Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) has marked the recent second anniversary of PSP by airing PSP hardware price cut. The PSP Core Pack will now be available in North America for $169.99 ($30 short of the previous price).

SCEA’s also broadcasted, the availability of Daxter and Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror at $19.99, as new additions to the "Greatest Hits" program. These new additions will enable PSP users to build up their software library with two popular titles at great value.

Prudential ICICI Mutual Fund has been assigned a new name ‘ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund’ w.e.f Monday.

The change in name contemplates the alteration in the shareholding model of ICICI Bank and Prudential Plc in the asset management company (AMC) and the trust company.

The AMC and trust company have also been allotted new names as ‘ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company Ltd’ and ‘ICICI Prudential Trust Ltd.’

Ranbaxy Laboratories gained ground after declaring it got an approval to make and sell Amlodipine Besylate in the United States. Its share price bobbed up 1.82% to Rs 358.25.
The shared price had reached a high of Rs 358.40 and a low of Rs 353.95 during the day. In the last one quarter, the company’s scrip had an average daily volume of 2.71 lakh shares on BSE.
At present level of Rs 358.25, the stock trades at a PE multiple of 26.14 based on its Q1 March 2007 annualized earning per share (EPS) of Rs 13.7.

Sterlite Industries India bobbed up 4.89% to Rs 587.30 after its American depositary shares made a substantial debut on the NYSE. During the day, the scrip had touched a high of Rs 596.80 and a low of Rs 572.

On Bombay Stock Exchange, nearly 8.65 lakh shares were traded on the counter. In the preceding one quarter, the average daily volume in the stock was 2.53 lakh shares.

On 19 June 2007, the Sterlite Industries scrip had climbed up 2.84% to Rs 559.90, after it had received sanction for listing of its IPO of 130.44 million American Depositary Shares.

In early hours, EIH gained 3.10% to Rs 104.60 as a big block deal executed at Rs 102 per share on Bombay Stock Exchange.

The company’s share price touched a highest peak of Rs 105 and a low of Rs 100.95 during the day. On 13 September 2006, the scrip has had its 52-week high of Rs 127.

The block deal was of 19 lakh shares and was struck today. The overall volume was 19.58 lakh shares and the average daily volume in the stock was 50,051 shares in the past one quarter.

Lengthening its current rally on continued buying, Bharat Heavy Electricals gained 2.75% to Rs 1,470.75 on BSE.

The scrip's high record during the day was Rs 1,474.40 and low Rs 1,435. The existing market price of Rs 1,470.75 brushes off its earning per share of Rs 49.32 for the year ended March 2007 by a PE multiple of 29.82.

Today, nearly 1.33 lakh shares were traded on the counter. The standard daily volume in the stock was 1.35 lakh shares during in the last one quarter.

Jai Parabolic Springs Ltd. climbed up by its maximum daily limit of 5 percent to 29.50 rupees as the board okayed its merger deal with Jamna Auto Industries. The company made the declaration in trading hours. The scrip had touched its intraday low of Rs 28 during the day.
Today, about 16,712 shares were traded in the scrip. In the past one quarter, the stock had an average daily volume of 11,212 shares. At its existing price of Rs 29.50, the scrip trades at a PE multiple of 10.13, based on year ended March 2007 EPS of Rs 2.91.

After turning ex-dividend, Bajaj Auto lost 1.61% to Rs 2,095 in afternoon trading. The company announced a dividend of RS 40 a share of face value Rs 10 in May 2007.

During the day, the scrip touched an intraday high of Rs 2,133, and an intraday low of Rs 2,088. There were 37,418 shares on the counter. It had an average daily volume of 1.20 lakh shares on BSE in the last one quarter.

At the existing price of Rs 2,095, the scrip trades at a PE multiple of 17.13, which is based on year ended March 2007 earning per share of Rs 122.27.

Accentia Technologies went up 2.87% to Rs 114.75 in afternoon trading after signing accords to get hold of US-based G. S. R. Physicians Billing Service Inc. and GSR Systems Inc.

The company made the declaration in trading hours today, 2 July 2007.

The scrip had touched a high of Rs 116.50 and a low of Rs 110.90 so far during the day. Today, there were 23,817 shares for trading.

In the past one quarter, the average daily volume of stock stood at 51,831 shares.

In the one month, the Accentia Technologies scrip benefited 3.82% to 29 June 2007 against the Sensex’s 0.73% return. In the past three months, it appended 70.44% against the Sensex’s 12.07% increase.

On the back of an increase in interest and fee-based income, ABN Amro Bank has recorded a growth of 59 per cent in its net earnings to Rs 385.35 crore in 2006-07, as compared to Rs 241.68 crore in the previous year.

The overall turnover of the bank increased by 36 per cent to Rs 32,077 crore as against Rs 23,539 crore in the corresponding period of the last year.

Textile company, Himatsingka Seide came up 4.28% to Rs 122.95 in early trade on adopting 80% stake in US-based Divatex Home Fashions Inc.

The company’s share price hit an intraday peak of Rs 131.80 and an intraday low of Rs 123 during the day. The scrip touched its 52-week high of Rs 150 on 29 January 2007 and a 52-week low of Rs 86 on 24 July 2006.

After arriving at its all-time high, IDFC was trading flat at Rs 133.60 ahead of its plans to raise about $500 million through qualified institutional placement.
Today, the share price touched a high price of Rs 135.80. Its lowest peak during the day was Rs 132.2. On 24 July 2006, it had touched its 52-week low of Rs 43.35.
As against the Sensex’s return of 0.64%, the Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC) scrip declined 16.07% over the last one month to 2 July 2007. The scrip had outperformed the market over the past quarter, making 71.17% compared to the Sensex’s augmentation of 16.16%.

Balaji Telefilms was trading on an upper place after benefiting 3.79% to Rs 231.55 as its 10 lakh shares moved in a single block deal at Rs 229.75 per share on NSE.

The scrip touched an intraday high of Rs 233.95 and an intraday low of Rs 221.50 during the day. On 22 May 2007, the stock hit a 52-week high of Rs 263 and a 52-week low of Rs 102 on 24 July 2006.

Mumbai: SBI Mutual Fund has crossed Rs 20,000-crore mark in assets under management (AUM) as on 30 June, 2007.

According to a release the AUM of SBI MF stood at Rs 20,272 crore as on June 30 and it is placed sixth among existing fund houses. SBI Mutual funds Achieves Milestone

While commenting on the milestone achieved Syed Shahabuddin, Managing Director and CEO, SBI Mutual Funds stated, “SBI Mutual Fund's excellent run is a reflection of the fund house's ability to understand the needs of investors and introduce products suited to their needs.”

SBI MF has an investor base of over 35-lakh spread over 40 schemes.

Emap Publishing (Netherland) SV has purchased 40.1 % stake in Next Gen Publishing Ltd., which was a joint venture between the Forbes group and HDFC Ltd to publish special interest magazines and business directories.

Emap Publishing is subsidiary of UK-based Emap Plc that one of Europe's largest publishing companies with extensive interests in B2C, B2B, radio, television and digital media.

On Saturday, CEO of Next Gen, H S Billimoria said, “The entry of Emap as a partner throws open vast opportunities for Next Gen to become a leading media group in the country,"

Simplex Projects Ltd, Construction Company is reported to hit the capital market on July 10 with its Initial Public Offer to raise up to Rs 55 crore to fund the taking over of plant and machinery and meet the working capital requirement.

According to the company officials, the company offers to issue 30 lakh equity shares of Rs 10 each through 100 % book building process. Fixing the price at Rs 170-185 per share, Simplex would raise 51 crore at lower end of the band. The issue will close on July 13.

New Delhi: Tyre major JK Tyre is planning to invest Rs 1,100 crore over the next three years to expand its production capacity as it sees its revenues crossing Rs 5,000 crore marks by then.

JK Tyre and Industries Finance Director A. K. Kinra stated, “To meet the increased demand for radial and off the road (OTR) tyres, we will invest Rs 1,100 crore in expanding our production capacity by 2010.”

He added that the company would fund the growth plans through a mix of debt and internal accruals.

Stone India ascended 5.95% to Rs 188.90 on getting orders from Indian Railways for supplying 5 sets of static converters. This is a high value solid state product to be provided under partnership with SMA Technologies AG, Germany.

The scrip hit an intraday high of Rs 199.85 and an intraday low of Rs 180 during the day. On 29 August 2006, it touched a 52-week high of Rs 278.80 and a 52-week low of Rs 104.30 on 30 April 2007.

Birla Kennametal, Zenith Birla and Birla Power Solution were up 5% to 8% on reports that the Yash Birla Group has determined to reorganize group firms as part of a plan to modernize operations.

Birla Kennametal gained 4.99% to Rs 401.90, Zenith Birla up 8.26% to Rs 39.30, Birla power Solution gained 6.23% to Rs 34.10 and Dagger-Forst climbed 4.95% to Rs 51.90.

The Oswal Group flagship firm Vardhman Polytex announced that the company will raise 10 million dollars through the issue of Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds (FCCBs) in overseas market.

The world's largest maker of healthcare products – Johnson & Johnson will begin a USD10 billion share buyback program. This repurchase program will help the company to continue investing in future growth opportunities.

Technical Analyst, Ashwani Gujral is of the view that Reliance Energy can touch Rs 720.

Mr. Gujral said that Tata Power and Reliance Energy are the strongest options. Reliance Energy beyond Rs 580 is poised to go up to Rs 720 and for Tata Power, Rs 620 is a key level that should probably be headed in the direction of Rs 750-760.

“I think some rub off from the capital goods space, those electrical equipment stocks is now rubbing off even to the energy stocks,” He added.

Vertex Spinning climbed up 5.51% to Rs 20.10 in afternoon trading after the company declared that Syndicate Bank had finished evaluation of its planned Rs 512 crore cotton spinning project in Maharashtra. The company made the declaration after the trading hours.

Greenply Industries zoomed 8.17% to Rs 179.50 on booming growth of its laminate facility at Behror, Rajasthan.

In the meantime, the BSE 30-share Sensex was up 156.48 points, or 1.05%, to 15066.

The share price had hit a high of Rs 180, which is an all-time high for the scrip, and touched a low of Rs 169 during the day. Its 52-week low of Rs 81.60 was on 21 July 2006.

Today, there were 25,008 shares for trading on BSE. The share showed an average daily volume of 11,566 shares in the last three months.

Mukand climbed up 4.89% to Rs 88 in early trading on media reports that existing managing director Niraj Bajaj may put back Rahul Bajaj as chairman in the steel company.

Reports advocate that Bajaj Group is also thinking over to increase stake in Mukand.

The scrip touched an intraday high of Rs 92 and an intraday low of Rs 85.30 during the day. On BSE, there were 1 lakh shares in the scrip.

In last one quarter, the daily average volume of the stock stood at 54,222 shares.

At 10:03 am, Hindalco Industries is quoting at Rs 173.90, up Rs 9.45, or 5.75%. The scrip has touched an intraday high of Rs 174.45 and an intraday low of Rs 167.50.

