Sony executives apologised on Tuesday for inconvenience caused by a massive global recall in laptop batteries, but said the problems were now fixed and that none of the company’s top leaders would resign over the incident.

The embarrassing spate of battery recalls that is threatening to tarnish the once impeccable Sony brand power is coming at a time when Sony has been struggling to turn around its core electronics business.It could hurt the Japanese electronics and entertainment company’s sales during the critical year-end shopping season. For some, Sony’s woes have shaken this nation’s confidence in its long prized manufacturing prowess.

Sony slashed its profit forecasts last week, citing the battery recall as well as price cuts in Japan for the next-generation PlayStation 3 video game console. Sony expects an 80 billion yen ($673 million) profit for the fiscal year through March 2007, down 38 per cent from its projection in July.

John Yang, equity analyst with Standard & Poor's in Tokyo, said the recall problem is unlikely to devastate Sony’s battery operations because only a handful of major companies compete in that business. Sony Corp said improvements in production, design and inspection have been made to prevent a recurrence of any laptop overheating problems. Company officials said the problems were caused by microscopic metal particles that mistakenly got inside the battery, causing short-circuiting.

Sony said last week that about 9.6 million lithium-ion batteries, manufactured between August 2003 through February this year, are being recalled worldwide after reports of some computers using the Sony battery packs overheating and bursting into flames.

Top management, including Chief Executive Howard Stringer and President Ryoji Chubachi, would stay on at the company and make the successful completion of the recall a priority, Sony officials said. "We would like to take this opportunity to apologise for the worries," Sony Corporate Executive Officer Yutaka Nakagawa said, bowing slightly with two other executives at a news conference at a Tokyo hotel.

There would be no move to drop or curtail the company’s laptop battery production, the company said. The executives were seated while they bowed and did not bow deeply standing as most Japanese executives generally do in public apologies for troubles at their companies, underlining how Sony has been reluctant to admit fault in the troubles with its laptop batteries.

Sony has maintained that the short-circuiting happens only very rarely and only in certain ways that the battery is connected in a system with laptop models, or if the laptop is used improperly and gets bumped around.Sony officials said Tuesday that only one overheating problem was confirmed among 3.5 million batteries, although they declined to comment on problems reported by other laptop makers. (AP)

The Gujarat University has announced admissions into the ‘‘Semester in India’’ programme targeting students of US, England, Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East.

The 10 weeks programme has two semesters. The classes for this programme will begin in August next year. The first semester will begin in August and end in October, while the next semester will begin in December and will end in February.

The programme includes 12 courses like Studies on Gandhian Philosophy, Artistic and Cultural Indentites in India, Indian Philosophy, (Back to Future), Indian Poetics, Studies in Tribal Culture of Gujarat, Yoga and Meditation, Context of Indian Business Practises, Indian Rural Mangement Skills, Indian Languages, Classical and Folk Dances of India.

Of the 12 courses, students are required to select six during the programme. Students will have to pay a per-semester fee of US $5,425 as a part of the programme. The deadline to send in the applications is May 15, 2007. Students can also send in their queries to gujsem@vsnl.net.

Source: Expressindia.com