Berlin  - Connecting digital devices from different manufacturers to one another will be the next step in the "Digital Revolution," Jongwoo Park, the chief executive of conglomerate Samsung, said in a speech Friday in Berlin.

Consumers had the most modern devices available but many of the products could not be networked with one another yet, he said in a speech hailed by organizers of the IFA consumer-electronics trade fair as a keynote address.

In order to consolidate its position in the $62 million smart cards market in the country, Bartronics India Ltd (BIL) launched its new range of products on smartcards at the ongoing Smartcards Expo 2008 held in New Delhi on Wednesday.

Manufactured by Bartronics, these smart cards are targeted at software development companies to use for application development (for SIM, mass transit and other embedded systems applications).

Prague  - New World Resources NV (NWR), the owner of the Czech Republic's largest coal mining company, said Thursday its net profit was up more than four times year-on-year in the second quarter of 2008 on the back of skyrocketing coal prices.

NWR more than quadrupled its second-quarter net profit from 16.2 million euros in 2007 to 71.3 million euros (105.3 million dollars) this year, according to unaudited consolidated results.

The mining company's consolidated revenues reached 513.1 million euros (757.5 million dollars) between April and June, up by 56.3 per cent from 328.2 million euros in the same period the previous year.

Berlin  - The former chief of the German building giant Hochtief AG, Hans Peter Keitel, is to become the new president of the nation's influential federation of industry (BDI), the association anno

Kolkata based Stone India, a leading multi-product engineering company, has informed that it has entered into an agreement with US based RailRunner Inc.

In order to enhance flexibility to increase finances, Reliance Industries (RIL), announced on Tuesday about it plans to transfer 80 per cent of its holding in its prolific eastern offshore D6 block to four wholly-owned subsidiaries.

According to a spokesperson of the company, “The proposal has been submitted to the regulatory authorities and approval is awaited. Reliance wants to transfer 80 per cent of its holding in D6 to four wholly-owned subsidiaries. There will be no loss of RIL shareholder value. This is common global practice and would enable the company to enhance its financial flexibility as the company builds its exploration and production portfolio.”