Today the scrip was trading with volumes of 2,577,720 shares. Yesterday the share closed up 6.17% or Rs 9.55 at Rs 164.45.

Hindalco is a flagship company of Aditya Birla Group, which is divided into two strategic business sections i.e. Aluminium and Copper. Hindalco is an industry leader in both sectors.

It is one of the world’s biggest aluminum rolling company and the biggest producers of primary aluminium in Asia.

Kolkata: Hampered by the shocking record in priority segment lending in eastern region, Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) held a meeting of all the 44 section heads in the region including West Bengal, Sikkim and Assam to fix up schemes to raise the bank’s exposure towards this sector.

Dearborn, Mich. - Ford Motor Co. is setting to sell its moneymaking Volvo luxury brand as it works to return its North American operations to profitability, according to reports.

The Sunday Times reported, the decision to sell Volvo, a part of Ford’s Premier Automotive Group, was made in the past two weeks, but that the timings of the sale had still to be decided,

Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) has annunciated the following audited outcomes for the quarter ended June 30, 2007. The consolidated results are as follows:

New Delhi: Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) lifted 33 notches to 369th position in the newly issued 2007 version of Fortune Global 500 list.

According to the company release, “After making a debut in the turnover-based annual Fortune Global club two years ago (with a rank of 459), ONGC has moved up steadily, thanks to its advancing topline.”

The USFDA has approved Lupin’s Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) for Amlodipine Besylate Tablets, 2.5 mg (base), 5 mg (base) and 10 mg (base). Saleable deliveries of Amlodipine Besylate Tablets will begin soon.

The company’s Amlodipine Besylate Tablets are the AB-rated generic correspondent of Pfizer’s Norvasc’ pills, which is long-acting calcium channel blocker suggested for treating hypertension.

Based on IMS Health sales information, the brand product had annual sales of around USD 2.7 billion for the twelve months ended December 2006,.

Anil Manghnani of Modern Shares & Stock Brokers is of the view that Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has trading target of Rs 1200.

Kolkata: Bank of Baroda is all set to open four novel branches in the eastern region as part of centenary year celebrations. Three of the new branches will be sited in West Bengal and the fourth will be in Assam.

The bank, which also plans to provide a special deposit scheme (with tenure of 24 months) in addition, has a total network of 140 branches in the region, said G. Nagamal Reddy, General Manager.

In March 2007, BoB clocked a business of about Rs 8,300 crore in the east, and anticipates penetrating new customer segments.

Today, fertiliser scrips commanded the gainers list. Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers (RCF) zoomed 20% to Rs 54.05 and lead the gainers in ‘A’ group. The company will declare Q1 June 2007 result on 25 July 2007. National Fertilizer, Exide Industries, Fertilisers & Chemicals Travancore and Thermax are among the other gainers.

According to the recent Indian meteorological department’s (IMD) investigation, the monsoon is likely to be average across the country. This does in favor for whole fertilizer segment because sector’s fortune hinges upon the monsoon in the country.

On securing a Rs 1,829-crore order today, Bharat Heavy Electricals galloped about 8.61% to Rs 1,790.

Nearly 3.06 lakh shares had traded on the BSE counter.

In intra-day trade today, the Bharat Heavy Electricals (Bhel) stock also struck an record high of Rs 1,798 after it secured a Rs 1,829-crore order for fabricating and establishing three 500-MW thermal power units in Haryana.

Castrol India zoomed 11.03% to Rs 280.35 and lead gainers path in BSE's ‘A’ group shares. The scrip beat up after the company declared adequate Q2 June 2007 results. The other gainers list includes Reliance Energy, Dena Bank, Jindal Stainless, Welspun Gujarat Stahl Rohren.

Castrol’s net earnings climbed up 31.05% to Rs 65.93 crore in Q2 June 2007 against Q2 June 2006. Sales climbed 13.26% to Rs 540.05 crore in Q2 June 2007 from Q2 June 2006.

India’s biggest cigarette maker, ITC zoomed 8.93% to Rs 165.85 and topped gainers in ‘A’ group shares on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). It gained on speculation that a noteworthy enhancement in cigarette sales may improve the company’s income this year. ITC will declare Q1 June 2007 results on 27 July 2007. The other performers of the day include Mastek, Pidilite Industries, Thermax, Housing Development and Infrastructure.

The Taoiseach is defending the contact he made with an AIB official to inquire about transactions under investigation by the Mahon Tribunal.

Jim McNamara told the tribunal that Bertie Ahern contacted him this year to ask about particular lodgements being investigated by inquiry, told Jim McNamara to tribunal.

Mr. Ahern was marveling what conclusive evidence the bank had that three specific lodgements made in the 1990s were foreign exchange transactions.

Mr. McNamara accepted that it was a very unusual request from the Taoiseach.

Wipro Technologies signed up a definitive agreement to takeover the Nasdaq-listed Infocrossing Inc in an all-cash transaction for $600 million (around Rs 2,430 crore).

The Nasdaq-listed company, Infocrossing is a US-based source of IT infrastructure management, venture applications and business process outsourcing services. For 12-month ended March 2007, Infocrossing posted earnings of $232.4 million with a net income of $9.3 million and $22.3 million cash on balance sheet.

Shares of India's top private steel maker, Tata Steel had recovered from an early 3.3% decrease and was down just 0.71% to Rs 647.90 at 15:01 IST after it signed up an agreement with Australian firm Riversdale to get hold of a 35% stake in its Mozambique coal project.

On Bombay Stock Exchange, 5.11 lakh shares of the scrip were traded on the counter today. In the last three months, the average daily volume of the scrip stood at 8.98 lakh shares.

Macdonald’s is all set to sell its Boston market chain to private firm for an undisclosed price.

Walt Riker, McDonald’s representative stated, “While it would be inappropriate to discuss details of the purchase at this time, we will disclose more information once the transaction is completed.”

According to the reports that the McDonald’s board granted approval to unload Boston Market in July, a 630-restuarent chain with about $180 million in assets and $89.1 million in liabilities.

According to the Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the company is planning to complete the deal in the third quarter.

New Delhi: Intensifying its game against MNCs like L’Oreal and Schwarzkopf, homegrown FMCG major Dabur is introducing two novel skincare brands and will append one more brand to its subsisting home care series.

The sources said that one of the company's novel skin care brands will aim head-on the top product of L'Oreal and Schwarzkopf. The products will be introduced by October.

“The second brand is expected by early next year and its positioning is still being evaluated,” the sources added.

New Delhi: On Saturday, US-based FMCG business firm Proctor and Gamble (P&G) declared its foray into the Indian skincare market with the instigation of different products comprising an anti-ageing cream.

The Indian skincare market has been developing at 16 percent every year and is presently valued at Rs 2,100 crore.

Sumeet Vohra, P&G India Marketing Head stated, “With the launch of four new ‘Olay’ brand skincare products, we want to establish a strong presence in the country.”

Chennai: Apollo Hospitals has chartered out a massive expansion plan with multi-location hospitals in Mumbai and plans to set up a full-fledged orthopaedic hospital in Chennai soon, a top official of the company said yesterday.

Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) climbed up 3.42% to Rs 1771 on reports that it gained Rs 2900-crore agreement for constructing three 500-megawatt units in northern India.

In the meantime, the BSE Sensex was up 175.78 to 15,483.76 chasing firm international markets. Asian stocks also jumped accompanying a third session of gains on Wall Street, as troubles about worldwide credit problems continued to relieve.

Godrej Consumer Products climbed up 3.24% to Rs 140.20 on reports that the firm is looking at a range of alternatives including a follow-on public offering to lift up to Rs 400 crore.

The BSE Sensex was up 388.06 or 2.59% to 15319.09, on constructive worldwide clues after the US Federal Reserve left interest rates unaltered on Tuesday, 7 August 2007.

Today, the scrip reached a high of Rs 145 and a low of Rs 139 during the day. There were 34,283 shares of the scrip for trading on the BSE counter. The stock experienced an average daily volume of 35,051 shares on BSE in the last three months period.

Mumbai: Delhi-based Vishal Retail is ready to invest Rs 200 crore to establish 40 additional stores largely in northern India.

Vishal Retail Managing Director Ramchandra Aggarwal stated, “In addition to 53 stores that we have at the moment across 41 cities, we want to put up 40 more in the current fiscal year entailing Rs 200 crore investments.”

Mumbai: GMR Infrastructure Ltd has chosen Apollo Hospitals for establishing a medical centre within the passenger terminal building at the new Hyderabad international airport at Shamshabad.

In a release, GMR Infrastructure stated that Apollo Hospitals will establish a medical centre that stretches over an area of more than 300 square meters in Level B of the passenger terminal building and first aid kiosks in the passenger restricted areas,.

Cadila Healthcare lost 3.65% to Rs 337 tracking powerless international market, regardless of reports it is near to getting hold of a mid-sized Spanish pharmaceutical company for $30 million.

In the meantime, the BSE Sensex was down 349.87 points to 14,751.23, chasing after fresh setback in worldwide markets. Asian stocks collapsed across the board as credit jitters erupted after France’s largest listed bank BNP Paribas on 9 August, blocked three funds, which invested in US subprime mortgages.

There were 5276 shares of the scrip for trading on the BSE counter, and the average daily volume of the stock stood at 24,996 shares in the last one quarter.

Anil Manghnani is bullish on Neyveli Lignite and is of the view that investors should accumulate the stock at any fall.

"Neyveli is still interesting; every fall you would see this sharp bounces because of the stock actually broken out on the longer term came after a long time. In this move it is Rs 81 is important if it crosses Rs 81 that’s a trading target then you could rally back to Rs 87, which is a recent top at Rs 93. But again if it comes down, back closer to Rs 70 and Rs 66 levels definitely accumulate the stock at any fall,” Mr. Manghnani stated.

A board meeting of Procter & Gamble Hygiene & Health Care will be held on Aug. 24, 2007 to think about dividend recommendation for the year ended Jun, 30, 2007.

At its board meeting, Aegis Logistics directors of Aegis Logistics have sanctioned the draft arrangement scheme between Hindustan Aegis LPG (HALPG) and the company whereby the throughput activity undertaking of HALPG will be demerged to and vested in the company with effect from appointed date Apr. 01, 2007, subject to requisite approvals.

Aegis Logistics (ALL) was established in 1956. It commenced business as a chemical maker in 1967. The company ventured into the logistic segment in 1996-97 and diverted their chemical making section in the year 2005.

Chennai: Ashok Leyland, the Hinduja Group's flagship company and biggest truck financing company Shriram Transport Finance Company have signed up a strategic affiliation contract to regenerate the services by its group company Ashley Transport Services.

Mumbai: Ohm Laboratories, Ranbaxy’s US subsidiary has received the US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) authorization to sell Metformin Hydrochloride tabs that are exclusively intended for curing diabetes.

