In a first of its kind service, cellphone users will be able to read their morning newspaper on their mobile phones. The services called M paper would be launched nationwide in December.

Every morning the reader would receive the paper of his or her choice in the form of an MMS. Unlike the news alert in the M paper the reader would be able to get the whole news report, with pictures on mobile phone. The electronic paper will have different sections and the reader will be able to scan it without any time delay.

Cellnext Solutions that has introduced M Paper has carried out its soft launch with Idea Cellular. Currently the paper is sent to some one thousand customers of Idea to get customer’s feedback. "The feedback is very encouraging," says Mr Ajay Vaishnavi, chief operating officer, Cellnext Solutions.

Cellnext is talking with major dailies to launch their newspapers on cellphones.

A subscriber of the M paper will have to pay only Rs 50 per month for the service. M paper will contain 25 new items but the type of news to be sent would depend upon the publisher. The whole operation will have two parts: content management and the other a delivery platform.

"Content management would be with the publisher and the delivery platform would be looked after by us," says Mr Vaishnavi.

Though initially the M paper would be in English the company has plans to start it in vernacular languages also. "Our long term goal will be to penetrate in the rural areas also, mobile is no longer only an urban phenomenon," adds Mr Vaishnavi. The company hopes that it will be able to start the paper in one month’s time. Initially it would be available to GSM customers only.

Bank of Baroda (BoB) is contemplating entering into an MoU with an unnamed asset management company in the near future. "The deal would be finalised by March 2007," said Anil K. Khandelwal, chairman and MD of Bank of Baroda.

The bank is also looking at widening its network through joint ventures with insurance companies and credit cards businesses. Mr Khandelwal said that there are plans to enter into the stock broking business by acquiring an existing firm.

BoB has also obtained permission from the Indian Railways for opening of 201 ATMs at various stations.

Mr Khandelwal who was addressing the press in Mumbai on Saturday, announced that BoB has received licence from the Reserve Bank of India to open 100 branches in India and that they are targeting an aggressive expansion plan in southern India. "We are restructuring the bank gradually," Mr Khandelwal said.

BoB plans to open a small and medium enterprise loan factory at 11 places in India and many other new centres overseas.

The bank has already applied for approval of the regulatory permission and is awaiting host country approval for opening branches in Trinidad and Tobago and Sri Lanka.