Realisation has now dawned on Ajit Nambiar that he has to take measures to get BPL out of the dumps. The top-most on his list is, the 50:50 JV he has got into with Japan’s consumer electronic giant Sanyo. Nambiar hopes to regain his cash balances as well as lost position as market leader of electronics business within the next three years, with the help of Sanyo’s technological expertise. As far as the telecom sector goes, the tycoon has begun testing his one-second billing, along with the now common flat STD tariff that he hopes will tempt people enough to his services. If you think this is the limit in desperately trying to pick up market share, you must hear out his plans of selling 4 lakh phones in the first year itself! Ambani’s info highway After expanding his telecom network into West Bengal, Sikkim and Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Mukesh Ambani is looking at new routes to widen this sector. And he has chosen the automobile sector as a new driver for demand for his telecom sector. The tycoon believes that since the auto sector has the capacity to take India from the $500 billion economy it is today to a $2 trillion economy within the next 10 years, other sectors he’s involved in like polyester, plastic, synthetic rubber, steel and IT ought to be more closely connected with the sector. He is even trying to convince other tycoons from those sectors that a growth in automobiles will mean mutually profiteering opportunities for all of them. Ambani might just be onto something big. Some say he is working on the fact that India possesses a large radio frequency infrastructure. Once he can get this radio frequency and fibre optic infrastructure accessed via vehicles, he will for example be able to have petroleum retailing networks electronically monitor every vehicle that drives into a petroleum outlet and thus help deliver superior quality service — read more petrol and allied products — to his customers. So don’t be surprised if Ambani delivers a range of information and security systems some time in the not-so-distant future. Mukesh is clearly hoping to harness IT expertise to a whole new level. If he carries off his high tech plan, services such as vehicle-tracking, registration and vehicle design can reach a whole new platform. Ambani is also open to partnering with the government in his new plan. Anyone listening can hear vast quantities of petroleum products soon flowing through Indian information highways. Flying high or far Is Gautam Singhania busy plotting his own low cost airline? Chances are that the silence that Raymonds is maintaining, just means that he is getting his numbers figured out. The tycoon’s father the high flying Vijaypat, a keen aviator himself, has long preferred to play cautious, except for the time when he decided to undertake a solo flight in his microlight aircraft from UK to India, establishing a new Guinness world record. But whether or not aviation is a new expansion area, growing the textile business certainly is. Gautam is on his way to set up a fabric plant in Thailand, with a capacity of 10 million metres, for an investment of $40 million. A cool Rs 40 crore will also be invested into a denim wear plant back home in Bangalore. This will help the tycoon cement his position as the second-largest player of the denim segment in the country and give him more than enough reason to fly high, perhaps! — dilipcherian@hotmail.com
