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Tata hopes for an amicable MTNL, VSNL settlement

Chairman of Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd Ratan Tata on Thursday expressed the hope that an amicable settlement with Mahanagar Telephone Nigam would soon be reached on the issue of the international long distance interconnect agreement, failing which VSNL would be in 'crisis',

"Talks are on and we are negotiating with the government", Tata told reporters at the VSNL headquarters at Kakkanad near Kochi.

The government should also realise that VSNL as a divested company would need some basis for its further operations and VSNL should also realise that it is operating in a competitive environment, Tata said replying to a query on the ultimatum served by MTNL.

MTNL, which had signed the agreement with Data Access and Bharati, had served an ultimatum to VSNL asking it to sign an agreement within a week or else MTNL would divert traffic to other operators.

"There must be give and take on both sides", he said.

Asked about press reports quoting him on proposed merger of VSNL and Tata Teleservices, Tata said it he had only suggested that the two companies, if merged, would do better.

On plans, if any, to acquire stakes in Bharat Sanchar Nigam, he said presently there were no such plans. Besides, BSNL had not been listed for divestment.

On the problems of the management with some of its top executives, the latest being the Tata Finance issue, Tata said, "we are a group of 80 companies with 350,000 people. If four or eight persons create problems, which happens all over the world, it is nothing new and not related to the Tata group alone. All these executives have made sizeable contribution to the group."

When queried about his retirement plans, Tata, who is also the Tata group of companies' chairman, said he would step down as executive chairman of the group in December this year. As per the company's policy, he would continue in a non-executive position till he attains 70 years of age.

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