr. Mohanados said that 100 pest surveillance plots would be set up at random at a cost of Rs.1 lakh to study the nature of pest attacks in various places.“Such a study will help us to provide guidance to the farmers on area specific pest control measures,” he said.The training to cotton farmers will conducted at a cost of Rs 2.5 lakh to educate them on the latest cotton growing techniques.

Madurai Airport going International !!

The city has seen a sudden surge in air traffic, a whopping 82.3 percent growth, way ahead of all the other 11 airports in the four states of southern region from April 2006 to March 2007.While industry analysts attribute this to the emergence of Madurai as a favourite destination for IT investors after Bangalore and Chennai, the AAI is in the process of equipping the airport with facilities which will take it to the next level of development - an international airport.Currently, Madurai-bound international passengers continue to undergo the hardship of having to go via Tiruchy or Chennai.

Nevertheless, the AAI has kicked off a Rs 70-crore short-term augmentation project, which involves increasing the length of the runway to 9,000 feet, expansion of aprons to accommodate four aircraft and linking of the terminal building for baggage clearance. In addition, an integrated terminal building will be constructed, said K Ramalingam, regional executive director, Southern Region, AAI.This will enable the authority to equip the airport to meet further increase in passenger and aircraft traffic necessiated by IT investments.

The AAI had also asked for 500 acres from the State Government to extend the runway as the already available space was used to the maximum, he added.As the airport caters to the needs of residents of Ramanathapuram, Sivaganga, Theni, Virudhunagar, Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi districts, there have been demands to start international services, especially to Gulf countries and South East Asia.

Mela for talking business

Madurai:A scene at the mela in Madurai.More young men are taking to entrepreneurship these days, thereby hoping to become job providers rather than going after one.Making this observation at the conclusion of ‘Business Opportunity Mela’ organised here on Thursday and Friday by V 4 Edge Franchise Solutions, franchise process outsourcing concern, it’s founder Sam Nicholas said Madurai has a lot of potential.

Elaborating about the two-day programme, he says that it is an interacting platform between those who want to take to business and those looking for partners to further their product.About 15 stalls were put up at the mela. The company executives manning the stalls would explain the opportunities available with the company. If a person is interested, then the follow up action will be taken care of by the company. Many big brands started off as small ventures, he says, adding that the concept of franchising was a major factor in their growth.Huge companies are looking to build a viable partnership with people to expand their operations.

Mr. Nicholas says he advices budding entrepreneurs to start off with the resources at their disposal and to resort to seeking additional funds from external sources only as a last resort.The pressure from these external agencies could some time be detrimental to growth. The response has been better than expected with people turning up from as far as Thanjavur and Kanyakumari, he says.Deputy Manager (marketing), M. Karthikeyan, says that the company offers help in sectors across the board, from play schools, pizza restaurants to the aviation industry. More than 1,000 people participated in the mela, he says.

Mudhra's fine blanking facility inaugurated

The Chennai-based Mudhra Group of companies is all set to inaugurate a fine blanking facility on June 7 at the SIPCOT Industrial Park at Irungattukottai, near Chennai.The facility, called Mudhra Fine Blanc (MFB), marks the group's foray into the area of fine blanking, a high-tech metal forming process with applications in the automotive and light engineering industries.Phase I of the facility has been set up at a cost of Rs 18 crore.

Feintool Technologie AG of Switzerland is working closely with Mudhra in this venture by way of technology support, according to Mr Surojit Mukherjee, Managing Director of MFB.Feintool provides total solutions including presses, tools, consulting and training support, he added.The MFB plant features high-speed, fully automatic, heavy-duty presses that represent the "latest generation of fine blanking technology available anywhere in the world, and would be the first of their kind in India," a statement said.

With this facility, MFB would be in a position to deliver highly engineered, high-precision components in large volumes, it added.The Group plans to progressively ramp up MFB's capacity to 100 million components in the second phase.Fine blanking is an advanced precision stamping process wherein a component with precise geometry and smooth cut surface can be produced without additional secondary operations.The process is cost-effective in high-volume situations. It originated in the Swiss watch industry in 1923 and was extended in 1960 to the light engineering industry in Europe, including the automotive industry.