The Florida-based Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ranbaxy Laboratories also said that it received the permission to sell Metformin Hydrochloride pills in various strengths of 500 mg, 850 mg and 1,000 mg in the US market through Ohm Laboratories.

Surana Corporation has registered a significant jump in net profit for the quarter ended June 2007. The company declared a 49.07% profit growth to Rs 54.23 million from Rs 36.38 million in the corresponding period of the last year (2006).

The quarterly sales of the company slumped 38.35% to Rs 3,988.73 million as compared with the corresponding quarter, a year ago.

Operating margins augmented to 1.52% in the same quarter, which showed an increase of 26.50 basis points as against its previous quarter, a year ago.

Ambala: Presently Sonalika group’s International Cars and Motors (ICML) is working on a sports utility vehicle (SUV) model for which it has joined hands with an international design house and will invest Rs 800 crore by 2010 for expanding overall capacity.

Deepak Mittal, MD, ICML stated, “All we can say is that we have tied up with a global design house to produce a global SUV model, which would be sold around the world. The project may take over three years.”

ICML is the newest participant to the Indian MUV market and had recently instigated its flagship vehicle ‘Rhino Rx’.

Moscow: In order to enhance its modest Russian juice market share, US snack and beverage giant PepsiCo is all set to get hold of 76 per cent of Russia’s leading juice maker, Lebedyansky for $2 billion.

PepsiCo is making concluding discussions over the acquisition that will be the biggest ever in the worldwide juice industry. The deal would have effect before the year end.

In early trading (10:05 am), TVS Electronics is quoting at Rs 47.45, up Rs 2.25. The stock price touched an intraday high of Rs 47.45 and an intraday low of Rs 47.25.

The company’s board has also approved transfer of 35.85% stake in TVS Finance to holding co. TVS Investment for Rs 14.84 cr. They struck down preferential apportioning of 36 lakh warrants exchangeable into equity at RS 48.50/sh to TVS Investment.

Today, ETC Networks has touched its 52-week high of Rs 123.90. In early trading, the share is quoting at Rs 122.25, up Rs 9.60, or 8.52%.

The trading volume of the scrip stood at 409,727 shares. Yesterday the share ended the day after making a gain of 9.96% or Rs 10.20 at Rs 112.65.

ETC Networks Ltd. is the foremost television networks in India, which possesses two channels - ETC Hindi and ETC Channel Punjabi. Zee Telefilms holds up 54.42% shares in ETC Networks Ltd.

Mumbai: According to the sources, State Bank of India (SBI) is ready to raise nearly Rs 1.8 trillion ($44.3 billion) by the next five years.

The plan includes a 145-billion-rupee a follow-on public share offer in the financial year ended March 2008.

The bank's chief financial officer, Arun Shandilya declined to comment by saying that the topic was secret.

At 10 am, Pratibha Industries is hovering near Rs 270, up Rs 10.50, or 4.05% on the Nifty. It touched an intraday high of Rs 274 and an intraday low of Rs 262.10 during the day.

The company has bagged order worth Rs 137.7 crore.

Mumbai: Reliance Industries Ltd will close down its polyester intermediate mono-ethylene glycol (MEG) manufacturing plant in Kurkumbh, which is 70 km from Pune, and transfer the complete unit to a new place.

According to a company representative, “We will relocate the small standalone unit to a place with better linkage to raw material.”

New Delhi: Industry dean Ratan Tata advised that nonattendance of strong unified ideological conception in Parliament would hold back the inspiring growth drive, whilst pressing out worry over large scale economic inequality.

On the occasion of Independence Day, Tata narrated, “In its 60th year, clearly India's time has come.”

"The country is now universally recognised as a nation on the move and takes its place amongst the successful economies of the region" he added.

New Delhi: International Finance Corporation (IFC) will provide $150 million as loan to publicly owned Petronet LNG Ltd (PLL) to construct a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import and regassification workstation in South India.

Nagarjuna Fertilisers and Chemicals touched a 52-week high of Rs 29.25. In afternoon trading, the share is hovering near Rs 29, up Rs 1.85, or 6.84%.

The trading volume of the scrip stood at 12,914,622 shares. Yesterday the share closed up 3.44% at Rs 27.05.

According to the reports Reliance Retail is ready to open up 500 hypermarkets crosswise the country by next three years (2010).

The company showed a glance of its jumbo plans by opening up a huge 165,000 sq.ft hypermarket RelianceMart in Ahmedabad, which is largest complete format store in the country.

New Delhi: Bharti Airtel Lanka Pvt Ltd will invest up to $200 million by 2009 for offering mobile services in Sri Lanka. The recent plan is a part of company’s strategy to amplify its presence beyond India.

The company is all set to instigate both 2G and 3G mobile services in Sri Lanka by the end of the current fiscal.

The net profit of “Blackstone Group” LP’s increased more than three times in the first quarter. The New York firm watched its durability in all the four sections and said: “its competitive position has never been stronger. Although the stock rallied slightly, it remains below it debut price.

The president of ‘Blackstone group’ Hamilton James warned investors: “there likely would be fewer new megabuyouts—and therefore, fewer fees—as well as fewer sales until the debt markets come back.”

Chennai: Sify Limited has incorporated its portal www.sify.com, i-Way cyber café chain and Sify broadband to home services into one sole business entity.

New Delhi: The state-owned Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) signed up a contract with Korean steel manufacturer POSCO to set up a strategic alliance for aligning and collaborating with one another in a broad range of strategic business and profitable arenas.

The Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) is ready to establish branches at Moscow, Singapore and Bahrain.

Yogesh Agarwal, chairman and managing director of IDBI said, “We have already applied to the regulator in this regard and the work will commence when we get the necessary clearance.”

The bank is looking to raise Rs 300 crore via debt as tier II capital during the current fiscal and has no plans to go via equity route, he added.

Zuari Industries touched its 52 week high of Rs 254.90. In afternoon trading (12:18 pm), the share is quoting at Rs 254.90, up Rs 12.10, or 4.98%.

Govt. seek nod for Rs 6500 cr extra fertilizer grant In FY08.

There were pending purchase orders of 5,459 shares, with no sellers available. The scrip is trading with volumes of 137,341 shares.

Yesterday, the share closed up at Rs 242.80 after gaining 4.99% or Rs 11.55.

Unitech is quoting at Rs 493.40, up Rs 27, or 5.79% in afternoon trading. During the day, it touched an intraday high of Rs 493.90 and an intraday low of Rs 450.

It is swapping with total volumes of 1,290,625 shares. Yesterday (August 16), the share closed weak after losing 8.06% or Rs 40.90 at Rs 466.40.

Unitech was established in March 1979 to offer microprocessor-based solutions in the area of automation services and products.

For the past 28 years, Unitech has endeavored to attain the maximum possible level of satisfaction for its customers.

Kolkata: Visa Steel has entered into a joint venture contract with China’s Baosteel Trading and VISA Comtrade of Switzerland for establishing a 1 lakh tonne-per-annum ferro chrome facility in Orissa.

The joint venture company will be named ‘VISA BAO,’ in which VISA Steel will hold a 51% stake, while Baosteel Trading and VISA Comtrade will hold 35% and 14% stakes, correspondingly.

Hyderabad: Satyam Computer Services annunciated that four of their senior administrators have accepted different leadership responsibilities in strategic fields of the organization.

S V Krishnan would look after Human Resources whereas Pavan kumar turned Chief Technology Officer. Hari T (former HF head) would head Worldwide Marketing and Communuications whilst Vijay Prasad as Chief Information Officer and Head of Soft Infra group.

The problems seem to have no end for SEZ plans of Ambani Brothers. On Saturday, Uttar Pradesh government put objections on Anil Ambani’s proposal for a special economic zone (SEZ) in Noida. Mukesh Ambani’s Mumbai SEZ have also run into problems with recent objections from CIDCO in Maharashtra.

REI Agro reached a 52-week high of Rs 281.50. At 11:10 am, the shares are quoting at Rs 274.70 with a gain of Rs 34.60 (14.41%).

88,481 shares have already changed hands on the stock markets. On Friday, its share closed up at Rs 240.10, 1.24% or Rs 2.95.

REI Agro is a Rs.1085 Crore Basmati rice processing and marketing company with business India. The company is having 20% market share for basmati rice segment worldwide.

At 11:29 am, RCF is quoting at Rs 48.05, up Rs 3.40, or 7.61%. It has reached an intraday high of Rs 48.50 and an intraday low of Rs 46. The volumes are high on this counter. The company is expected to show good performance in the coming quarter. At the current P/E, the company valuations are looking attractive.

It is dealing with volumes of 562,254 shares. On Friday, the share closed down at Rs 44.65, 4.29% or Rs 2.

RCF is the only manufacture of DMF in India. It manufactures and distributes fertilizers and chemicals. The group operates through two segments: Fertilizers and Industrial Products.

Goldstone Technologies has signed up a contract with US-based Echelon Studios.

Echelon Studios will provide the company with about 3,500 video titles that consist of movies, cartoons and sitcoms.

The recent deal will aid Goldstone to improve its video library content for its video-on-demand subscribers.

For the financial year Mar. 31, 2007, the directors of Gupta Synthetics has approved dividend of 10% on shares of face value of Rs 10 each.

The decision was taken at the company’s board meeting held on Aug. 20, 2007.

Gupta Synthetics recorded a 46.12% increase in net profits to Rs 40.68 million for the quarter ended June 2007 as against Rs 27.84 million in the same period of the last year.

Pioneer Investcorp announced a fantastic increase in net earning for the period ended June 2007.

During the same quarter under review, the company`s net profit ascended 11.59 times to Rs 100.15 million, as against Rs 8.64 million in the corresponding period of the last year (2007).

The company’s quarterly sale arose 9.45 times to Rs 170.06 million as against the corresponding quarter, a year ago.

Blackstone Group made an official statement on Monday about their plans to buy 50% stake in Gokaldas Exports for Rs 676 crore. The shares of Gokaldas Exports were trading with a gain of 12% on Tuesday.

At 11:02 am, the Gokaldas Exports share climbed was up by 11.93% to Rs 256.10. So far, it has seen a high of Rs 274.40 and low of Rs 251.60 with high volumes. There were already 0.3 million shares traded against the two-week average of 47,813.

Gujarat Heavy Chemicals Limited (GHCL) has announced its plans to enter into the retail sector with launch of a new brand “Grace” in New Delhi by the end of this year. The company has more than 300 retail outlets in United Kingdom. GHCL Chairman Mr. Sanjay Dalmia told reporters that the company has seen a tremendous response in UK and now the company is ready to test the Indian markets. The company will use franchisee system to expand its business all across the country over next three years.

Vijay Mallya has announced his plans to use Air Deccan to fly abroad by year 2008. Currently, any domestic airline has to operate for 5 years to be eligible for flying overseas. The booming Aviation industry is asking Government to change the norms regarding this 5 year period.

Rourkela: Steel employees' association, Rourkela (SEAR) has urged the union Steel organization to raise the yearly production capacity of Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) from the existing two million tonnes to ten million tonnes considering the demand for steel in global market.

