Samsung's Low-end C5130 on Sale in India

Samsung has announced the launch of its latest low-end handset in India, the C5130, ahead of its global launch that is expected to happen soon. The C5130 is a slider phone that boasts of attractive features to attract the attention of a buyer on the look out for a cheap, but feature packed phone.

The C5130 boasts of a 2-inch, 262K colors display with 176 x 144 pixels resolution. The screen should be good enough to display multimedia content. The camera on the phone is a very basic 1.3MP unit that should suffice for casual (very casual!) imaging. It also comes with the now Samsung standard mobile tracker software. The company has also thrown in a music player, an FM radio

, and Bluetooth 2.0 as additional features.

ArcelorMittal to invest Rs 30k cr in Karnataka

Steel maker ArcelorMittal would invest Rs 30,000 crore in Karnataka towards setting up a 6,000-tonne steel plant in the state. A four-member high-level team from the world's largest steel maker met Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa on Friday to discuss details of the project.
The investments would also involve a co-generation power plant of 750 mega watt capacity. The government officials said Karnataka, which was in discussions with the company about the investment proposal, had shown the team six to seven sites for housing the project. “The company has finally chosen two sites. A final decision (on the site) will be made known to the government shortly,” an official at the chief minister's office told FE. He, however, declined to name the locations considered for the plant.
Karnataka's iron ore deposits are mainly spread across the north Karnataka districts of Bellary-Hospet and Koppal. The Karnataka government has extended all necessary support and incentives to the company to set up the plant, government officials said, adding that the company had sought approximately 4,000 acres for the plant.
ArcelorMittal's group board member Sudhir Maheshwari, chief executive (India and China) Vijay Kumar Bhatnagar, chief executive (India greenfield projects) Sanak Misra, corporate affairs manager Narasimha Hegde and strategy and planning head Prateek Kapur visited the minister to discuss the project details.
Earlier, the chief minister had told the media, “We have told the company to choose a site suitable for its requirements as the prestigious project is set to create about 10,000 jobs when implemented in the next four-five years.”
In a statement, ArcelorMittal chief executive LN Mittal said, “Our team had a constructive and positive meeting in response to an invitation from the Karnataka government. Karnataka is one of the most progressive states in India and, therefore, is an ideal place to build a world-class steel plant. The state government understands that India would continue to have a growing demand for steel and is keen on participating in this growth potential.”

Tata Consultancy Services to go slow on hiring

IT services behemoth Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), which had offered jobs to as many as 24,885 graduates last year, is likely to go slow on its recruitment plans this year.
"The figure will not be as high as that of last year and also not very less," TCS vice-president and global HR head Ajoy Mukharjee told reporters here on the sidelines of Sangam, the company's annual academic conclave. In 2008, the largest IT services company had made job offers to as many as 24,885 graduates in campus recruitment, of which 12,000 candidates are yet to be absorbed. It plans to make job offers to 8,000 graduates this quarter, the process for which would begin in December. Replying to a question on the salary hikes and other incentives to the staff, TCS CEO and MD N Chandrasekharan said they are still working out the packages for the next year. This year the company did not give any hikes other than that of performance-linked variable incentives. About the attrition rate, Chandrasekharan said it was11.5 per cent last year with a head count of 1.41 lakh globally.

HCL Technologies bags $200-m deal from UK firm

HCL Technologies said it has bagged a long-term deal worth about $200 million from UK-based insurance firm Equitable Life Assurance “The contract is ‘evergreen,’ it is for a period of 30 years. The revenue from the deal will come (mostly) in the first five to six years and decline gradually as policies decline,” HCL Technologies’ senior vice-president Stuart Drew said on Monday. The deal has been awarded to HCL Insurance Business Services, the IT firm’s UK-based life and pensions administration business. Currently, about 340 people are servicing the account. “We expect about 100 people will be taken in by Equitable Life, rendering about 240 people surplus. They will be relieved under suitable schemes,” Equitable Life Chief Executive Chris Wiscarson said. “HCL will take care of the work of these 240 employees
, with about 50-70 jobs being taken care of from HCL’s Chennai centre,” he added

ICICI Bank raises $750 m from 5-yr bonds

ICICI Bank on Saturday said it has raised $750-million (around Rs 3,465 crore) by issuing five-year bonds at its Bahrain branch The issue, which had an order book of over $3-billion, was participated by over 250 investors, the country's second largest lender said in a press release. "The 5.33-year fixed rate notes carry a coupon of 5.5%, which translates to 292.6 basis points spread over equivalent Libor," the bank said. Last month, the country's largest lender State Bank of India raised $750-million through the issue of five-year bonds abroad.

Bharti slashes mobile roaming charges, shares fall

* New bill plan cuts roaming rate by nearly 60 pct
* Shares fall 3 pct; 2nd worst performer in BSE index this yr (Adds details, background, shares)
India's Bharti Airtel launched yet another new billing plan on Friday, slashing mobile roaming rates by nearly 60 percent and signalling a tariff war in the world's fastest-growing wireless market was far from over.
The announcement accelerated losses in the shares of Bharti, the country's top mobile operator. The stock fell as much as 3.3 percent but trimmed losses to 2.7 percent at 284.90 rupees by 0825 GMT in a Mumbai market that was up 0.3 percent.
The price war, aimed at grabbing new users ahead of fresh entrants waiting in the wings, has raised concerns about telecom firms' profitability. Four new firms, including ventures funded by Telenor and Etisalat, are set to start services this year adding to the existing 11 operators.
Bharti's market value has slumped more than a fifth this year to about $24 billion and its stock is the second worst performer in the main index that has risen about 72 percent. Rival Reliance Communications has fallen about a quarter in 2009.
Bharti, whose about 115 million users account for more than 23 percent of India's total mobile subscribers, in September cut call charges within its own network to 50 paise (U.S. 1 cent) a minute and in October launched a low-profit per-second billing plan, reacting to competition.
Tata Teleservices [TATASL.UL], the No. 6 operator, was the first to launch per-second billing, deviating from the industry norm of per-minute billing. The offer was a roaring success and the firm has topped the new signings for three months in a row.
Bharti's latest offer will allow users to recieve calls at 60 paise a minute while roaming, and they can make calls at 60 paise a minute within the Airtel network and at 80 paise a minute for calls to rival networks.
Analysts say Bharti still charges about 8-10 percent higher than Reliance's call prices.
Bharti has said it would be competitive in pricing but had no intention to match the lowest price in the market.

India's annual food inflation rises to 14.55%

India's annual food inflation, based on wholesale prices, moved up to 14.55 per cent for the week ended Nov 7 from 13.68 per cent the week before, official data released Thursday showed.
The 52-week average prices of onions were higher by 35 per cent and potatoes became costlier by 30.7 per cent, according to the data on wholesale price index released by the commerce ministry.
Statistics also showed average prices of vegetables had gone up 18 per cent, pulses 17 per cent, rice 16 per cent, wheat 5 per cent, fruits 7 per cent and milk 8 per cent.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Wednesday said here that the government may have to import rice if the kharif crop output was inadequate. Floods and the worst dry spell in nearly four decades in the country have hurt farm output causing rise in food prices.
This was the third week for which data on wholesale price index was issued as per the new guidelines approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs that restricts the disclosure of index numbers to primary articles and fuels.
The Reserve Bank of India and the government have warned India's annual inflation rate based on wholesale price index for all commodities will rise to 6-6.5 per cent by March, while the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council has pegged the rate at 6 per cent.
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