To compete with local and foreign heavy vehicle rivals, Ashok Leyland, India's second giant heavy vehicle manufacturer announced that it is working on developing an all-new full range truck platform for global markets.

The proposed new truck platform named Unitruck, will not only meet all safety and emission norms for developed markets, but it will also create variants to meet different geographies, road and load conditions, different applications and legislative requirement.

Munich - Giant German electronics group Siemens AG said Tuesday it had reached an agreement with

Tokyo- Matsushita Electric Industrial Co saw a record net profit in the April-June period on increases in its overseas sales, mainly flat-panel televisions, the company said Tuesday.

The Japanese home electronics company saw its net profit rise 85.8 per cent in the three months through June 30 from the same period last year to a record 73.03 billion yen (678.06 million dollars).

Matsushita also attributed the sharp profit increase to the cost-cutting efforts, which more than offset negative factors such as the yen's rise and surging materials costs, the company said.