New Delhi: Around 350 employees of Byrraju Foundation, a non-profit organisation founded by the family of tainted ex-promoter of Satyam Computer Ramalingam Raju, have quit since the multi-crore rupees scam surfaced in January.

The Foundation now has 850 people on its payroll, down from 1,200 immediately before the scam came to light, Byrraju Foundation CEO Jacob Verghese told PTI.

The employees left as they were told that only a part of their remuneration would be guaranteed as the Raju family would not be able to support the Foundation because of the legal trouble that they are in, he added.

“The Raju family used to provide Rs 10-20 crore out of the annual budget of Rs 30 crore of the Foundation. After the family got into legal trouble, we told the employees that only 40-50 per cent of their salaries would be guaranteed.

Many of them chose to quit,” Verghese said.

He, however, claimed many of those who left still work as volunteers on weekends for the initiatives of the Foundation.

On the funding of the Foundation, Verghese said the Rajus provided money out of their own pocket and “not a single penny was taken from Satyam”. The same is true for the Rs 30-40 crore per annum funding of EMRI, another

non-profit body set up by the Rajus.

Byrraju Foundation was set up in July 2001 to provide services in healthcare, environment, sanitation, primary education, adult literacy and skills development.

The Foundation works in 200 villages in six districts of Andhra Pradesh.

New Delhi: Bharti Airtel, India’s top mobile operator, reported a 21 per cent rise in quarterly profit as it added more users in the world’s fastest-growing wireless market and kept tariffs steady unlike its rivals.

The company, in which Southeast Asia’s top phone firm SingTel owns about 31 per cent, said its board had approved its maiden dividend and a two-for-one stock split.

Mobile operators have added subscribers at a rapid pace in India, with cheaper call rates and an expansion in networks boosting growth.

Operators signed up a total 130 million subscribers in the year to end-March, including a record 44.5 million last quarter.

But cut-throat competition is biting, with firms cutting tariffs and giving away free minutes.

“Our focus on rural penetration and customer affordability has been instrumental in delivering this strong growth,” Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Mittalsaid in a statement.

“The India growth story continues and we expect revival of the economy in the second half of this fiscal year.”

Bharti shares rose as much as 3.5 per cent in early deals after the results, and by 10:30 am (0500 GMT) had trimmed the gains to 0.7 per cent.

Bharti said January-March net profit rose to 22.39 billion rupees ($446 million) under US accounting standards from 18.52 billion rupees a year ago.

It suffered a forex loss of 2.36 billion Rupees as its net payout on foreign currency denominated loans increased due to a weaker Rupee, which fell 4 per cent against the dollar in January-March, the company’s fiscal fourth quarter.

Revenue rose 26 per cent to 98.25 billion rupees from 78.19 billion rupees.

A Reuters poll of 12 brokerages had forecast net profit of 22.1 billion rupees on revenue of 101.46 billion Rupees.

Bharti added a record 8.3 million mobile users last quarter to boost its total to nearly 94 million or about 24 per cent of the market.

EBITDA margin, a key gauge of profitability, was at 40.7 per cent in the March quarter.

Average revenue per user fell 15 per cent to 305 rupees last quarter as it won more new users in rural areas, where users talk less on phones and some use mobiles just to answer calls.

Minutes of usage fell 4 per cent to 485 minutes.

Bharti shares fell 13 percent in the quarter, underperforming a 0.6 per cent rise in the broader market.

Second-ranked Reliance Communications is set to announce a fall in net profit when it reports its earnings on Thursday.

New Delhi: Reliance Communications, India’s second-biggest mobile cell phone operator, posted a narrower-than-expected 3.3 per cent fall in quarterly profit on Thursday as the costs of expanding its GSM services weighed.

Reliance, which added a record 11.3 million subscribers during the March quarter after it expanded its GSM mobile operations to all of India, said its net profit fell to 14.54 billion rupees ($292 million) in its fiscal fourth quarter ended March, from 15.03 billion in the same period last year.

Revenue rose 15.3 per cent to 61.24 billion rupees. Analysts polled by Reuters had on average expected a net profit of 13.30 billion on revenue of 60.88 billion for the Mumbai-based firm, which had 72.7 million subscribers at the end of March accounting for more than 18 per cent of the wireless market.

Most of Reliance’s subscribers use a CDMA technology service but the company is aggressively pushing its GSM business with lower entry costs and free talk time.

It expanded its GSM service in January to cover all of India. Reliance’s larger rival Bharti Airtel on Wednesday reported a 21 per cent rise in quarterly profits.

If reports are to be believed then Shah Rukh will soon have his vendetta on Aamir.
According to industry insiders, SRK is replacing his archrival Aamir Khan in Farhan Akhtar-Ritesh Sidhwani’s next.

Apparently Ritesh approached Aamir with a film idea on the sets of 3 Idiots. Riding high on his new market value, Aamir refused to agree to whatever Sidhwani offered. He demanded a whopping fee for acting in the film and on the top of that, wanted a percentage share from the movie’sprofits. There was no love lost between the producer and the actor, and eventually Sidhwani walked out on Aamir, which is quite ironical since their last venture together with Farhan had delivered the super hit cult film Dil Chahta Hai.

Meanwhile, Ritesh did confirm that talks with Aamir had failed but refused to reveal who exactly is going to replace the actor. But since the incident, rumour mills haven’t stopped buzzing that in all probability it’s going to be Shah Rukh Khan. Shah Rukh is anyways a favorite with Farhan , who made Don with King Khan and now plans to make Don 2 with him.

Well, the people in Aamir’s camp insist that the perfectionist Khan didn’t disagree over the cost rather it was the quality of the script that disappointed him. Aamir is currently finishing Rajkumar Hirani’s 3 Idiots where Aamir is co-starring with Kareena for the first time.

Looks like for once it’s going to be Aamir’s loss, and Shah Rukh’s gain in this war of mighty Khans.