A probe is on to find out whether Air India lost market share or any revenue by awarding the contract to manage its ticketing call centers to Gurgaon-based InterGlobe.

“How come InterGlobe, the company which runs IndiGo, handles Air India’s ticket reservation call centres? This is a blatant disregard for corporate rules. There is no certainty that anything was going wrong, but to make sure that no doubts remain, the probe was ordered,” an official said.

Aviation minister Ajit Singh has launched a probe into how InterGlobe Technologies (IGT), whose holding company InterGlobe Enterprises owns low-cost carrier Indi-Go , has been running the call centre for Air India.

Sensing conflict of interest, Singh has asked for all documents regarding this deal. Sources hinted at foul play with a rival airline handling AI’s system. “A call centre has access to database of an airline’s passengers, their contact numbers and other details which is invaluable information for business rivals . Could this database have remained secure and not passed on to the competition?” said sources.

According to the official, tenders were issued by Air India in 2010 and the lowest bidder was InterGlobe, which replaced Stracon.

The official also said changes in the information technology (IT) system will be made to replace the old manual system, which is prone to manipulations.

“Some changes have been made already and some more will be implemented.”

Airline sources say IGT had won a three-year contract to run AI’s call centre in mid-2009 . “The issue of IGT running AI’s call centre has always been a sensitive one and the AI vigilance department had conducted an internal inquiry into this, which has possibly been sent to the Central Vigilance Commission. The contract is coming to an end in a couple of months and it has been decided not to extend the same,” said an official. An IndiGo spokesperson said: “IndiGo has nothing to with the AI call centre.”

According to a release here, the company’s total income from operations, however, increased to Rs.339.98 billion for the fourth quarter last fiscal from Rs.338.29 billion for the same period in the previous fiscal.

Tata Steel Group’s profit after tax (after minority interest and share of profit of associates) during the financial year 2011-12 stood at Rs.53.90 billion compared to a profit of Rs.89.83 billion in financial year 2010-11.

Group EBITDA in FY12 was Rs.135.33 billion compared to Rs.171.16 billion in FY11.

“The Indian operations registered robust performance in FY12 amid growth concerns in the domestic market,” Tata Steel managing director H.M. Nerurkar said in the release.

High raw material cost and volume impact hurt domestic operations. Steel demand in emerging markets increased but it dropped in Europe towards the end of the quarter on the back of the Eurozone crisis,” chief financial officer Koushik Chatterjee told reporters in Mumbai. He, however, said global steel demand will improve in the current fiscal with stable raw material prices.

Referring to capital expenditure, Chatterjee said the company would invest close to USD 2.5 billion this fiscal, mainly for the Kalinganagar greenfield project in Odisha, alongside expansion at Jamshedpur. “The company’s net debt increased slightly to Rs 47,697 crore with a debt, equity ratio of 1:1. Going ahead, we will try to maintain this ratio,” Chatterjee said.

Performance of the company in the current financial year was expected to be boosted by the start-up of the brownfield expansion at Jamshedpur, where trial production has begun, Nerurkar said, adding work on the greenfield project in Odisha was on track.

The firm had posted a net loss of Rs.327 crore during the like period of the previous financial year, the company said in a regulatory filing.

The income from operations stood at Rs.1,666 crore, up 21 percent against Rs.1,375 crore during the year ago period.

During the year ended March 31, the net profit stood at Rs.1,306 crore against a net loss of Rs.147 crore during the year ended March 31, 2011.

The income from operations stood at Rs.6,396 up 24 percent during the year under review against Rs.5,145 crore during previous financial year.

“We continue to make steady progress in our transformation journey. Our results in the past three years and the current quarter are a vindication of our growth strategy and fighting spirit of the team Mahindra Satyam,” said Vineet Nayyar, chairman, Mahindra Satyam.

“Despite uncertainties in the global market, our team has proved its mettle to sustain volume growth, improve margin, key client addition and creation of innovative platform and offerings,” he added.

The total headcount of the firm as on March 31 stood at 33,353, a net addition of 4,087 year on year.

The company also said that its attrition rate improved to 15 percent during the quarter under review against 22 in the corresponding quarter last year.

At the Bombay Stock Exchange the shares of the company closed 3.61 percent down at Rs.66.80.

