THE TIMES OF INDIA, NEW DELHIFRIDAY, DECEMBER 12, 201428 TIMES BUSINESS

MEGA CORP DIGEST

Vendor developmentprogrammes heldThe MSME-Development Institute, Ministry ofMSME, in association with Engineers India Limited(EIL), Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) &National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC), NewDelhi, organized National Vendor DevelopmentProgramme (NVDP)-cum-Industrial Exhibition onvarious items procured by these organizations. Theobjective of the event was to create awarenessabout public procurement policy.

NTPC signs term loanagreementNTPC has signed a term loan agreement for Rs.2000crore with HDFC Bank, and another term loanagreement for Rs.1000 crore has been signed with

Syndicate Bank. Both loan agreements have a doorto door tenure of 15 years and will be utilised to partfinance the capital expenditure of NTPC.Agreements were signed in the presence of K.Biswal, Director (Finance), NTPC.

NIOS results declaredThe National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS)under the Department of School Education andLiteracy, Ministry of HRD, has successfullycompleted the NIOS exams. About 1.40 lakh numberof learners appeared for the secondary examinationand 1.60 lakhs number of learners appeared for thesenior secondary examinations. The results are outon NIOS website www.nios.ac.in.

Communication workshopA communication workshop was organised at NTPCFaridabad for senior executives. The workshop wasinaugurated by N.N. Mishra, GM. In his address tothe employees Mishra emphasized on the important

role of communication and urged the participantsfor flow of positive communication.

LPG scheme by Jan. 1Pahal, direct benefit transfer of LPG scheme, is to belaunched in the country by January 1, 2015. Thescheme was reviewed by Dr. Neeraj Mittal, JointSecretary (Marketing), Ministry of Petroleum &Natural Gas, in the presence of Keshni Anand Arora,DDG, UIDAI, Regional Office, Chandigarh; A.N. Jha,ED (LPG) Indian Oil; and P.K. Das, ED, Indian Oil(Punjab, HP, J&K and Chandigarh UT).

SPMCIL declares dividendSecurity Printing and Minting Corporation of IndiaLimited (SPMCIL) has declared Rs. 42.92 crore finaldividend. M.S. Rana, CMD, SPMCIL, presented thedividend cheque to Union Minister of Finance, ArunJaitley.

Painting competitions heldIn an endeavor to bring cognizance to energyconservation at grass route level, the Ministry ofPower has been organizing painting competition forschool children under the national awarenesscampaign in the country. The Bureau of EnergyEfficiency along with CPSUs NTPC Limited, NHPCLimited, PGCIL, BBMB, SJVN Limited, NEEPCO, PFC,THDC Limited, NHDC Limited, CPRI, REC, DVCcoordinated the painting competition on all Indiabases.

CSR initiativesPNB Prerna : Winter clothes were distributed to thestudents of "Mamta Ka Aangan" in Ghaziabad. The

president and other office-bearers of PNB Prerna,NCR-Noida, distributed these to the students.

NSIC: Ravindra Nath, CMD, NSIC, inaugurated CSR

initiative of NSIC, "Medical Assistance to DifferentlyAbled" in Gujarat. NSIC has pledged a sum of Rs.8.96 lakh for distributing 160 tricycles to differentlyabled persons. NSIC has also sanctioned a totalamount of Rs.4,99,950 for conducting medicalcamps at eight different places for differently abledpersons. Ravindra Nath inaugurated the functionand distributed tricycles to 55 beneficiaries. A totalof 3,333 differently abled persons will be treatedthrough these medical camps which will be held atthe different Blind Person Association (BPA)campuses at Vastrapur, Bareja, Bhuj, Bavla, Naaz,Palanpur, Sayla and in Deskoi Taluka in the state ofGujarat.

BSF’s Golden Jubileecelebrations heldThe Border Security Force (BSF) celebrated 49 years

of distinguished and illustrious service to the nation.The Golden Jubilee celebration unfolded at BSFCamp Chhawla with an impressive parade andmarch past. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singhgraced the occasion and took the salute from acontingent representing various frontiers and wingsof the force.

Changes in BIS act proposedThe Bureau of Indian Standards has taken positivesteps towards giving impetus to “Make In India”

campaign by proposing changes in the BIS Act, 1986.The need for amendment to BIS Act-1986, accruedfrom situations demanding BIS to keep pace withthe changing requirements of the industry. RamVilas Paswan, Minister of Consumer Affairs, Foodand Public Distribution, addressed the stakeholdersat BIS meet.