The SEAR in a resolution here complimented the Steel minister Ram Vilas Paswan for his plan for modernization and growth of steel plants and particularly approving about Rs 10,000 crore for growth of RSP.

SEAR in its meeting regretted that no consideration was given to the oldest plant like Rourkela, which was established in 1954 for its timely expansion.

Mumbai: In yet another mega acquirement in the steel segment, JSW Steel has adopted three steel companies in Texas, U.S for $900 million to get a foothold in the North American market.

Tata Consultancy Services will appoint 2,000 science grads, generally from Tier III cities and rustic regions, and turn them into software masters in the existing fiscal.

Mr S. Ramadorai, CEO and Managing Director, TCS said these candidates will be dealt as TCS employees from the first day, but will get 30 per cent lesser pay as compared to the engineering graduates.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s has announced that the chief sales and marketing officer Mr. Henri Richard has decided to leave the company this September. Richard joined AMD in 2002 and has earlier worked at IBM and Bell.

The world’s second-largest cement company Holcim is all set to buy controlling stake in Ambuja Cements Ltd (ACL). Holcim will spend $1.34 billion to acquire an additional 24 per cent stake in the Indian cement major. Holcim is paying USD 300 per tonne to buy stake in Ambuja Cement. Holcim expects to conclude the transaction by November. Analysts feel that Ambuja has got a fair value in this deal.

Ambuja Cement touched 52 week high on NSE in early trading. The stock went up to 154 levels but settled the day at a price of Rs 132.85 (Up by 2%).

Bajaj Auto has announced that the company will stop production of two-wheelers at its Akurdi Plant in Pune from September 1. The production facilities will be shifted to Aurangabad Plant of the company.

Mumbai: The consulting firm McKinsey said in a report that the Indian pharmaceutical market will develop three times to USD 20 billion by 2015 due to growth in medical substructure and augmented access to medical aid.

The Indian pharmaceutical market will arise at a combined yearly rate of 12.3 per cent more than the next few years.

“India Pharma 2015: unlocking the potential of Indian pharmaceutical market,” McKinsey added.

The Dubai administration has stated that it would invest around $5.1 billion in MGM Mirage, giving the Las Vegas casino company an associate as it stretched into realty.

Gambling is prohibited in the UAE and Gulf states, comprising Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, because it contradicts Islamic Shariah law.

New Delhi: Through their fixed line phones, now MTNL broadband’s Delhi and Mumbai based customers will be capable of making an ISD call to any part of the world for as low as Re 1 a minute.

Fortis Healthcare has announced its plans to invest over Rs 1,200 crore in Rajasthan in the next 10 years. The company will ramp up operations in the state and will also set up of a medical institute.

Fortis CEO Mr. Shivinder Mohan Singh said in his statement, "The plan for Rajasthan is to invest over Rs 1,200 crore on increase bed capacity, which will also include partnership with government hospitals and also set up of medical institute."

Ranbaxy group company Fortis healthcare has medical facilities in many states of India. The company offers high class medical treatment and offers latest medical technologies for treatment. The company officials stated that Fortis will be happy to work in joint venture with State government as well.

A.M. Naik, Chairman & Managing Director of India’s largest engineering power station Larsen & Toubro is not satisfied with hefty orders coming in from the infrastructure and energy segments.

Now, Mr. Naik aspires to build up a big earning stream for the company (L&T) that will foray into SEZ (special economic zone) development for the first time.

Vijayawada: Truck and heavy vehicle manufacturer, Ashok Leyland stated it will establish eight more automotive service centres in Andhra Pradesh.

Vinod K Dasari, Chief Operating Officer, Ashok Leyland said the company instigated its 200th automotive centre at Kodada in Nalgonda zone today to provide superior services to its clients.

ICICI Bank, the country’s second-biggest banking group, plans to hire 20,000-30,000 staff in the current fiscal.

The bank would employ between 75,000 and 1,00,000 direct employees in the coming years. If indirect staffs that comprise insurance agents are added, the bank’s total employee force would be about half-a-million in some years.

KV Kamath, Managing Director and CEO, ICICI Bank said the banking group its realty needs accordingly.

Steel magnate Lakshmi N Mittal is considering adopting stakes in two more Indian refineries including Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd’s (BPCL) Bina refinery in Madhya Pradesh and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd’s (HPCL) refinery in Vishakhapatnam.

According to the industry sources close to the deal said Mr. Mittal is making discussions to get a 20 per cent stake in BPCL’s Rs 9,100 crore, Bina refinery that is expected to be commissioned by 2010-11.

The sources added that he is also talking to HPCL for a stake in its proposed green-field nine million tonne refinery-cum-petrochemical complex at Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.

Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata had a dream to make India self dependent by using Science and Technology. He devoted his life to hydro-electric power plans and Iron & Steel Works at Jamshedpur. He believed in offering low cost solutions to clients and to add value to wealth of shareholders. After the acquisition of the Corus group, the company is among the first five steelmakers in the world. Tata has also acquired NatSteel Asia and Millennium Steel Thailand.

Mars Petcare US Inc. has voluntarily recalled two of its brands of dry dog food in states including New York and Pennsylvania, after the reports of the dog foods with a rare strain of salmonella came out.

Kochi: Sony India Pvt Ltd is aspiring to reach Rs 100 crore sales in Kerala in the recent fiscal (2007) by aiming a 49 per cent sales increase through product innovations and promotional schemes.

For the fiscal ended March 2007, the company registered record sales of Rs 67 crore from the region by accomplishing a 40 per cent sales development, Masaru Tamagawa, Managing Director, Sony India Pvt Ltd, said.

BASEL: According to the world’s biggest maker of cancer drugs, Roche Holding AG, Avastin medicine has won European approval as the first treatment for patients suffering from advanced lung cancer.

The Basel, Switzerland based Roche said, Avastin may be used with chemotherapy for treating the patients with non-small cell lung cancer. This approval followed a recommendation by the European Union’s Committee for Human Medicinal Products last month.

Roche said that approval is based on data from two U.S. clinical trials.

The display boards of Reliance Fresh outlet in Kolkata have been suppressed after a few retail stores were destroyed wantonly, in the city by an associate in the Left Front management, the Forward Bloc.

Hafiz Alam Sairani. Forward Bloc said, “We are not going to shut up and sit back while someone snatches our livelihood from us. We can't afford to see our children go hungry so we will fight back.”

“If Reliance insists on opening shop, the people will protest and as representatives of the people, so will we,” stated Rahul Sinha, BJP.

Global IT solutions major, SAP stated that it had doubled up its Indian customer base from 1,000 in August 2006 to 2,000 now. The growth assumes signification as it took up the company nine years in India to touch the 1,000-customer mark, and only twelve months to twice it.

Mumbai: Back-office Company Firstsource Solutions Ltd has adopted U.S.-based MedAssist, a leading provider of revenue cycle management in the healthcare industry for $330 million.

There would be no alteration in the organization of MedAssist and all 1,400 employees would carry on their existing duties, Firstsource said..

Bangalore: Speedy development in various key segments has coerced the Rs 30,000-crore infrastructure major GMR group to undertake a substantial restructuring programme, which will notice the fundamentally family governance model becoming more professed.

GM Rao, Group chairman will now move from routine functioning to concentrate on the big policy picture, management and the latest IGI Airport. Four key people - two sons, a son-in-law and a close lieutenant - will lead separate business organizations, which will have expert CEOs.

The challenge for Infosys Technologies is coping with a fast appreciation of the Indian currency (rupee) versus the U.S. dollar.

While addressing the media persons, S. Gopalakrishnan, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Managing Director, stated, “Actually, it is not a new phenomenon. From 2003, the rupee has been appreciating but in the first quarter of the current year, it appreciated by seven per cent.”

Sun TV arm, South Asia FM (SAFL) has signed up a strategic partnership agreement with Red FM. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed yet.

According to the arrangement plan, SAFL has adopted 48.9% stake in Red FM from the holding companies, but, the Red FM promoters will continue to hold the remaining 51.1% in the company.

Red FM is one of the fastest developing FM Radio companies in India, which operates 3 radio stations in the three metropolitan cities including Kolkata, Delhi and Mumbai. It is the number 2 player in two of the biggest FM radio Indian markets i.e. Mumbai and Delhi.

20 Special Economic Zones have been approved by the Board of Approval (BoA) on Thursday. 15 plans have been granted formal approval while 5 have received in-principle nod by the Board. The major SEZ plans which got the green signal included those from Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Cognizant Technology and Gitanjali Gems.

The automated West Nile virus test conducted by Pleasanton’s Roche Molecular Systems Inc. has won U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorization

It is the second FDA sanctioned examination for identifying the virus in blood and organs.

San Diego’s Gen-Probe Inc. developed the initial test, which is marketed by Emeryville’s Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics Inc., part of Novartis AG.

Toronto: Research in Motion Ltd moved higher on yesterday on renewed market assumption that Microsoft Corp could be interested in adopting the Black Berry manufacturer.

Frederic Ruffy, a market analyst at options education firm Optionetics in California, said, “Microsoft has been mentioned as a possible buyer.”

New Delhi: For expanding its reach in different segments including airports and power within the country and overseas, Infrastructure major GMR Group plans to invest Rs 35,000 crore in the next five years.

G M Rao, GMR Group Chairman said, “Our advisors have been working with us to chart out future plans for us in areas such as power, airports and special economic zones. We have already formulated a strategy, which will see us expanding both in India and overseas.”

Chennai: In order to carry out research & development (R&D) for the automotive segment, Satyam Comuters Services Ltd has set up a Centre of Excellence in Chennai.

New Delhi: Bajaj Auto, India’s second largest two-wheeler manufacturer has reported a seven per cent fall in its motorcycle sales (including exports) in August, which stood at 1,67,483 units as against 1,80,570 units in the corresponding period of the last year (August 2006).

The company said, “The growth of 100 cc motorcycles was registered due to product fatigue as which continued to weigh down the entire industry.”

New Delhi: Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has announced the appointment of Anil Sachdev as the Director of Personnel and B Prasada Rao as industrial Systems & Products Director.

The company said in a statement, before these selections, Mr. Sachdev was watching out the Navratna engineering and manufacturing enterprise’s HR function as Executive Director, and Mr. Rao was directing the company’s Industry Business area as Executive Director.

Mumbai/New Delhi: Bajaj Auto plans to take legal action against TVS Motors for infringing its patented technology.
Bajaj Auto has accused TVS of copying its intellectual property right by making use of its Digital Twin Spark Ignition (DTSi) technology in recent TVS models including the 125 cc bike, which was launched earlier this week.

The two-wheeler major, Bajaj Auto states that the DTSi technology was cross-filed in July 2002 under the patent number 195904. It tells it utilizes the technology on all its motorcycle models including the Discover and the Pulsar and plans to use it on its upcoming bike called the Exceed.

