The official line is that Dinesh Dalmia, the man who came virtually out of nowhere to build an empire of sorts out of Chennai, and one of the main accused in the Calcutta Stock Exchange scam, Circa 2001-on August 30, the Kolkata Police, buoyed by a favourable order from the country's highest court, decided to approach Interpol to seek its help in nabbing Dalmia-is in the US on business. Dalmia has been accused of many things: colluding with some Kolkata brokers and engineering a Rs 120-crore scam; frequent and repeated insider-trading; cashing out of DSQ by selling its assets with scant regard to investor-law; and dubious preferential allotments by most of the companies he controlled (None of these has been proved).

At the Origin Agrostat and DSQ Beverages headquarters on Chennai's arterial TTK Road, employees spend their time taking tea-breaks, surfing the net for jobs, attending interviews, or chatting. Salaries continue to come in, though six months late, and there has been no effort to replace those who leave.

DSQ Software, says a software consultant, "will chug along offering low-end applications at the lowest price possible, and earning 14-15 per cent margins", but one former employee believes that the company is headed nowhere. Sooner than later, Dalmia will be arrested, a case will drag on in some court, and his shareholders, already at the receiving end, will suffer some more.

-Nitya Varadarajan

The Empire That Was

DSQ Software
Its workforce-strength has fallen from 2,000 to 60. In the 12 months ended June 2003, the company registered losses of Rs 63.9 crore on revenues of Rs 58.8 crore. Former PepsiCo India head Ramesh Vangal's Scandent is reported to have bought its best assets, projects, and clientele.

Antarix e Applications
Earlier known as DSQ Worldcom, this was supposed to be an application service provider. Then it became a call centre and, in turn, a company that provides remote network management services.

Origin Agrostar
The new avatar of DSQ Biotech, it is barely operational today.

DSQ Beverages
The manufacturer of extra-neutral alcohol is no longer operational. It has had licensing problems with the state government since its inception seven-eight years ago.

DSQ Industries
This company was in the castings and forgings business and closed down two years ago.

KA-CHINK
The Sound Of Money

The Rs 600-crore Indian music industry maybe plagued by piracy, but those in the music business can take heart from the Indian Performing Rights Society's efforts. The music royalty collection agency collected Rs 8 crore from fm stations, hotels, bars, restaurants, even ringtone vendors to distribute among composers, lyricists, music companies, and film producers. Everytime a restaurant plays an A.R. Rahman number (left), for instance, the composer gets some royalty. "Copyright awareness in this class of music users is just catching up," says Sanjay Tandan, Director General of the 1,250-member Society, who estimates collections to touch Rs 20 crore this year and Rs 100 crore in five years. The Society has already filed 40 cases against establishments unwilling to ante up: Delhi's Appu Ghar, India's first amusement park, is among the worst offenders.

-Sahad P.V.

The Right Stuff
What you didn't hear about the iPolicy-IIT Kanpur deal.

Prabhu Goel (left) and Sanjay Dhande: Tech-twins

The news, you must have read. Security major ipolicy networks' Chairman Prabhu Goel donated a million dollars (Rs 4.6 crore) to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, his alma mater, to help create a centre for computer and internet security. This centre is to work on cryptography, new tools for security, and educate the Indian government on matters related to security.

Here's what the dailies didn't tell you: iit Kanpur Director, Sanjay Dhande has been raising money from various sources to help the cause of research-related activities at the school. Thanks to such efforts, IIT-K has been able to attract and retain math whiz Manindra Agrawal. Agrawal and two of his students recently won international acclaim for finding a quick way to check whether a given number is prime (divisible perfectly only by 1 and itself) or not. That's just the sort of talent you need for cryptography.

That emphasis on research goes down well with Goel. Although he left India in 1970, he has retained ties with the country. He founded Gateway Design, a company that wrote chip-design software in 1982, set up a development centre in Noida, and sold out to Cadence for $80 million (Rs 129.6 crore at the then exchange rate) in 1989. Today, he wants to manufacture his iPolicy boxes, thingamajigs that make high-speed optical networks more secure, out of India. Now you know.

-Vidya Viswanathan.

COACH
The Boom In Entry-level Phones

It's a refrain being mouthed by every handset manufacturer in the world: ''India is the second most happening mobile market in the world, and low-end phones will increase cellphone penetration in the country.'' That could explain why Bird-the $845-million (Rs 3,887.84 crore) Chinese company recently upstaged Motorola to become the No. 1 seller of mobile phones in China-which unveiled a four-phone bouquet in the Rs 5,000-14,000 range is talking about a sub-Rs 4,000 phone that it will launch by October. Market leader Nokia, too, showcased two entry-level phones (their prices are to be announced later) and a stripped-down version of its network infrastructure (this is expected to shave 50 per cent off operating expenses) late in August. ''This solution will help operators generate reasonable profit at an average revenue of less than $5 (Rs 230) a user," says Sari Baldauf, President, Nokia. Alcatel's latest offering, bundled with a connection, comes for below Rs 3,000. And Motorola has promised to announce its entry-level warriors in the next few months. The fun, as they say in the movies, begins now.

-Vandana Gombar