P.M. meets world cup winnersThe Prime Minister met the world cup winning

Indian blind cricket team at his residence. Hepersonally congratulated each member of the team.

He also congratulated the captain of the team,Shekar Naik, and Ketan Patel, the player who wasdeclared the man of the series.

IRCTC-ATDC joint ventureA joint venture company will be formed betweenIRCTC and Assam Tourism Development Corporation(ATDC) by end of this year. This is being plannedwith an aim to build up Guwahati and Kamakhyastations as model stations for developing luxuryreligious and eco-tourism in north-eastern statesinvolving railways.

ONGC Videsh wins explorationblockONGC Videsh Ltd has won an exploration block --14TAR-R1 -- in New Zealand in the bidding roundblock offer-2014 by the government of New Zealand.The bidding round was launched in April 2014. Theexploration permit has been awarded to ONGCVidesh by Simon Bridges, Minister of Energy andResources, Government of New Zealand at a formalceremony held at Wellington.

Awards & AccoladesNTPC: President Pranab Mukherjee presented theNational Awards-2014 to NTPC Kawas employeeUrvashi B. Garala, Junior Officer (Finance) for the

empowerment of persons with disabilities on theoccasion of International Day of Disabled Persons.Dr. Arup Roy Choudhury, CMD, NTPC, Director(Finance) Kulmani Biswal, along with other officialsof NTPC, were present during the ceremony.

REC receives gold medal at IITFREC was conferred the gold medal for excellence inpresentation of the theme – Women Empowermentat the concluding ceremony of IITF 2014. RajeevSharma , CMD, REC, received the award fromMahesh Sharma, Minister of State of Culture andTourism (Independent Charge) & Civil Aviation. FromREC the award ceremony was attended by SA K.Agarwal, Director (Finance), Vinod Behari, ED(HR/CC), and other officials.

Rajnath Singh, Home Minister, inaugurated thebranch of Oriental Bank of Commerce at Bentivillage in Lucknow. On this occasion, the HomeMinister handed over loan sanction letters towomen beneficiaries in the presence ofBhupinder Nayyar and Suresh N. Patel, EDs ofthe bank.

K.D. Tripathi, Secretary, DPE, presente GoldTrophy of the SCOPE Business Quiz Bonanza2014-15 to the national winners, NTPC Team, inthe presence of C.S. Verma, Chairman, SCOPEand Chairman, SAIL, Dr. U.D. Choubey, DG ofSCOPE, and Ashok Kumar Pavadia, JointSecretary, DPE.

Canara Bank Delhi Circle organized mega retailexpo in Dwarka. It was inaugurated by V.S.Krishnakumar, ED, Canara Bank. Heman KumarTamta, GM, and other officials were also presenton the occasion.

For more tech stories, visit toitech.com

downloadsMaps.MeMaps.Me is a location and navigation

app that works even without network access. Just choose the country where you need location services and download the map along with routing information. There is no restriction on the number or the size of the maps you can download. Once you have these on your handset, you can be offline – but with GPS enabled – and you

will still be able to search for important landmarks without consuming any data. The app allows you to create waypoints of the places you visit to

share with friends and family. If you have ‘favorited’ places in other map services, you can import those into Maps.Me as well. Since the data is saved locally, the app’s response times – searching, routing, zooming in to and out of an area – is pretty snappy. Maps.Me is extremely handy if you plan on travelling outside your local network provider’s coverage area. Android, BlackBerry, iOS, Kindle Fire | Free

HolidayIQHolidayIQ is an India-centric discovery

app where you can browse over 2,000 cities, 60,000 landmarks, and read travel reviews without registering with the service. But if you want to share personal accounts of your own holidays or make a booking at one of its listed 50,000 hotels or homestays, then you will need to create an HI account. You can

search for a place or “Discover India” to scroll through a list of cities – from Katra to Kochi and Dwarka to Dibrugarh – that have been authored

by other HI subscribers. Alternatively, you can head to HI’s blog within the app for a quick listing of attractions and the “Indian festival calendar” to time your next holiday. Your own travel reviews should include a 250-word description with details like facilities for family or couple, whether free or paid, best time to visit, etc. Android, iOS | Free

RGB ExpressRGB Express is a colour-based puzzle

game that has you controlling a cargo company. You have to deliver colour blocks to their proper destinations using similarly-coloured trucks. For instance, a red-coloured truck can only pick up a red-coloured package that needs to be dropped at a red-coloured building. The controls are simple: slide a path from a

coloured truck to its destination and hit the “play” button to start shipment. You have to make sure that the different coloured routes do not overlap with

each other. The game starts off in easy mode, but the routing puzzles quickly become tougher to solve, complete with multiple pick-ups and button-activated drawbridges. Successful deliveries earn you coins that help you navigate through to the next stage. RGB Express is a brainteaser that will appeal to gamers of all ages.Android, Kindle Fire | Free, iOS | `190

