Briefly Business

BSNL,MTNL cash reserves at Rs 41K cr

NEW DELHI: Public sector telcos BSNL and MTNL together have Rs 41,471 crore cash on hand as of September 2009,the government said on Thursday. As per the provisional and unaudited accounts,cash and bank balance of BSNL is 36,392.42 crore and MTNL is Rs 5,078.59 crore,minister of state for IT and telecom Gurudas Kamat said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.

Commodity bourse ICEX goes live today

NEW DELHI: Indian Commodity Exchange (ICEX),the country’s fourth national-level commodity bourse,will start trading operations live on Friday with six commodities. Multi Commodity Exchange,NCDEX and NMCE are other national-level commodity exchanges. “We have decided to go live on November 27,” exchange’s managing director and chief executive officer Ajit Mittal.

Satyam to appoint 1,000 freshers

MUMBAI: IT major,Mahindra Satyam,plans to appoint 1,000 freshers by December 15,a top company official said. “The process is on and we will give appointment letters to 1,000 freshers out of the 8,000 selected during campus recruitment by December 15,” Mahindra Satyam’s Chief People Officer,Hari Thalapalli,told reporters on the sidelines of a conference here on Thursday.

ESPN STAR threatens to switch off Hathway

MUMBAI: Leading sports broadcaster ESPN STAR Sports on Thursday said it has served notices for switching off signals for its channels on cable network operator Hathway Cable and Datacom due to non-payment of dues. While signals have been switched off already in some cities,all the ESPN STAR Sports channels would go off-air across the country from December 1 on Hathway’s cable network.

ONGC eyes stake in Iran gas field

NEW DELHI: Oil exploration major ONGC is eyeing a 20-25 per cent stake in a giant Iranian gas field even as it awaits Tehran’s nod for its plan to develop a gas field it had discovered two years ago. ONGC Videsh,the overseas arm of ONGC,will discuss participation in the development of Phase-12 of the gigantic South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf when top officials of Iranian national oil firm visit the country next week,sources said.