State Bank of India, the country’s biggest lender plans to raise about Rs 89,600 crore as capital fund in the next five years. In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, Pawan Kumar Bansal, minister of state for finance said, “Based on the sensitivity analysis of its capital position, capital augmentation programme of SBI envisages raising about Rs 89,600 crore as capital funds during the next five years.”

Mr. Bansal told that the boards of public sector banking institutions are capable to make decisions on the subject of raising capital funds, apart from equity capital for which prior government sanction is required.

International real estate developer Plaza Centers has revealed its plans to enter Indian market very soon. European retail companies will soon enter Indian retail sector and the demand for real estate in urban sector across India may pick up. Plaza Centers has already tied up with real estate developer Panchshil.
Plaza Centers is Europe's largest shopping mall developer.

New Delhi: To escalate its presence in the fast- developing wind power segment, India’s Kalyani Group has adopted Germany’s wind turbine manufacturer RSB Consult GmbH for an undisclosed amount.

RSB is a well-established design and consulting firm with experience in the wind industry and clients all through the world.

Mumbai: Paramount Communications, cabling solutions provider has adopted UK-based AEI Cables for $26.5 million, to fortify its product range for core divisions and ease growth in worldwide markets.

Sanjay Aggarwal, Paramount Communications Chairman and CEO said, “One of the key reasons for the acquisition is to access the product development and technical know-how of AEI Cables, in defence sector. Paramount would like to take this product portfolio to India and other markets it operates.”

Reliance Industries has informed in a press release that the company has acquired majority stake and management control of Gulf Africa petroleum Corp (GAPCO) using its 100% subsidiary Reliance Industries Middle East (RIME). GAPCO sells petroleum products in several east and central African countries. The exact value of the deal has not been revealed.

Jet Airways is ready to have a partnership with Air India for international flights. The company also plans to offer cargo services in near future. The company Chairman, Mr. Naresh Goyal has informed the media that Jet Airways is not much concerned about the relaxation of the 5-year condition to fly overseas. The company plans to share load with Air India on handling and catering services.

New Delhi, Sep 4: India's largest private airline Jet Airways plans to connect more cities within and outside the country and is acquiring 25 wide-bodied aircraft to fuel its international operations.

It has already established Brussels as its European hub for transcontinental flights. ''We'll soon be starting international flights from Amritsar, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore,'' said its chairman Naresh Goyal.

The Hyderabad-based software major, Satyam Computer has launched an integrated digital media framework (IDMF), a solution accelerator for publishers to monetize opportunities. The launch came about on the sidelines of IFRA Expo 2007 in Chennai.

Maruti Udyog, India`s biggest car manufacturer, is planning to invest Rs 90 billion in its new plants; up-gradation of its Gurgaon facility; and on new series engines for its cars.

The company is coming up with a new car facility and diesel plant at Manesar.

Maruti intends to export its next high volume car targeted at tile European market from India.

New Delhi: For supplying petrol and diesel, Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) has signed up a four-year agreement with Shell India Marketing Private Ltd. The products comprise all grades of MS and HSD grades.

According to MRPL’s press release the contract is extendable by another two years.

Bangalore: Zicom Electronics Security Systems intends to open 180 exclusive retail outlets in India by the next 30 months. The company is also eying sales in the Middle East countries, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Santonu Choudhury, Zicom CEO, said Zicom presently has 20 outlets in India and 50 shops-in- shops in big stores and malls.

New Delhi: Auto market head Maruti Suzuki thinks that the Rs 1-lakh car projected by Tata Motors is more a threat to two-wheeler makers than car manufacturers.

While addressing stockholders at its yearly general meeting, the company emphasized that a broader product range and new investments will push Maruti’s enlargement in Indian market.

Mumbai: Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has defined clearly GE Money India, a subsidiary of one of the world’s leading credit services company, as one of the partners in its projected credit card venture.

LIC wants to leverage its 200 million base in order to tap chances in the credit card payment industry that in 2006-07 developed by 22 per cent to Rs 41,361 crore.

New Delhi: State-run telecom company, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has finalized the tender for adding up 22.75 million GSM lines, awarded letter of intent (LoI) to Ericsson, and also plans to add two million connections each month by 2008.

While Ericsson has accepted the LoI for laying 13.125 million lines, a proposal would shortly be offered to Nokia for appending a capacitance of 9.675 million GSM lines.

New Delhi: Auto component maker Lucas-TVS will invest up to Rs. 400 crore by next two-three years in order to swell capability and product growth. It is also planning to establish new constructing units in Indonesia and Thailand.

Arvind Balaji, Lucas-TVS Vice- President, said, “We will invest up to Rs. 400 crore over the next two-three years in R&D, manufacturing and capacity building.”

Kolkata: The open access system on a priority basis is not likely to be facilitated by Power Grid Corp of India Ltd., even if the national grid, which is supposed to supplement the Open Access System, comes up by 2012. The government-owned transmission giant, PowerGrid is not sure whether it can facilitate such schemes at the power situation prevailing then.

Hyderabad: In order to swell its worldwide footstep, Satyam Computer Services is all set to establish development centres in Russia, Vietnam and the Philippines. The company thinks it can tap the local talent pool for these centres. Additionally, it would also help alleviate business threats through a worldwide delivery model.

As part of its expansion plan, the Nasdaq listed company has opened up a worldwide solutions centre in Malaysia that can house 500 people.

New Delhi: BHEL, public sector equipment maker and NTPC, power generation company, have signed up a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to set up a joint venture in order to accompolish executing engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) activities in the power segment.

The cooperation between the two PSUs occurs at a time when the administration is thinking over establishing a second BHEL, promoted by NTPC.

Sonata Software Ltd announced today that the company plans to invest Rs. 100 crore in Hyderabad to setup a development centre.

The centre will have a capacity for 2600 software professionals. The centre will be located in SEZ land allotted to the company by Andhra Pradesh government. The land is close to IT hub at Kokapet town. The centre will be developed on seven acres of land.

The centre will serve as a dedicated service centre for the global clients of the company. Sonata Software already has a development centre in Hyderabad. The existing centre has a capacity of 800 professionals.

Citibank has joined hands with IndianOil to offer ‘CitiBusiness’ with a target of achieving transactions worth Rs 400 crore by March next year. The reward programme is for small businesses and professionals. IOC and Citibank started their partnership in year 1997 with launch of co-branded fuel credit card. Citibank has over 1 million credit card users presently.

Mumbai: Reliance Industries has decided to build up a pan-Asian polyster business, which will get hitched with the country’s low-priced raw material base with specific production facilities near to key markets.

Reliance will make use of the recently-acquired assets of Hualon that it decided to take over for $225-259 million on Monday, to make polyster fabric and yarn for exportation.

The plants will utilize raw material, such as purified terephthalic acid from Reliance’s plants in Jamnagar and Hazira, thus making a wholly integrated business-chain like the one subsists in India.

New Delhi: To swell its air and ground infrastructure, integrated express courier and package distribution company, Blue Dart Express has decided to invest Rs. 1,000 crore in the next five to eight years. The investment will be funded through internal accruements.

New Delhi: Global telecom networking major, BT is anticipating revenue of $250 mn from its Indian operation by next two years (2009).

Arun Seth, BT India Chairman and Managing Director, said, “Our greatest challenge in India is to ensure that our services and operations exceed customers' satisfaction. Our plans for India are well on track and we are poised to reach the $250 million target revenue from India by 2009.”

Kolkata: Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) is aspiring to raise production capacity to 60 million tons yearly by 2020, when the country’s demand for the alloy is 200 million tons.

S K Roongta, SAIL Chairman, stated, “The demand for steel in the country has been projected at 200 million tons by 2020 and SAIL will maintain its 30 per cent market share.”

On the sidelines of an interactive session with the Merchant’s Chamber of Commerce, Roongta told, “We are now working on a corporate plan for 2020.”

India’s leading private sector shipbuilder, ABG Shipyard Ltd is ready to get hold of the loss-making Western India Shipyard Ltd (WISL), from a group of financial organizations chaired by ICICI Bank Ltd.

WISL is the country’s biggest composite ship and rig repair plant, which is strategically situated at Goa and is geographically best positioned to provide a complete array of ship repair services.

Dhananjay Datar, chief financial officer, ABG Shipyard told that the company would invest Rs25 crore as its direct payment and also help arrange a debt of Rs 120 crore to reconstitute the Rs 250 crore debt of WISL.

ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank, SBI, BoI and Industrial Investment Bank of India possess about 43% of equity in Western India .

New Delhi-based Fortis group is ready to purchase stakes in Chennai-based Malar Hospitals Ltd.

The group has signed up an agreement with the Chennai-based Malar Hospitals promoters’ to buy 28 per cent of the holdings through International Hospital Ltd - a wholly owned subsidiary of Fortis Healthcare Ltd (FHL) - and Oscar Investments Ltd.

Fortis will also make an open public offer to take over 20 per cent stake from the public. The transaction will mount Fortis’ entry into south India.

Welspun India has registered a 22.41 per cent growth in its net earnings, which stood at Rs 92.3 million for the quarter ended June 2007, as against Rs 75.4 million in the same period of the last year (2006).

The company recorded a 33 per cent increase in its net sales at Rs 2,647.42 million for the quarter (June 2007) as compared to Rs 1,988.95 million in 2006.

Total Income was seen at Rs 2,771.28 in the quarter, as against Rs 1,950.72 for the year ago period.

Mr. Kishore Biyani has announced his plans for another IPO. In his statement, Mr. Biyani said that Future Group will soon come with an initial public offer for a new company to raise Rs 2,000 crore.

Kishore Biyani, CEO Future Group said, “We are looking at a new company for the issue. We plan to raise around Rs 2,000 crore. I cannot reveal anything else now.”

The Future Group board approved an initial public offer of Future Capital Holdings.
Mr. Biyani is very keen on raising money and informed the formalities will be completed within next few weeks.

New Delhi: There could be excellent news for retail capitalists in ONGC stock. The company is planning a stock split besides giving bonus to its shareowners. The company declared a bonus in 2006-07.

In line with the recent share value of ONGC, chairman and managing director RS Sharma stated that the company was aware of the worries of small capitalists and would prize them eventually.

At the company’s AGM, Mr. Sharma told, “We will consider a bonus issue and a share split at an appropriate time.”

On news of the stock split and bonus issue, ONGC scrip earned 6.25% on the National Stock Exchange (NSE). The stock price ascended to Rs 903.8 from its last close of Rs 850.6 on Tuesday.

Singur (West Bengal), Sept 22: Tata Motors has given jobs to 17 youths whose families had given up their farmland for a proposed car factory at Singur.
These 17 men have joined a training programme sponsored by Tata Motors and the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC).

"We took training in a sponsored program by Tata Motors and the WBIDC. After that, we sat for a test and got through. We have got our training in Jamshedpur. We are now joining as trainees," said Somen Ray, one of the recruits.

RITES, a Government of India (GoI) enterprise under the Ministry of Railways has declared the final results for the year ended Mar 31, 2007.