Strange Science Many of us now know evolution to be a

fact of life. But this has only been possible because of scientists who pushed the envelope, theorized and made assumptions to join the dots. Strange Science is a fun website that chronicles some of the weirdest mistakes made in the fields of palaeontology and biology. Here, you will find contemporary artistic renderings of sea serpents, unicorns, and other creatures proposed by scholars. And you will even find a complete section devoted to biographies of scientists, artists and bone collectors. The website might come across as too verbose, but makes for interesting reading nonetheless. In fact, it’s a wonderful treasure trove of information for anyone working on a school project.strangescience.net

Why To ReadMost of us have made a transition to

reading on our tablets, smartphones and e-book readers. Procuring books, therefore, does not require a trudge to the neighbourhood store. The bigger problem, however, is finding good titles to read. Well, WTR introduces you to books that you hadn’t heard of before, or never realized were interesting. On this site, you will find blog posts such as 6 Best Short Books To Read In Two Days, Books With Incredible Endings, 5 Short Stories For Kids, 7 Books With The Best Plot Twists, and more. Besides, there are five new lists added every week. To make browsing easier, you can also look for titles by sifting through nearly 50 categories, including biography, crime, romance, fantasy, humour, mystery and sci-fi. And each title is also hyperlinked to a web store from where you can buy. whytoread.com

Tube ChopAt times you might want to share just a

small piece of a YouTube video with friends, or use an excerpt on your website. Or perhaps, you might want to mark a specific portion for quick reference. For all of this, try Tube Chop – an online service that lets you easily chop any section from any YouTube video and share it. Use a keyword search to find the clip you want, or enter its URL. Then select the portion you want to chop by keying in its start and end time, or by using Tube Chop’s slider feature. Type some text to describe your selection and hit the “chop it” button. You will then be presented with links that you can embed in your website or share with friends on social networks. www.tubechop.com

TECHTONIC

bookmarks

— Savio D’Souza and Ashutosh Desai

New Delhi: Rationalization ofcoal linkages to power plantswould help save Rs 6,000 crore,coal and power minister PiyushGoyal informed the Lok Sabhaon Thursday. Replying to ques-tions, the minister said the gov-ernment was working on a planunder which coal blocks wouldsupply fuel to the nearest powerplants. This would be done byswapping coal linkages.

He explained that under pre-sent arrangement, most of thepower plants have linkages tocoal blocks located far away. Thisleads to heavy expenditure ontransportation.

Citing an example, he saidrecently NTPC and GujaratState Electricity Corporationentered into a pact for swappingone million tonne of coal, whichis expected to save over Rs 300crore for the state government.

This experiment would beexpanded to other states, whichwould help save Rs 6,000 croreand benefit consumers.

Separately answering a que-ry on whether public sectorbanks give credit against coallinkages, he said 11 public sectorbanks have more than Rs 51,000crore worth exposure to variouscoal linkages. Goyal said thenew long term coal linkages orLetter of Assurances have notbeen granted to any sector since2010 due to low coal production.According to him, availability offuel was not sufficient to cater torequirements of linkages grant-ed to all power projects.

“The growth in productionof coal in India was only 0.2% in2010-11 and 1.3% in 2011-12 asagainst 6.1% in 2007-08, 7.8% in2008-09 and 8% in 2009-10. Hence,the production of coal in thecountry was not commensuratewith the projections of its availa-bility.”

Goyal said there were wellestablished procedures for pro-viding coal linkages. Recently, acase came to government's at-tention where the shareholdingof the company was changed af-ter it received permission forcoal linkage. Subsequently, thegovernment has denied permis-sion to that entity, he said.

He, however, did not give spe-cific details. Responding to an-other query, Goyal said thelarger focus is on providing coallinkages to independent powerprojects where the electricitytariffs are regulated.

In case of captive powerplants, there is no price controland the price is determined bythe market. The minister said nonew coal linkage has been givento such plants in recent yearsdue to various factors, includinglow fuel production.

Coal linkagerationalizationto save ̀̀ 6k cr,

says GoyalNew Delhi:German carmajor Audimay drive inthe A3 hatch-back in Indianext year as

the company looks to main-tain its leadership in the lux-ury car market at a timewhen compatriot MercedesBenz closes in.

