Main Page                                                 Archives

Rebels attack state-run Nepalese TV station

     Kathmandu: Hundreds of suspected Maoist rebels attacked a state-run Nepalese TV station, halting broadcasts to the country's southwest, officials said today. According to The News, the rebels stormed the Nepal Television (NTV) station at Kohalpur near Nepalgunj town in Banke district, about 500 kilometres southwest of here, at about 11:00pm on Thursday, setting fire to its offices, a security source said. The suspected Maoists then looted seven video cameras and video sets and other equipment from the station. Nobody was injured in the attack but the stations broadcasts to middle and far western Nepal were suspended for an indefinite period due to the damage caused, said the source.

Wipro's Premji rings the closing bell at NYSE (Go To Top)

     New York: Azim Premji, chief of India's third largest software firm Wipro Ltd. rang the Closing Bell at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Friday, underlining the IT major's increasing global influence. Bangalore based Wipro, riding high on surging outsourcing demands beat forecasts to post a 60 percent rise in quarterly profits earlier this year, Wipro's net profits in its fiscal third quarter to Dec. 31 rose to 4.27 billion rupees from 2.66 billion a year earlier. Revenue grew 34 percent to 20.9 billion rupees. The massive firm, whose clients include Cisco Systems Inc and Nortel Networks Corp, added 24 new names to the list 2004 and net additions to its workforce totalled 2,872 people. A fast-growing call centre arm, Spectramind, accounts for around a third of Wipro's more than 27,000 workers. Wipro has metamorphosed from a maker of cooking oil into a symbol of the country's software revolution, powered by outsourcing from western corporations to India's low-cost engineers and programmers. It was among the worst hit Indian software firms during a three- year technology spending slowdown, which particularly hit high- margin telecoms businesses.

---