The company recorded an increase of 32.9% and 19.2% in revenue and profit after tax (PAT) correspondingly, in the financial year ended Mar. 31, 2007. The earnings and PAT at Rs 5.66 billion and Rs 1.18 billion respectively, is the highest ever attained by the company.

Mumbai: Unitech Ltd, the country’s second-biggest realty firm stated that it will enter the telecom services sector and will shortly apply for permissions for the whole country.

In an announcement to NSE, the company told that its eight subsidiaries will submit applications to Department of Telecommunications (DoT) in order to offer Unified Access Services (UAS) in 22 telecom circles crosswise the country.

New Delhi: Satyam Computer is ready to appoint over eight new employees a day for the coming six months with a goal to swell its headcount by more than 15,000 people by the end of the existing fiscal.

The India’s fourth largest IT services and BPO firm said that the majority of the new staff would be fresh college passouts.

Sun Network, India’s second biggest media network has entered into the DTH business space. The Sun Group provides DTH monthly services at just Rs 75, in addition to  Rs 1,000 installation fee. That’s because it’s up against some serious rivalry

Vikram Kaushik, MD, Tata Sky told, “The south of India accounts for 40% of the pay-TV market in India, but we have also sold in other parts of the country where people are price conscious and want regional content and we have been very successful in those markets.”

New Delhi: Driven by the fresh world record set by Yuvraj Singh in T20 World Cup, textile major Donear has roped in the Indian cricketer as its brand ambassador.

In a statement, Ajay Agarwal, Donear industries Executive Director, said, “Looking at the all round persona of Yuvraj and brand attributes of Donear, we feel Yuvraj is the perfect representative of Donear.”

Mr. agarwal said that Donear is a product mix of a variety of cloths, design and diversity of products. In the same way, Yuvraj is an all-rounder, a youth idol and has a vast fan following.

Mumbai: Hanung Toys & Textiles Ltd has pocketed Rs 200 crore export order for home furnishings from a leading US buyer.

For exporting home furnishing to the extent of around Rs 200 crore, the New Delhi-based company has signed up the export order deal with the company.

To make a series of luxury mobile phones and LCD TVs, Giorgio Armani, the world famous designer has signed up a partnership deal with Samsung Electronics.

The pact that requires Giorgio to produce the designs, and Samsung to supply technical experience, was sealed off at the currently happening Women’s Fashion Week in Milan yesterday.

Mumbai: A top functionary said that Suzuki Motorcycle India Pvt Ltd (SMIL), a subsidiary of Japanese two-wheeler major Suzuki Motor Corporation, has decided to invest Rs 150 crore to swell capacity and fortify its dealership network.

BAG Films & Media Ltd has approved the issue of 10.379 million shares to Fidelity funds. The decision about preferential issue was taken in the board meeting held today.

The board has also given approval to 10 million warrants to be issued to the founders of the company.

The price for the shares and warrants has not been disclosed. The deal may help the company to fund its current projects. The warrants have been issued to Anu Films & Communications Private Limited, a promoter group company. The shares will be issued in name of Fidelity’s Indian arm, Fidelity Funds India.

New Delhi Television (NDTV) has decided to launch more television channels, both nationally and internationally.
While talking at the launch of ‘MetroNation,’ NDTV’s 5th channel in the country, Prannoy Roy, chairman, stated, “By this year, or financial year end, there will be more channels from NDTV.”

Chennai: Cadila Healthcare Ltd has received USFDA approval for hydroxychloroquine sulphate tabs in the strength of 200 mg.

The medicine falls under the DMARD (disease modifying anti-rheumatic drug) section, and is used in caring rheumatoid arthritis.

According to NDC Health, the sales of such pills in the US market in 2006 stood at $30 million.

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court has issued an order that a registered trade name user has the right to disallow others from using its trade for different goods category.

Justice D N Patel announced the decision following a case of Kaira District Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (KDCMMF) in connection of trademark violation by two local merchants who used their brand name Amul Chasmaghar and Amul Cut Pieces stores.

Shyam Telelink has sold 10 per cent stake to Russian telecom giant Sistema for US $ 11.4 million. Sistema was trying since a very long time to make a presence in Indian telecom market. The company has informed that it is interested in buying more stake in Shyam Telelink and is looking for in place in management of the company.

Detroit-based Caraco Pharmaceutical Laboratories Ltd. has announced that its generic drug Methimazole has been granted final approval by U.S. health. The tablet used for treatment of hyperthyroidism will be sold in 5mg and 10mg strengths by the company under brand name Northyx.

To expand its Contact Research And Manufacturing Services (CRAMS) business, Lupin Ltd, domestic pharmaceutical major has purchased Baroda-based Rubamin Laboratories Limited (RLL) for an undisclosed amount.

RLL, a Rubamin group division, concentrates chiefly on advanced intermediates and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs), and offers research services to companies crosswise Brazil, Europe, Brazil, Argentina, Israel, South Korea, Japan and the United States. The annual earnings of the company stood at $10 million.

New Delhi: The research team on the flyover collapse in Hyderabad has given a clean chit to Gammon India. The report stated that heavy rains were the main reason for the collapse.

But it added that Gammon had not taken enough care, regardless of facts and skill.

Gammon India has been penalized 10% of the entire project cost.

The report told that the collapse was because of soil erosion caused by digging of trenches by the water board, for which action should be taken against the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation or GHMC.

After being pressurized and hounded by ICICI Bank’s loan recovery agents for not being capable of paying the instalments on his Rs 50,000 loan, Prakash Sarvankar, a resident of Andheri (East) committed suicide 10 days ago.

ICICI Bank has decided to pay his wife Priyanka Rs 15.50 lakh as compensation.

In his suicide note, Prakash had blamed the recovery agents for his death. He had been unemployed for the last six months.

Mumbai: Tata Motors has stated that it is really a challenging situation for the Indian automobile business as it is overwhelmed with soaring interest rates and consistently high input cost, with a rising rupee value adding to the woes.

New Delhi: Titan Industries Ltd, watch and jewelry maker anticipates 50 percent growth in its net profit, for the recent fiscal (2007-08).

Bhaskar Bhat, the company’s managing director said that revenue is expected at 31.5 billion rupees as against 21.4 billion rupees in the last fiscal, while the company's EBITDA margin is expected at 11 percent.

Reliance Retail has terminated services of 400 employees in West Bengal. The company has not been able to start retail operations in the state due to opposition from the political parties and local trader unions. Reliance Fresh recently terminated services of nearly 1000 employees in Uttar Pradesh as well. The company has seen lot of protests in many states across India.

Department of Telecom has received over 250 applications for Unified Access Services Licences (UASL) by telecom operators in various sectors. The number is expected to go up to 350 as the deadline for applying of telecom licenses expires this Monday. The companies seeking licenses include HFCL, Shyam Telelink, Unitech, Hindujas, Omaxe group, DLF Developers and Sify to name a few.

Bharti Airtel , Indian Telecom major has crossed a subscriber base of 50 million with nearly 48 million mobile customers and 2 million landline users. The company has become the 10th biggest in the world in terms of subscribers.

Nokia Corp. has announced its plan to buy Chicago based Navteq Corp. for US $8.1 billion. The control over Digital mapmaker Navteq Corp. will help Nokia to offer more navigation and GPS features to their clients. The Finnish company announced the deal on Monday.

The deal is the biggest ever takeover plan of Nokia. This may lead to fresh interest in GPS device market. Consumers can expect Nokia phones with new features and better applications for global positioning systems.

The GPS-module of BlackBerry Curve 8310 Smartphone is constructed on software Vodafone Navigator which allows users of novelty to determine their own location with high accuracy. Vodafone Navigator represents special navigating system, enabling to load maps of a district from a company server. Memory of the device easily can be extended up to 4 GB by connecting microSD memory cards.

Washington: EBay, online auction giant has declared that it is replacing the creator and chief executive of its Skype online telephone arm and would take a charge of 1.43 billion dollars two years after buying the company.

Real Estate major DLF will develop mega project in Bidadi Knowledge City near IT hub Bangalore in partnership with Dubai based firm Limitless. The project will be for housing and commercial constructions in an area of nearly 9200 acres in Bidadi. The project cost is estimated between Rs 50 -60 thousand crore and both companies will be equal partners in the project as per the statement of Dubai-government owned Limitless.

New Delhi: Stating that no banking institution throughout the world could match it in fast decision making, State Bank of India (SBI) on Tuesday has sanctioned one billion dollar credit for Tata group in just five minutes, a philosophy, which has placed it much ahead of challengers on overseas mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions.

Paris: Sanofi-Aventis, French pharmaceutical group has annunciated that the U.S. health officials have approved another application of its anti-cancer drug ‘Taxotere.’

The company said that the drug has been sanctioned to treat locally advanced head and neck cancer before chemo-radiotherapy and surgical treatment.

The approval is based on the outcomes of a phase III clinical examination, which showed that adding up Taxotere to typical induction chemotherapy resulted in a more than three year betterment in patient endurance rate.

David Myers, INCAT’s chief financial officer has stated that Tata Technologies will go for an IPO in the coming year (2008) in order to pay off arrears and fund expansion plans.

Tata Technologies, the specialist engineering and design company of the Tata Group had acquired INCAT, the UK-based engineering and design company in 2005 for 53.40 million pounds.

Mumbai: Bangalore-based Sobha developers has decided to expand a township project in Haryana with a total investment of Rs 2,000 crore together with realty firm QVC Realty and Chintels India.

The Gurgaon-based community, undertaken as a part of combined expansion agreement, would cover up more than 192 acres, comprising single-family houses, flats, commercial, retail and office space.

The company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) that the new project would spread for over 6.5 million sq ft and is situated in segment 106-109.

The well-known high-tech company Microsoft presented its brand-new generation door-to-door media player the new Zune 2. It has bleak big 3.2 8 inch display and slim body. Moreover, the new flash based Zune with 4 GB and 8 GB model which has smaller size and smaller screen; both can be found in lots of colours such as pink, glossy red, green, and black.

Verizon Communications is about to release 4 new trendy phones which may turn away some dollars from the rival AT&T. All phones are nice and offer many new features and have been named as Juke, Pearl, Venus and Voyager.

Dell has officially presented its new gamer notebook XPS M1730 where the exact characteristics of the device are specified. As Dell.com informs, the new model is equipped with Intel Core 2 Extreme X7900 processor. However, alongside with this processor, the notebook can be made up of CPU Intel Core 2 Duo T7700 or T7500. Two video cards NVIDIA GeForce also enter into equipment 8700M GT (512 Mb), working in SLI mode, and the accelerator of physical calculations Ageia PhysX.

Lenovo has entered low cost laptop market by launch of the G Series notebooks this Thursday. The price for Lenovo notebooks start at Rs. 31,750 and the models are available at all authorized stores of Lenovo all over India. Lenovo G Series targets desktop consumers looking for mobility solutions at a small budget. An average notebook from Lenovo was costing around Rs 50,000 earlier.