The company, which ex-pects to clock a double-digitgrowth this year over the10,000 units it sold in 2013,said it will drive in as many as10 new products in 2015which will include upgradesand refreshes and also all-new ones.

“We are confident of de-fending our leadership, andwe will be competitive,” JoeKing, head of Audi in India,told TOI here after the com-

pany drove in the A3 Cabrio-let priced at Rs 44.75 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). “We areconfident of maintainingdouble-digit growth in 2015as well, and volumes canmove up by 15-20%.”

Audi, which had overtak-en BMW to gain leadership inthe Indian luxury market,has been coming under in-

creasing pressure from Mer-cedes Benz that has been on aroll since the launch of new-generation models. Mer-cedes has been driving innew cars in India and theseinclude the A- and B-Classcompacts, apart from theGLA SUV and the CLA entrypremium sedan.

King refused to confirmthe entry of the A3 hatch-back, but said the new models

will include upgrades to theQ3 and the Q7 SUVs. “We arealso looking at some othermodels as well as newer seg-ments.”

The market for luxury ve-hicles in India is about 35,000annually and apart from thethree German brands, theother major player is Tatas-owned Jaguar and Land Rov-er. King said that the econom-ic slowdown in India has hadsome impact on the demandfor luxury vehicles, thoughthe entry of the Modi govern-ment in May has eased offsome of the pressure.

“The situation is improv-ing, though we still need re-lief measures like a lower ex-cise duty regime that wasintroduced to give a leg-up todemand.” Audi plans to in-crease localisation efforts inIndia as it drives in new mod-els which will be assembledin the country.

Audi India looks todrive in A3 hatchbackPankaj.Doval@timesgroup.com

TO TIGHTEN GRIPON TOP SLOT

The rupee tumbled to itslowest level in morethan nine months,

tracking a fall in local sharesas a recent slump in oil pricessparked concerns about thehealth of the global economy.

The Reserve Bank of Indialikely sold dollars via state-owned banks around 62.35 perdollar to contain the rupee’sfall, traders said. The Indiancurrency ended 33 paise lowerthan its Wednesday’s close of62.02 against the dollar.

Foreign institutional in-vestors sold Indian equity de-rivatives worth Rs 1,915 croreon Wednesday, exchange datashows, which also weighed onthe rupee. AGENCIES

Re hits over9-month

low at 62.35

SSTL, Sistema JSFC to host1st Indo-Russian Youth Inno-vation Summit: Sistema Shy-am TeleServices Limited(SSTL), which provides telecomservices under the brand MTS,along with its parent CompanySistema JSFC will join handswith the Russian Federal Agen-cy for CIS Affairs to host the firstever Indo-Russian Youth Inno-vation Summit. The summit isdevoted to state-of-the-art tech-nologies and prospects of inter-national cooperation in thesphere of telecom innovationsand seeks to expand cooperationbetween Russia and India. TNN

New Delhi:Providing big re-lief to car manufacturers,who have been objecting tothe stringent mandatory re-call norm, the road transportministry has suggested achange in the proposed RoadTransport and Safety Bill. Re-placing the earlier provisionof “100 complaints” to triggerarecall, the revised draft doesnot specify any such number.

The bill proposes settingup of a national authoritythat would look into all as-pects of vehicle safety. The re-vised provision of the billsays that the authority willhave the power to recall,based on certain specifiedconditions in the bill.

For example, the author-ity can recall a car or a varia-nt where a defect may causeharm to the driver or occu-

pants of that vehicle or to oth-er road users. The bill saysthis provision can be invokedwhen “a defect in that partic-ular type of motor vehiclehas been reported to the na-tional authority by such per-centage of owners as speci-fied” by it. Sources said thiswas done after looking intothe representation of differ-ent stakeholders, includingthe car manufacturers, whowere against any specifiednumber to trigger a recall.Sources said the focus is tomake the law implementableand not arbitrary.

However, other condi-tions for recall include manu-facturers shall be liable to paycompensation in case ofdamage caused due to a crashwhere it was caused by a me-chanical or electrical defectin the vehicle that existed atthe time of manufacture.

Draft bill proposesrelief for auto cos

on recall conditionDipak.Dash@timesgroup.com

Mumbai: After a day’s breather, Indian stocks continued theirdownslide on Thursday with sensex tumbling 229 points to six-week low of 27,602 on sharp losses in RIL and ONGC after fur-ther drop in crude oil price. Similarly, the 50-issue CNX nifty ofthe NSE also plunged by 62.8 points, or 0.8%, to end below 8,300-mark for the first time after one and half months at 8,292.9. PTI

Sensex falls to 6-week lows