“Volume based browsing rate on 3G down from 10 paisa per 10kb to 3 paisa per 10kb. This will be applicable for 3G non-pack users with effect from May 17, 2012,” the company said in a statement.

The company had won 3G spectrum in 13 out of the 22 telecom circles in a government-led auction in 2010 for over Rs.12,000 crore. The services which were launched across the country last year have failed to pick up so far due to high prices.

The company statement said that the new data plan for pre-paid customers would start at Rs.10 for 30 minutes of usage over a one-day validity, Rs.45 for 150 MB data valid for 7 days and will go till Rs.1,500 for 10 GB data valid for 30 days.

For post-paid customers, the plans starts at Rs.100 with a 300 MB data and 30 days validity, and goes till Rs.1,500 for 10 GB data valid for 30 days.

Airtel has also introduced Smartbytes additional data usage packs for its post-paid mobile customers on 3G, thus becoming the first in the market to offer customers with the choice of subscribing to incremental 3G data usage packs.

The Smartbytes additional data usage packs are available in a range of predetermined price options that allow Airtel 3G customers to choose a plan that suits their needs, while avoiding any bill shocks, the statement said.

The pipeline will transport Caspian Sea natural gas from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan into Pakistan and then to India.

The cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, approved the proposal of the ministry of petroleum and natural gas to permit GAIL (India) Ltd. to sign the gas sale and purchase agreement (GSPA) with TurrnenGas, Turkmenistan’s national oil company for the TAPI project.

The TAPI project is envisaged to be 1,680-km pipeline (144 km in Turkmenistan, 735 km in Afghanistan and 800 km in Pakistan) with a capacity to carry 90 million standard cubic feet per day (MMSCMD) of gas, with 38 MMSCMD each for India and Pakistan and the remaining 14 MMSCMD for Afghanistan.

The pipeline is expected to be operational in 2017 and supply gas over a 30 years’ period.

Afghanistan and Pakistan have committed to the safety and security of the pipeline through the Inter-Governmental Agreement and the Gas Purchase Framework Agreement signed among the four countries in December 2010.

The roots of this project lie in the involvement of international oil compani es in Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan beginning of 1990s. As Russia, who controlled all export pipelines of these countries, consistently refusing to allow the use of its pipeline network, these companies needed an independent export route avoiding both Iran and Russia.

The pipeline will be 1,420 millimetres (56 in) in diameter with a working pressure of 100 standard atmospheres (10,000 kPa). The cost of the pipeline is estimated cost at US$ 7.6 billion.The project is to be financed by the  Asian Development Bank.

However, the Indian currency closed marginally higher at 54.47 against a dollar — 0.04 percent higher than the previous day close at 54.49.

The rupee had hit a record intra-day as well as closing low Wednesday.

Analysts said the rupee might soon touch 55 against a dollar due to grim economic outlook and limitation of options left with the central bank to intervene in the market.

“Rupee is driving the markets. Traders and investors are keeping close eye on RBI action, though it seems RBI is running out of options,” said Kishor P Ostwal, chairman and managing director of CNI Research Ltd.

He said the rupee was heading towards 55 against a dollar which would keep the Indian equity markets on edge.

Earlier in the day, the rupee strengthened to 54.20 against a dollar taking cues from rebound in stock markets and RBI intervention. But due to continued risk aversion in the global markets, the rupee slipped to a new low in the late afternoon session.

The benchmark Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange closed 0.25 percent higher at 16,070.48 points after rising to 16,240.18 points level in the intra-day.

The wide-based Nifty of the National Stock Exchange closed 0.25 percent higher at 4,870.20 points.

“The market is ignoring positive news such as drop in oil prices. If rupee slips, the market has to slip further,” said Ostwal.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has taken a series of measures in the last few weeks to curb the rupee slide.

The RBI has asked banks to sell half of the foreign currencies in their accounts. In a bid to attract money from overseas, the RBI has raised interest ceiling that local banks can offer to overseas Indians in forex accounts.

The RBI has opened a direct dollar window for oil companies, which are worst hit because of the weakness in the domestic currency as they have to pay higher money for same import.

Now oil companies can buy dollar directly from the RBI instead of going to commercial banks. The central bank had introduced a similar facility in 2008 also.