Tata Steel, the biggest private sector steel company in India, said on Monday that the company will issue convertible preference shares to fund its $13 billion acquisition of an Anglo-Dutch steel company Corus. The issue size will be US $ 1.39 billion.

The shares will have a lock-in period. The current shareholders of the company can apply for 9 convertible preference shares for every 10 shares held. Out of the nine shares issued, 6 will be converted into equity shares of Rs10 each on 1st, Sept, 2009 automatically.

Hewlett-Packard India is ready to enter the retail photo printing market with a launch of online photo printing service. The company will target digital photography sector with HP Retail Photo Solutions (RPS).

The company plans to offer services to mobile phone and digital camera users via HP Snapfish website. The sales of digital cameras and mobile phones has picked up in past couple of years. HP has recently launched cost effective printing and scanning equipment with great features.

Moser Baer Entertainment has decided to enter low cost VCD and DVD player market. The company has approached many electronic companies to discuss possibilities of low cost DVD player. Moser Baer has been an aggressive player in Home entertainment market in recent couple of months. The company offered VCD for Rs 28 and DVD for just Rs 38 of famous Bollywood movies.

The company recently acquired 800 movie titles from Ultra Video. With the deal, Moser Baer will be able to offer more variety to its customers.

Antivirus maker Symantec has launched Norton Antivirus 2008 and Norton Internet Security 2008. Norton Internet Security comes with Norton Identity Safe which offers protection for online trading or browsing safe. Both programs will be available in English and Hindi versions for the Indian market.

Unity Infraprojects has informed that the company has bagged two orders worth Rs 2250 million. The first order is for re-modeling and up-gradation of Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium worth Rs 1478 million from Central Public Works Department (PWD). The company has to complete the order within 18 months as the country gets ready for 2010 Commonwealth Games.

The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) will offer $100 laptop in joint venture with One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) foundation. OLPC’s India plans will promote e-learning among poor and lower income groups across the country and Reliance Communications will provide Internet services, network and logistics. Reliance expects state governments and NGOs to come forward to make $ 100 laptop a reality in India.

3i Infotech Ltd has declared that it has signed an agreement to get hold of J&B Software Inc., USA and its divisions for about US$25.25mn.

J&B Software supplies software products and services with respect to remittance processing to blue chip clients in US. It is a lucrative company with revenues of around US$25mn.

The acquisition will be EPS accretive, 3i Infotech said.

New Delhi: IFCI has declared that it will start inviting financial bids within a week’s time and hoped to finish the process of 26 per cent stake sale within this year, subject to regulatory and other authorizations.

While addressing the newspersons after the board meeting, the IFCI CEO and Managing Director, Atul Kumar Rai, said, “We will float request for proposal (RFP) within a week and expect to receive financial bids in two months. We expect to finalise [the] strategic investor in two-and-a-half months from outside.”

New Delhi: According to the sources, pharma major Wockhardt Ltd has entered the final stages of buying US drug maker Morton Grove Pharmaceuticals Inc., which makes prescription liquid pharmaceutical products.

A related source told that Wockhardt is projected to declare the transaction shortly.

But the Mumbai-based pharma company declined to comment on the recent deal. “We do not respond to any speculations or rumours,” a company spokesperson replied.

The sources also said that the deal price is in the range of $50 million to $70 million.

Mittal Investments has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with HPCL, Oil India, GAIL and France’s Total S.A. to develop a refinery and petrochemical plant in Visakhapatnam. LN Mittal group will also be working with HPCL to set up a refinery in Bhatinda, Punjab. The Bhatinda refinery project has been delayed for many years due to political issues and Mittal Group was successful in picking up 49% stake in the project.

In the statement issued, HPCL CMD Mr. Arun Balakrishnan said, "We have signed a memorandum of understanding to study the feasibility of a refinery and a petrochemical complex. We expect to receive the report by March."

Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) has partnered with NTT Japan to provide to its international in-roaming service on Wi-Fi. VSNL is also providing Wi-Fi network to customers of Singapore based Starhub in India. VSNL informed the stock exchange in its filing.

The tourists will be able to easily access wireless broadband in top 10 cities across India. The company has planned to upgrade its network and will add 100 more hotspots this year.

Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd has informed the Stock Exchange that the company has got approval from Health Canada for manufacturing and marketing of Lisinopril. The company statement said that Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals-Canada Inc. has got approval for Ran-Lisinopril as oral medication in 5, 10 and 20 mg from Therapeutic Products Directorate (TPD), Health Canada.

Lisinopril is suggested to patients of hypertension as an initial therapy.

Mumbai based IMP Powers Ltd. has announced on Monday that the company has got an order of 65 crore from an EPS contractor.

The company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange that under the contract, it will supply EHV Transformers of 132 and 220 KV to Maharashtra State Electricity Board.

IMP Power manufactures electricity meters, testing equipment, and transformers. The company will complete this order in next 6 to 9 months.

Shares in the company were ended 3.36% up on BSE at Rs 187.65. The stock was trading between Rs 175 and 197.95 during today’s trading session. IMP Powers has touched a 52-week high of 219.

Allied Computers International Ltd (ACi) has announced a low cost laptop priced at Rs 15,000 only for Indian market. Last year, ACi launched laptop for just Rs 19,999. The company may start selling the laptops by June next year. Budget laptops will see a decent growth in sales as more Indian consumers are planning an upgrade from desktop to a laptop.

The low cost laptop from ACi will have Aluminium body which will lower the cost. ACi plans to increase its production from 10k units currently to 100k per year.

Bangalore: Novell India has rolled out the newest edition of PC operating system ‘OpenSUSE 10.3’.

openSUSE 10.3 consists of a flexible Linux-Windows dual-boot
arrangement, better user interface, dual-boot, compatibility of
OpenOffice.org office suite with MS Office and better multimedia back
up.

The small car market gets hotter with Hyundai planning to manufacture its compact car i10 in India. i10 from Hyundai will cost Rs 3.39 lakh. Hyundai Brand Ambassador Shahrukh Khan was also present during premiere of Hyundai i10. Hyundai expects i10 to be as popular as its Santro and the car will compete with Maruti’s Wagon R, Zen Estilo, and Indica Xeta from Tata.

Xenitis Infotech Pvt Ltd has launched lowest-ever priced laptop Xuva T14WN costing only Rs 19,900. Xenitis group announced that the Xuva T14WN will be available at dealer outlets across India. Xuva T14WN is powered by Intel Celeron processor and is aimed at students and entry level professionals who are looking for mobility solutions.

Larsen & Toubro Ltd. (L&T) said on Thursday that the company has received Rs 55 billion ($1.4 billion) contract from Mumbai International Airport Pvt. Ltd. (MIAL) for modernization & expansion of Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA).

Mumbai International Airport Pvt. Ltd. (MIAL) is a joint venture between GVK-SA consortium and Airports Authority of India (AAI).

BharatMatrimony will now offer matrimonial services on mobiles. The company has announced a tie up with Global leader in mobile market Nokia. Users will be able to access various features of BharatMatrimony using Nokia Catalogs. Nokia Catalogs is a mobile shopping mall offering content and services to Nokia users.

Reliance Power Ltd emerged as the lowest bidder in Krishnapatnam Ultra Mega Power project. Reliance Power quoted a price of Rs 2.33 per unit. Reliance Power has recently won Ultra Mega Power Project (UMPP) in Madhya Pradesh. Anil Ambani’s Reliance Power will set up UMPP with capacity of 4,000 mega watt at Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. The project cost is estimated at Rs 16,000 crore.

One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project has received first major support from some other corporate house after Electronic Arts announced that the company will donate its 1989 classic SimCity for the project. OLPC project aims to offer cheap laptops to children in developing countries. The project started offering robust laptops to children with a price tag of just $100.

Game developer, Electronic Arts (EA) has offered SimCity to OLPC project and the game will be pre-installed on OLPC laptops. SimCity can be played online free of cost on website of Electronic Arts.

Global drinks maker Diageo Plc is interested in buying nearly 10 – 13 percent stake in Vijay Mallya’s United Spirits Limited. As per the reports from Indian Newspaper Economic Times, Diageo may spend around $600 million to buy upto 13% stake in USL. United Spirits has been ranked number three in the world in terms of volume.

Diageo is not looking at management control or a place in the Board room yet. Diageo Plc finds Indian company as an interesting buy at current valuations. Diageo controls many famous brand like Smirnoff Vodka and Guinness Beer.

Dabur India Ltd has started operations in Nigeria. The company told that the facility in Nigeria will manufacture toothpastes for the African market. Mr. Sunil Duggal said that Nigeria is the fastest growing market for the company. Dabur has invested nearly 4 million USD to setup the facility in Nigeria.

Strides Arcolab announced on Tuesday that the company has signed multiple deals with South Africa based Aspen. The company will work on cancer drug jointly with Aspen. The shares of Strides Arcolab were locked in upper circuit of 20 percent in today’s trading session.

Sadbhav Engineering has received road construction projects worth Rs 99.01 crore from the Government of Chhattisgarh.

The project includes rehabilitation and upgradation of the Abhanpur-Rajim-Gariyaband and Rajim-Mahasamund segment in Chhattisgarh.

Presently, the company has an order book of around Rs 2394 crore. More than 70% of company's income comes from road construction projects. Despite this 15% is added by irrigation and 10% by mining.

Rajesh Exports has been recommended for short term investment by Indiabulls. The company management has informed the exchange that EGM will be held on 15, Dec, 2007 to discuss the issue of increasing the Authorized Share Capital of the Company from present Rs 100 million to Rs 300 million.

The company plans to add 2 equity share of Rs 2 each for every equity share held by current shareholders. The current shareholders will get a bonus of 2 shares for every share held in their account.

The company is also considering a stock split to Re 1 from current Rs 2 per share. The stock is currently trading at a P/E of 20. After the bonus and stock split, the liquidity will increase in the stock.

Nicosia, Dec.5: The Ministry of Oil and Gas of Oman has recently awarded to Reliance Exploration and Production DMCC, a subsidiary of India's Reliance Industries, exploration block 41, which is next to Block 18 awarded to Reliance in March 2005.

The offshore Block 41 covers an area of 23,850 sq km and is off the coast of Muscat.

The two sides signed last month an exploration and production sharing agreement.

Reliance will integrate the operations of the two blocks to ensure better value for both partners.

Reliance has been quite active in the Middle East, especially in Oman and Yemen.

Technical analyst Ashwani Gujral has suggested that Unitech can be purchased below Rs 428 with a stop loss of Rs 380. This is a delivery based call for a short term target of Rs 550.

Unitech Group is one of the major township planning and real estate development companies in India. The robust plans of Unitech Builder to make 4,000 top-of- the-line apartments priced at Rs 2 crore (Rs 20 million) each in the coming quarters can help the company to show decent number in coming quarters.

At National Stock Exchange, the stock has touched 52-week high of Rs 454.25 and a low of Rs.93.

Based on current price, the stock is trading at a P/E of 54.16 with earnings per share of Rs.7.92.