The technology finds wide application in the automotive industry, which is a major user of fine blanked components, accounting for more than 80 per cent share.MFB has already bagged significant orders with customers in India and is in the process of negotiating export orders with leading tier 1 and tier 2 firms in Europe, according to the statement.The Group is also looking at strategic acquisitions, in line with its strategy to establish a technology-driven manufacturing enterprise.The Mudhra Group was established in 1995 with the setting up of Mudhra Pressings, an integrated press shop and tool room, at the SIDCO Industrial Estate at Thirumazhisai, also near Chennai.Mudhra Pressings is now a leading supplier of brake system-related components and sub-assemblies for all vehicle categories, especially passenger cars and light trucks.

Sri Besant Lodge getting facelift

Tanjore:Front elevation of the main building being renovated in Thanjavur.Sri Besant Lodge here, which is more than hundred years old, has been given a facelift.The lodge has two buildings. The main building was declared open by Dr. Annie Besant in 1904 and another called Sri Ram Hall that was added in 1960.The two buildings have been catering to the needs of voluntary organisations, theosophical society and the public for conducting meetings.

According to R. Sivasankar, an engineer, the front elevation of the main building has been renovated without disturbing its originality. Stuckoo works and paintings have been done in the main building, which has six pillars in front. The Sri Ram hall has been fully renovated.G. Swaminathan, former MP and president of the lodge, said that there is a plan to add one more hall to the existing two buildings.

"There is a need for another hall as a lot of meetings take place in Thanjavur now. Nominal donation is collected from the organisers for using the halls," Mr. Swaminathan said.There is a good library in the lodge. It houses 2,350 books in Sanskrit, English and Tamil."There are many rare and old books older than the ones found in the Saraswathi Mahal Library. They need to be preserved. Library also will be renovated and computerised," Mr. Swaminathan said."We have also decided to form Sri Besant Lodge Literary Association and conduct literary meetings. Membership is collected for the purpose."The library is open to the public and no fee is charged for reading books.It is open every day in the morning and evening. On payment of small subscription, members of the public are allowed to take books home for study.

The objectives of the Sri Besant Lodge at Thanjavur, according to Mr. Swaminathan, are to form a nucleus of the universal brotherhood of humanity without race, creed, sex, caste and colour discrimination. It is aimed at encouraging the study of comparative religion, philosophy and science to investigate the unexplained laws of nature.Many theosophical events took place in the lodge from 1985 to 2004. The centenary of the lodge was celebrated in 2004 when the former home secretary T.V. Venkatraman and Radha Burnier, international president of Theosophical Society, participated, he said.Yoga classess are conducted in the lodge by various organisations. Sri Thyagabrahma Sabha celebrates its annual music festival in the lodge every year.

Women entrepreneurs seek Collector's help

Tiruchi: The Women Entrepreneurs' Association of Tamil Nadu has urged the district administration to extend support for setting up an office and conducting fortnightly meetings of the association in the city.The WEAT, floated by the Centre for Women's Studies, Bharathidasan University, faces difficulty in functioning, owing to the distance between the city and the varsity. The facility that the WEAT seeks could either be in the Collector's Office, District Rural Development Agency, or schools that could be accessed easily by members.

A representation was made to the Collector, Ashish Vachhani, who inaugurated the first conference of the WEAT at the university last week.Since a chunk of the association members constitute women belonging to the self-help groups, the WEAT has sought space in shopping complexes in busy areas, and at `Uzhavar Sandhais' to display and sell products made by the groups.It also mooted the idea of weekly shandies for marketing the products.

The district administration could enlarge the marketing base of the WEAT members by permitting them to exhibit their products on its premises at periodic intervals and ensuring regular order of books, notes, printing, masala powders and pickles to schools.Office-bearers of the WEAT hope to make the association members beneficiaries of the training programme under self-employment schemes and finance linkages with banks, and opine that the district administration could prevail upon banks to extend credit without collateral to over 50 units that function on the basis of business performance.Likewise, under the Cluster Development Initiative, the association has sought priority for accommodating its members in Micro Enterprise Industrial Shed.

