BBC to launch Asia Business Report on October 2
BBC World will launch a daily business programme - Asia Business Report - on October 2. The programme, which will be shown Monday to Friday, will be produced by the BBC's newly opened state-of-the-art news bureau in Singapore. The programme will, however, use its news gathering operation across Asia. Asia Business Report will consist of four live editions of 15 minutes each at 4 p.m., 5 p.m., 7.15 p.m. and 9.15 p.m. IST. The programme is timed in such a way that it will enable many viewers in Asia-Pacific to receive all the breaking business and market news from the region as they start their day.

Indusind Bank forays into online trading in equities
With a view to facilitate online trading in equity shares by its customers, Indusind bank has unveiled an `e-trading' product in collaboration with Aptech Group's infinity.com Financial Securities. Indusind Bank's customers maintaining both savings and depository accounts at its Mumbai main branch will be able to buy and sell shares on the National Stock Exchange based on real-time market information, using the trading product, Jeet P Chugani, executive director, said. "We have done a soft launch of the product in Mumbai and will extend the offering to other cities shortly," he said. The launch of the e-trading platform will enable the bank to offer banking, depository and broking services under a single umbrella, Chugani explained.

Enron India forays into telecom sector
Enron India has tied up with Global Tele-Systems and Maharashtra State Electricity Board for connecting major towns in the state through optical fibre network using power transmission lines. The company has already been awarded the project and Enron paid Rs 100 crore towards right of way, permission for using transmission lines, for laying the optical fibre network, sources said. The network will also be used for providing bandwidth to the Internet service providers and other telecom facilities, they added.

IT Ministry likely to approach the Cabinet for duty reduction
The Ministry of Information Technology is likely to approach the cabinet for reduction of customs duty to zero per cent, on raw materials and capital goods required in manufacturing electronic goods. "The ministry is in the process of preparing a note to be submitted to the Union cabinet. We are still gathering expert opinion and will soon be submitting this, " secretary in the ministry PV Jayakrishnan said.

Sony TV to launch Hindi channel in Africa, Australia
Sony Entertainment Television will launch its Hindi entertainment channel in Africa and Australia in October to take on rival network Zee TV. Sony TV has tied up with the Australian Direct-to-home (DTH) service provider Optus and will be on Aurora B Five satellite. It will pay an uplinking fee of $450,000 to Optus for beaming the signals, a source close to the company said.