CMC zonal manager (business development) V Rajaraman said the company has major plans for the V-Sat segment and intends to offer services on a large scale to corporates. These services will be offered in Ku-band, which is the global standard.

"There is a tremendous scope for V-Sat services in rural telephony. Industries like transport and generally people involved in logistics are bound to benefit from V-sat services," Rajaraman said. Indonet, a commercial data network providing access to major cities in the country, was an example of CMC's success in implementing similar projects, he added.

Another growth plan is to concentrate on providing Internet and other related services. The government has recently announced guidelines for companies intending to become ISPs.

"At present weare working on some projects for the Maharashtra government on a turnkey basis," Jayaraman said without divulging details.

The company recently unveiled a series solutions at the Commasia Networking exhibition held in Mumbai. It set up a campus-wide ATM backbone network, which provided switched connectivity to various exhibition stalls, information kiosks, Internet kiosks, registration booths and the press room. The backbone has features like bandwidth on demand, quality of service, bandwidth aggregation.

Another successful product is Nirdeshak, its differential global positioning based on vehicle tracking system, Rajaraman said. This product has bagged some major orders from firms like the Central Mining Authority of Netherlands and global merchant shipping companies.

CMC has tied up with Frontec IT Asia-Pacific Pte Ltd, an electronic data interchange technology major, to launch the advanced EDI sever technology, AMTrix in India.

CMC has approached the government, which holds about 84 per centstake, to float a Rs 100-crore rights issue to part-finance its expansion project. CMC has an authorised capital of Rs 35 crore. It also plans to place an employees stock option plan (ESOP) before the government.

CMC also intends to infuse an approximate $1.5 million into its US subsidiary Baton Rouge International (BRI). The subsidiary had a turnover of $17 million in 1997.

CMC posted a turnover of Rs 148.6 crore for the first half of the current year. It witnessed a 72.34 per cent growth in net profits over the same period last year.

Half-yearly income was up from Rs 123.64 crore over the same period last year to Rs 148.6 crore. Net profit crossed Rs 2.72 crore over Rs 1.57 crore during the first half of last year. CMC expects a turnover of over Rs 350 crore for the current year.