Pointing to the lack of provision in government schemes to support existing women entrepreneurs under the Employment Development Programmes, N. Manimekalai, Director, Centre for Women's Studies, said there was a strong need for supporting the members of the WEAT comprising about seven hundred motivated home-based micro women entrepreneurs in the informal sector in Tiruchi, Thanjavur, and Dindigul districts.

Under the aegis of the Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development programme undertaken by the Tiruchi District Tiny and Small Scale Industries' Association, the centre has been linking the WEAT to banks and entrepreneurship promotional institutions.A full-fledged support of the district administration would provide the much-needed fillip to women entrepreneurship in Tiruchi region.

Belgium and India meet

Chennai: K. Suresh, Chairman, Chennai Port Trust, with Herman Merckx, Consul-General of Belgium (left), at a seminar organised by The Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Chennai on Tuesday. A. Sankarakrishnan, president, Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry, is in the picture.Belgium, India's seventh largest trading partner, offers a big opportunity for import and export. It occupies a unique place in the European Union. The bilateral relations are good and growing. Belgium boasts of an excellent road, rail and waterway network and warehousing facilities. The good business potential of the two countries should be exploited, speakers said at a seminar here on Tuesday.

In his presentation on the seminar's theme, "How to start business with Belgium: A gateway to Europe," Georges L C. Baekelmans, executive council member of the Indo-Belgian-Luxemborg Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IBLCCI), said the people of Belgium were entrepreneurs and were always looking for a good deal. The Belgian entrepreneurs were looking to expand their operations to Asia. They were misinformed by the Belgian media about what India was and how it worked.

India's rising middle class was looking for Western goods. There was a huge opportunity for Indian distributors because they had the first choice of suppliers and goods and they could demand first-class treatment and discounts because of the opening market. Belgium needed raw materials, semi-finished goods, cheaper labour and services. Belgians liked handmade material, Indian furniture and silk, authentic foreign products and India for its culture and spiritual heritage.

Consul-General of Belgium Herman Merckx said it had excellent road, rail and air connections. The Belgian inland waterways played a vital role in the transport network. The country had a multi-lingual population. In general, English was the business language. There was a social security system. The country had low crime rate. Sashidharan, treasurer, IBLCCI, said there was more than diamonds in Indo-Belgian trade, and the recent years of trade witnessed the greatest growth in the services sector with Indian companies.

Madras Port Trust Chairman K. Suresh and Raj Khalid, India Representative, Port of Antwerp, made presentations on the operations at the Chennai and Antwerp ports. The seminar was organised by the Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the IBLCCI.

Brisk sale of uniform cloth in textile market

Erode:Parents turned up at the Erode textile weekly market to purchase school uniforms for their children on Tuesday. "We are really happy now. After six dull weeks we have had good business today,'' textile merchants in the Erode weekly textile market told The Hindu on Tuesday.

The Erode textile market assembles every Tuesday to Wednesday afternoon with sellers from Erode, Namakkal and parts of Salem district selling textile goods worth a minimum of Rs. 5 crore every week to buyers from Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and some North Indian towns.In the past six weeks sale of textile goods was affected owing to the severity of the hot season.

But on Tuesday, buyers poured into the market, much to the delight of the sellers.Handloom, powerloom and mill varieties, handkerchiefs, bed sheets and design cloths were sold at wholesale rate.A merchant said: "On Tuesday most of the buyers purchased uniform clothes and readymade uniforms. Khaki and blue drill clothes were in high demand."

2 Chennai e-auctions frozen

RANE (Madras), a leading auto component manufacturer, has put on hold its move to dispose of its prime property in Chennai through an e-auction. Asiatic Oxygen, which also wanted to adopt the same route for its property in an industrial suburb, has now decided to develop the property on its own. Both these companies had sometime back mandated international property consultants C B Richard Ellis to conduct the e-auction.

Rane (Madras) offered to sell 26.25 grounds (63,162 sq ft) of its prime property, situated on the Velachery Main Road, a fast growing hub. Likewise, Asiatic Oxygen also wanted to dispose of its 6.45 acre (2.81 lakh sq ft) vacant plot on MTH Road in Padi, an industrial suburb.CB Richard Ellis (CBRE), which prepared the ground for the e-auction, was expecting the process to be completed by April-end of mid-May 2007. ‘‘While Rane (Madras) wanted to wait for some more time, Asiatic Oxygen has indicated that they wanted to develop the property on their own,’’ official sources in CBRE told.