The RBI last week asked exporters to convert at least 50 percent of their foreign exchange holdings in rupee.

To curb the slide, the RBI is also believed to have sold dollars through public sector banks.

Its sales have reached 86.6 million units, a 25.9 per cent increase from last year, as it took back the world’s number one smartphone position from Apple, selling 38 million units worldwide, research firm Gartner announced today.

he Korean major dethroned Nokia which could sell only 83.2 million units in the first quarter, a 22.7 per cent drop.

“Smartphone sales are becoming of paramount importance at a worldwide level. For example, smartphone volumes contributed to around 43.9 percent of the overall sales for Samsung as opposed to 16 percent for Nokia,” Gartner principal research analyst Anshul Gupta said.

In addition, Samsung‘s Android-based smartphone sales in the first quarter represented more than 40 per cent of Android-based smartphone sales worldwide, as no other vendor achieved more than a 10 per cent share of the market, he said.

Sales of smartphones continued to drive mobile device market growth, reaching 144.4 million units in the first quarter, up 44.7 per cent year-over-year.

This quarter also saw the top two smartphone vendors, Apple and Samsung, raising their combined share to 49.3 percent, up from 29.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2011, and widening their lead over Nokia, which saw its smartphone market share drop to 9.2 per cent. Meanwhile, Nokia‘s overal handset sales reached 83.2 million units in the first quarter, a 22.7 per cent drop from the first quarter of 2011, an official release said.

Narayana Murthy

Infosys Founder and currently its Chief Mentor Narayana Murthy has been felicitated with  Global Leadership and Free Enterprise awards by the University of South Florida. The two awards were presented to Murthy by USF President Judy Genshaft at a ceremony in Tampa, Florida.

While talking to its students, Murthy talked about his current duties as Infosys chairman emeritus, which keeps him busy though not involved in the day-to-day operations, and then engaged in a question and answer session.

Murthy recounted details about the impact of changes in the tech world that “transformed the entire scenario” for corporations and “opened up unlimited and enormous opportunities,” most significantly the introduction of super computers and online transaction capabilities.

Maria Valentino, who mentioned how impressed she was with the business culture she found during her visit to Infosys as a student, asked how his company managed to maintain its values. Murthy responded that, because of his middle class background, it was not as difficult to do as it might be for the mass of people eking out a living.

“You need a spirit of sacrifice and you need to have trust,” he said. He explained how the company’s ethos has its roots in the very first meeting held at his house in Mumbai with his six fellow founders. Their discussion was focused on profitability. Murthy focused their attention on “seeking respect,” “living in harmony with society” and making sure “you don’t shortchange your customers”.

When you do those things, “Revenue will come. Profit will come,” he said.

In response to a question about the chances of Murthy entering politics, he mentioned his preference for “rational discussion” and the difficulty the political world offers for such a discussion, he expressed some hesitation

The book which was released on Tuesday by Sreedharan’s successor and DMRC managing director Mangu Singh gives the entire credit of the organisation’s growth to the principles followed by  E Sreedharan, who infused a new work environment.

“The book encapsulates the ten years of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation and its successful journey, from the concept to construction to the running stage — and the difficulties faced during the initial years and the management principles evolved by E. Sreedharan,” Dayal said.

Priced at Rs.350 and available at Metro Museum, the book lists 25 strategies that are being followed at the DMRC, and form its success.

Delhi Metro makes over 2,400 trips a day, covering about 70,000 km and carrying around 18 lakh passengers on working days.

In November last year, Railways had reduced the advance reservation period of Tatkal tickets from two days to one day (24 hours).

For example, if a train is to depart from the originating station on second day of the month then the Tatkal quota for that particular train will open at 08.00 hours of the first day of the month.

As per the Tatkal scheme, a maximum of four passengers can be booked per PNR for Tatkal tickets and no refund will be granted on cancellation of confirmed Tatkal tickets except in exceptional circumstances. No duplicate tickets will be issued except only in exceptional cases on payment of full fare, including Tatkal charges.

Tatkal tickets shall be issued only on production of prescribed photo identity card. For this purpose, a self attested photo copy of the proof of identity of any one passenger is required to be attached to the requisition slip