Karnataka chief minister J H Patel on Wednesday sought Centre's early clearance of some of the pending state projects such as Rs 4000-crore Cogentrix power plant and the international airport at Bangalore. During his 40-minute meeting with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Patel invited him to participate in the national debate on communal harmony, to be organised by the state government at Bangalore sometime in the last week of this month, state government sources said in New Delhi.

Vindhyachal plant stage-II synchronised: The first 500 mw unit of the second stage of Vindhyachal super thermal power project of National Thermal Power Corporation was synchronised on Wednesday. With this, NTPC had added 940 mw during 1998-99. Earlier, 2 units of 115 mw each at Kayamkulam combined cycle power project in Kerala and one 210 mw unit at Feroze Gandhi Unchahar Thermal Power Project in Uttar Pradesh were commissioned. With this, the total installedcapacity of ntpc has risen to 17735 mw. Vindhyachal project is located at Sidhi district of Madhya Pradesh.

KEB restores power supply to KIOC: The Karnataka Electricity Board, which had last week disconnected power supply to the Kudremukh Iron Ore Company, restored it on Wednesday, after the company made a part payment of Rs 20 crore. Kiocl executive director KV Thayagarajan told UNI that the power supply to the plant was restored at about 4 pm. The power tariff dues, amounting to Rs 136 crore, which he termed as "unjustified", to the KEB would be settled on March 12 at a meeting, scheduled to be attended by Union steel secretary AK Basu.

REC earns Rs 178.31 cr net: The Rural Electrification Corporation has earned a profit of Rs 178.31 crore during the first three quarters of the current financial year. Accrding to an official release issued on Wednesday in New Delhi, this is the highest ever profit earned by the company so far. During 1997-98, REC earned a profit of Rs 120.73 crore. Thetotal disbursement upto December, 1998 has been Rs 621.60 crore compared to Rs 285.83 crore for the corresponding period of the oprevious year. The recoveries during the three quarters of 1998-99 are Rs 939.70 crore as against Rs 590.71 crore for the same period of the previous year, the release added.

NCRPB completes 56 projects: The National Planning Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB) has completed 56 of the 126 approved since 1985, an official release said on Wednesday. The board has granted loan of Rs 1,210.30 crore, out of which a sum of Rs 608.5 crore has been released to the participating state governments and their implementing agencies. The total cost of the projects is Rs 2,280 crore.

Insulation peel off led to Insat-2D failure: Peeling off of insulation near the power source for Insat-2D satellite was responsible for a short circuit that eventually crippled the satellite and led to its abandonment in 1997, a senior Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) official said onWednesday. The chances of such peeling off of insulation is one in abillion, R rangarajan, insat mission director at ISRO in bangalore said, adding it could have been a quality defect. Insat-2D Was declared "inoperable" on October 5, just three months after launch, following a short circuit in one of the two power buses on the satellite on October 1, he said.

US University to open satellite campus in Punjab: Wisconsin University of the US is planning to open a `satellite campus' in Punjab, Wisconsin Governor Tommy G Thompson said on Wednesday in Bangalore. He told a meeting organised by the Greater Mysore Chamber of Industry (Gmci) that the campus, initially confined to medicine and business management, would start in January next year.

Himachal SEB signs MoU for generation: A wheeling agreement was signed on Wednesday between the Himachal Pradesh state electricity board and the Malana Power Company Limited for generation of power at the 86 mw Malana hydro electric project from Bajaura inKullu district to nalagarh in Solan district. Speaking on the occasion, chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said that the Malana project execution would be a new experiment in the power sector where incentive had been linked with efficiency. This had been appreciated by all even by the Prime Minister, he added. The endeavour of the government was to harness the identified 21,000 mw of hydel potential at the earliest so that Himachal Pradesh could become self sufficient and one of the prosperious state in the country.

PK Misra elected chief of NEDAC:

Managing director of National Cooperative Development Corporation PK Mishra has been elected as chairman of the Regional Network for Development of Agricultural Cooperatives in Asia and Pacific (NEDAC). The decision was taken during the executive committee meeting of NEDAC held in February at Bangkok. Nedac, an FAO sponsored network among the member countries of Asia Pacific region was established in 1991, and is based at the regional office of FAO forAsia and Pacific regions at Bangkok.

Hearing in DoT vs telecom operators case begins

The Delhi high court on Wednesday heard the first round of arguments in the case filed by telecom operators. The next round of arguments will be heard on Thursday. The petitioners are seeking to restrain the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) from encashing bank guarantees and proceeding against them on other counts, following their refusal to pay up 20 per cent of outstanding licence fees.

Noted lawyer Shanti Bhushan is representing Birla AT&T and Essar Commvision, while Tata Teleservices and Hughes Ispat have engaged Arun Jetley and Venugopal, respectively. The DoT is being represented by Government counsel Rakesh Tikoo.

The petitioners alleged before Justice MK Sharma that it was because of the delay on part of DoT and other Government agencies they were unable to pay up the fees.

The operators alleged that by allowing ISPs last mile linkages, the DoT had violated the duopoly clause in the licenceagreement.

The three said "voice over internet protocol" service that ISPs could provide, was so cheap that anyone could make international calls at the rate of local calls, making basic telephone services by private operators totally unviable.

Bharti BT Internet awarded ISP licence

Bharti BT Internet Ltd, a joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and British Telecommunications Plc, was awarded a national internet service provider licence by the Department of Telecommunications on Thursday.

The company plans to launch a portfolio of services in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore at an investment of Rs 50 crore. The company also plans to expand its services to other prominent Indian cities over the next 18 months.

"We will aim to completely eliminate the difficulties faced by internet users in India and make access extremely easy, affordable and easy to use for all," said chief executive officer N Arjun.

The licence allows BBIL to offer a range of internet services to both corporates andindividuals throughout India, through a category A national licence.

BBIL is the first Indian ISP with an internationally experienced partner in BT. BT is a leading player in the UK with services such as BT Internet, BT Web World for web hosting and BTNT for leased line and corporate services, said a company release.

HCL Y2K Helpline

HCL Infosystems Ltd on Wednesday announced launch of a nationwide, toll free Y2K assistance service called the HCL Y2K Helpline. The company's decision comes close on the heels of the announcement in the Union Budget that all investments incurred in Y2K solutions would enjoy 100 per cent tax exemption.The service, which will assist called with all Y2K-related problems, will be available to computer users of all brands across the country. Users can log in their queries on single pager number 9622-005566, common to four metros, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Coimbatore and Pune or via e-mail to y2k@hclinsys.com.

According to a press release, engineers at HCL'stelesupport centres will respond within 24 hours of receiving the query. While immediate telephonic assistance will be provided to all hardware and Microsoft products related queries, advanced queries on issues such as impact analysis, application and data migration etc will be addressed by e-mail.

HCL Infosys' GM (marketing) Sharad Talwar said: "With the entire world seized with the millennium bug and the potential havoc it can cause, we are today faced with a race against time to address the problem. Timely assistance is the need of the hour. We are pleased to offer this unique assistance to users to address their Y2K concerns."PhotoAsia '99 from FridayPhotoAsia '99, Asia's largest photography and imaging exhibition organised by Tata Donnelley Ltd, will begin in New Delhi on Friday.The exhibition will offer visitors a unique opportunity to access the latest technology and products in three broad areas of consumer photo/video imaging, professional photo and imaging and photo finishing.

Accordingto Tata Donnelley managing director HS Billimoria, over 100 big and small companies from India and abroad are participating in the exhibition.