Property sources had expected the Velachery plot to fetch anywhere upwards of Rs 1.5 crore per ground (2,400 sq ft). The Padi plot was estimated to fetch about Rs 70 lakh-Rs 75 lakh per ground. In fact, industry sources had then termed the move as an attempt by corporates to unlock the hidden values in at least part of their land holdings since commercial property values were at its highest in Chennai. With corporates now hesitating, does this indicate a slowdown? ‘‘There is no slowdown as such, but there is resistance on what and how much to pay for, when it comes to land,’’ Mr Sanjay Chugh, vice- president (transactions management services), Trammell Crow Meghraj, told.

Mr Sanjay attributed this to end-users putting up huge resistance to the currently quoted rates. Hence, developers also have to rethink on whether it is viable to buy property at the present indicated prices. ‘‘Normally developers pass on the cost to the end-users, who are individuals in the case of residential space, and corporates in the case of commercial space,’’ he said. Further, the market is also seeing increased supply, which in turn offers various options to the end-users. ‘‘This is being witnessed in both residential as well as commercial space, especially on the IT space,’’ he added.

NHM Enter's into english

New Horizon Media, a book publishing firm started by Cricinfo founder Badri Seshadri and which has been bringing out only Tamil books so far, has ventured into English language publications under the imprint Indian Writing, reports Our Bureau from Chennai. The English imprint would bring out translations of Indian novels and short stories, the company said. To begin with, it has launched four books translated from Tamil. NHM has published 285 books so far — all in Tamil —, including 221 titles under the Kizhakku imprint, 44 under the Varam (religious books) imprint, and 20 under the Nalam (health-related books) banner. It has also brought out 16 audio books.

Export to Belgium soon

Erode: Cauvery Hi-tech Weaving Park, Komarapalayam, may soon export its produce to Belgium, if the visit of trade representatives from the country is anything to go by.According to M.S. Mathivanan, chairman, PDEXCIL, the park may soon establish a marketing/trade centre in Belgium. He said an MoU had been signed in that regard.

Philippe Delcourt, trade commissioner, South East Asia, Wallonia Trade and Foreign Investment Agency, said the country would help the park in developing designs and offering services of experts.Michel Kempeneers of the agency said they were keen on importing home furnishing from India and hoped that the park would meet most of their requirements. He said they could even buy the entire production of the park. Dr. Mathivanan said the park had a capacity to weave one lakh metres a day. He said the looms in which the home furnishing would be woven were manufactured in Belgium.

Aid for setting up modern ice plants

Tuticorin: The Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) has introduced a financial assistance scheme to promote establishment of modern ice plants along the country's coast and renovation of existing plants, for production of high quality ice for preservation of fish.
Speaking here, N. Chandrasekaran, Assistant Director, MPEDA, said subsidy to the tune of Rs. 22 lakh or 25 per cent of the project cost, whichever was less, would be provided for setting up new units.

Similarly, Rs. 12 lakh or 25 per cent of the cost incurred for renovation, whichever is less, will be given to the existing units opting for modernisation.Mr. Chandrasekaran said owners of new plants who wished their unit to be covered under the scheme should furnish plan details to MPEDA field offices in advance for approval.

"Once we clear the proposal, they could start work on construction and payment of subsidy would be made after the plant got registered under `MPEDA Act and Rules'," he said.To comply with the quality parameters, the new plants should have overhead and ground-level tanks, water purification systems such as reverse osmosis, ultra violet and electronic dozer, brine tank with agitator, condenser pump, ice cans, ice crushers, ice storage space and effluent treatment unit.

Under the renovation component, the scheme provided subsidy for replacement and installation of select machineries such as cooling coil with accumulator, ice crusher, effluent treatment unit and ice can.Contact 0461-2310602 or 094423-56275.

Radaan Mediaworks in Upward trend

While the changing fortunes of Sun TV Network and Raj TV Network have been grabbing all media attention, an entertainment stock — Radaan Mediaworks — jumped nearly 20% today, as investors expect the competition between the two rival Tamil television networks would help the content company promoted by actress Radhika. Radaan Mediaworks closed at Rs 8.26 a share at the BSE on Wednesday, jumping 19.88% to hit a 52-week high. Meanwhile, Raj TV shares closed 9.98% higher at Rs 317.1 a share, and Sun TV shares hovered around the same levels as on Tuesday, rising marginally to Rs 1363.8 a share.

Raj TV’s shares have been rising ever since Mr Dayanidhi Maran (brother of Sun TV CEO Kalanithi Maran) was forced to resign from the union cabinet, as a result of the rift between the Maran brothers and DMK chief M Karunanidhi’s immediate family members. Raj TV’s shares continued to rise, as investors felt the political patronage that Sun TV had recieved would shift to Raj TV. Raj TV has announced a new channel, named Kalaignar, which means artist, but more widely associated with DMK chief, who is referred to as Kalignar. On Wednesday, there were rumours that the income tax department has sent scrutiny notices to Sun TV. I-T officials flatly denied it, while a source said a routine scrutiny notice was indeed sent to Mr Hansraj Saxena, Sun TV’s VP.

Indian Bank launched Biometric Cards ..

Indian Bank has launched biometric-enabled smart cards, as part of its plan to reach a larger customer base. The smart cards enable banking transactions right at the doorstep, using point of transaction machines operated by staff on the field, the bank said. Dr KC Chakrabarty, CMD, Indian Bank, said that the technology, developed by FINO (Financial Information Network and Operations, Mumbai) would facilitate doorstep banking, and is in line with the bank’s financial inclusion initiatives.

The smart card was launched at Virudachalam on Friday. Dr Chakrabarty said that the bank had implemented its financial inclusion project in the Union territory of Puducherry and eventually replicated the project in Cuddalore district and in some other parts of the country. Mr MS Sundara Rajan, ED, Indian Bank, said the smart cards were being introduced simultaneously at Dharavi in Mumbai and Kaligram in Kolkata in association with FINO . Mr Rishi Gupta, COO, CFO and president (sales and marketing), FINO said “We see this tie-up as a major strategic initiative towards our vision of catering to the rural masses. With financial services hotting up and a huge unattended market of making available financial services to the rural masses, we see this tie-up as a logical initiative to cater to potential clientele of about 500-700 million people”.

STFC lend help hands to Truck Operatores ...

SHRIRAM Transport Finance (STFC), the country’s largest asset financing non-banking finance company, plans to provide working capital support to truck operators in addition to the regular hire purchase financing to new and pre-owned trucks. Group chairman R Thyagarajan told ET that truck operators were sourcing working capital finance at high cost. They required Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000 every month to meet various expenses like buying tyres and other components, maintenance and service charges, settling cargo bills and others.

STFC has over 4 lakh truck operators as its customers and it wants to provide low-cost finance to them using its pan-India network of 300 branches. “We feel that in a year, we can build a working capital portfolio of Rs 1,000 crore. We are talking to institutions and investors for raising funds”. He expected this finance to account for 25% to 30% of total disbursements over a period. It plans to offer many customer-related products which will meet the working capital needs of its customers like tyre finance, accident insurance, engine reconditioning and change finance. This year, STFC is expecting a 40-50% growth in disbursements at Rs 10,000 crore against Rs 6,500 crore in 2006-07.

The chairman said that following the pooled insurance scheme for third party claims in motor vehicles introduced in the post-detariff regime, leading private insurers were approaching NBFCs for selling commercial vehicles insurance. The portfolio size is pegged at Rs 3,000 crore.

Earlier, only public sector insurance companies were providing the cover. Referring to Shriram life insurance, a joint venture with Sanlam life of Africa and launched in May 2005, he said it collected a gross premium of Rs 180 crore last year, but incurred only Rs 25 crore as expense. With operations in five states, it targets a premium of Rs 300 crore this year. Mr Thyagarajan said the group is also gearing to enter non-life insurance business along with Sanlam this year. The JV, Shriram general insurance, will be based at Jaipur. It hopes to get R1 licence from Irda soon. It will focus largely on retail segments like motor vehicle insurance, health, travel and so on.