New Delhi, Dec. 10: Engineers of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) are repairing a suspected leakage on the Heera - Uran Gas pipeline, which was observed at 10 a. m. this morning.

ONGC sources said that the leakage site is about five nautical miles from Bombay Floating Lights (BFL).

The gas line has been depressurised, which will lead to a temporary curtailment of about 0.5 mmscmd (million standard cubic meters per day) of gas to consumers from Uran processing plant.

The pipeline will be made fully operational within a week’s time, the sources said. (ANI)

PVR, the leading multiplex operator has tied up with Bangalore-based Prestige Group to open and operate 60 new screens in South India.

According to the deal, PVR will be operating multiplexes for all of Prestige’s Forum malls. The partnership will be on a profit sharing basis.

Ajay Bijli, Chairman and MD, PVR Limited said, "With this strategic alliance, we will bring in our expertise to tap the synergies between us to expand and further cement our standing in movie exhibition space. "

The new screens at Prestige`s Forum Malls will be installed in Mangalore, Mysore, Chennai, Kochi, Hyderabad in addition to few new projects in Bangalore. The group would invest around Rs 3000 to Rs 4000 crore in all for these projects.

Reliance Industries Ltd has announced that the Company had signed Technical Evaluation Agreement in 2005 which has been converted to Hydrocarbon Production and Exploitation Contracts with Agenda Nacional de Hydrocarburos (ANH) of Colombia for two Offshore blocks, Borojo (pronounced as Boroho) North and Borojo South.

The contracts, which were signed on December 10 at Bogota, envisage exploration of two blocks located in the Pacific Ocean in water depths reaching up to 1,500 m. Each block size is approximately 4,000 square kilometers.

Reliance is expected to drill up to two wells in both areas over six years and will explore in four phases spread over 18 months each, the statement said.

Mudra Lifestyle Limited, garment manufacturer has won an export order worth Rs 15 crore from Cortefil, F.A. Macullar and Ivory International. The company has also bagged domestic orders to the tune of Rs 20 crore from institutional buyers.

The company release informed that the order is scheduled to be executed within four months from the date of receipt.

Mudra caters to well known names in the fashion market and has an ability to offer collections set to seasonal fashion trends, colors, patterns and international designs.

The stock closed today at Rs. 99.40 on NSE, up by 5.19% from its previous close of Rs. 94.50. It touched a lifetime intraday high of Rs. 102 and low of Rs. 94.25.

BOC India has announced that company’s board will allot 3.62 crore shares at Rs 165 per share to promoter Linde AG on a preferential basis.

The Company stated, "Pursuant to the preferential issue, the aggregate shareholding of Linde AG would increase from 54.80 per cent to up to 73.99 per cent of the total post issue paid-up equity share capital of BOC India. "

The 3.62 crore equity shares represent up to 42.45 % of the total post issue paid-up equity share capital of the company.

BOC India was incorporated on 24 January, 1935. It manufactures and deals in oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, acetylene and other gases, welding and cutting equipment, etc.

Gremach Infrastructure Equipments & Projects Ltd has announced that it has successfully placed an offering of USD 50 million 1% foreign currency convertible bonds. The bonds have tenure of five years and one day and are convertible into equity shares at a price of Rs 376.36 per share.

The FCCBs issue was oversubscribed by 60%. Bonds are expected to be listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange and closing is likely to take place on January 21, 2008 subject to requisite approvals having being obtained.

The Company intends to use the net proceeds raised from FCCB for its foray in to Oil Rig Business as may be permitted by Indian law and RBI regulations.

Japanese car major Suzuki Motor Corporation unveiled its fifth global car “A-Star” in New Delhi on Tuesday. Suzuki will manufacture A-Star in India and the car will be showcased at auto expo. Suzuki Chairman, Osamu Suzuki said that A-Star will be manufactured in India only and will be promoted under Suzuki’s “family theme”.

Sydney, Dec.12 (ANI): TATA Consultancy Services has signed a memorandum of understanding with New South Wales TAFE to run some of the technical college's courses in India.

According to S. Ramadorai, the global CEO and managing director of TCS, a good meeting had taken place with New South Wales Premier Morris Iemma, and it was decided that TCS would promote TAFE courses in India and also provide them in local languages.

"We haven't confirmed which courses would be selected yet. TCS and TAFE are working together on a detailed business plan," Ramadorai told The Australian.

Mumbai: Gulf Finance House (GFH) has decided to build up an economic development zone (EDZ) along the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, which would be a focus for investments above $10 billion.

The world’s second largest Islamic investment bank has stated that the EDZ will be constructed on 1,600 acres, and it would be operational by next 3-5 years.

GTH on Friday has signed up a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the government of Maharashtra in order to build EDZ that will house software, energy, telecom and entertainment facilities.

Auto major Bajaj Auto has plans to launch two-stroke engines in the India market, sources said. The two-stroke engine had been a success in the past due to its higher torque (power), faster pickup and better vehicle stability due to the smaller engine.

Bajaj which made great strides in the two wheeler market through its DTSi technology has recently introduced the GDi (Gasoline Direct Injection) technology in its three wheelers. Bajaj Auto claims that the emissions are lower with GDi engines.

India-based animation company DQ Entertainment (DQE) has announced that the company has raised USD 56 million via its listing on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange (LSE).

The firm has become the first Indian animation company to be listed on the LSE.

According to the release, the company will use the funds to expand its production houses in India, world-wide sales and distribution network, global partnerships, immediate European acquisitions and joint ventures.

IBM has launched “IBM OmniFind Personal Email Search (IOPES)”, a new smart email search software. According to IBM, the software is powered by advanced algorithms that can interpret incomplete queries and find information such as phone numbers, people, meetings, presentations, documents, images and more. However, the software also allows searchers to define their own concepts.

Hindustan Motors Limited, a flagship company of the C. K. Birla Group, has launched 10 AC metered taxis in Kolkata in response to users' requirements.

State Transport minister Mr. Subhas Chakraborty during inaugural ceremony said, “The AC taxi service is a step forward in our efforts to meet the demand for quality public service. ”

The state Transport department has issued 300 permits to HM to roll out such Ambassador AC taxis, which will operate from the airport and Howrah, Sealdah and Kolkata railway stations.

LT Overseas North America Inc, California a wholly owned subsidiary of LT Overseas Limited has acquired stake in a US-base rice firm Kusha Inc. LT Overseas is owner of popular Daawat brand of basmati rice.

Kusha Inc. imports premium quality Basmati rice from India. The firm has revenues of approximate USD 40 million. However, the company did not disclose the financial details regarding the deal.

Nagarjuna Construction Company Ltd has announced that the company has bagged an order worth Rs 570 crore (Rs. 5,700 million) from Government of Oman for the Wadi Adai Al Amerat road project.

The proposed 7.5 km road is to be completed in 18 months. The project among others involves the construction of six new bridges of varying lengths, nine box culverts and one single lane bridge, an official release said.

Petron Engineering Construction Ltd has announced that the company has secured two orders from Madras Cements Ltd for Ariyalur Project, located in Tamil Nadu.

The first order worth Rs. 60 million is for erection, testing, commissioning of electrical and instrumentation equipment while, the second order worth Rs. 36.1 million is for supply of electrical and instrumentation materials.

Incorporated in 1976, the Petron Engineering provides services in mechanical, erection, piping, electrical, instrumentation, painting, refractory and insulation work for refineries, chemicals, petrochemicals, cement, fertilizers, metallurgical, power plants and other industrial plants.

Jain Irrigation Systems Ltd has announced that the company has plans to raise USD 75 million through debt from a consortium led by International Finance Corp and Lehman Brothers to fund expansion plans in coming quarters.

The company plans to spend USD 95 million to expand its drip irrigation, pipes and food processing facility over 18 months. The remaining USD 20 million will come from internal accruals, a top official said.

Videocon Industries has announced that the company will enter power generation with a capacity of 5000 MW of electricity. The company has plans to invest Rs 25k crore and is already looking for land in states of West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Gujarat.

The company plans to raise money with equity and debt to finance the projects. Videocon Industries is also looking for a global partner to step into power generation sector. Industry experts believe that Videocon may also be looking at private equity placement to some big investor.

Spice Communication, well known telecom service provider, has announced that the Company’s Board of Directors has approved a proposal to sell 875 telecom towers of the company to a tower operating Company.

B.K. Modi, Chairman, Spice Telecommunication said, “The profit from the sale of the towers would be 5 billion rupees.”

Sun TV Network has announced that the company has launched a new FM radio station at Vijayawada, through its subsidiary Kal Radio. The programs will cater to the audience of all age groups and can be heard at 93.5 MHz frequency at Vijayawada, an official release said.

With the launch of this FM Station, the total operational FM Stations of the Company goes up to 17 as it already operates at Chennai, Coimbatore, Tirunelveli, Visakhapatnam, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Bhubaneswar, Tirupati, Madurai, Tuticorin, Lucknow, Bhopal, Pondicherry, Kozhikode (Calicut) and Indore.

Country's largest engineering and construction company, Larsen & Toubro (L&T) announced that its Oman Unit, Larsen & Toubro (Oman) LLC has won  three orders worth over USD 190 million (Rs. 748 crore) from Dhofar Power Company and Muscat Electricity Distribution Company for electrical substations and associated works  and for executing the Muscat Golf Course in Oman.

Larsen & Toubro (Oman) LLC is a joint venture of Larsen & Toubro FZE and the Zubair Corporation and has been in operations for the last 14 years.

Gemini Communication, in collaboration with Midas Communication Technologies Pvt Ltd., has won Rs 260 crore order for executing a project (“EDWAS Project”) for BSNL in the states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Haryana.

Midas has outsourced the implementation of `EDWAS Project` on a turnkey basis to Gemini. Midas bid for the tender for planning, design, supply, installation and commissioning of 134 base station controllers (BSCs) and 1,340 base station sites.

The project shall be executed in phases with the first phase of the order to the tune of Rs 50 crore to be implemented in Tamil Nadu, an official release said.

ONGC Mittal Energy Ltd. (OMEL), a joint venture between ONGC Videsh Ltd. (OVL) and Mittal Investment Sarl (MIS), has won an exploration block with estimated gas reserves of 2 trillion cubic feet in Trinidad and Tobago. The firm has won this exploration block, by beating United Kingdom’s Centrica Plc.

OMEL, the 51:49 JV between Mittal Energy and the overseas investment arm of state-run ONGC, made a revised financial commitment of around $204 million to win the block. Mittal Investment is owned by industrialist L.N. Mittal, who also owns Arcelor Mittal, the world’s largest steel company.

Spanco Telesystems and Solutions Ltd, has announced that the company has forayed into the domestic BPO segment through its new venture -- Spanco BPO. The new venture has set up two flagship customer support centers in Gurgaon and Mumbai to provide back office and contact centre services to domestic clients, a release said.

Spanco BPO plans to invest over Rs 400 crores in order to increase its presence across India over the next two years. The company will set up facilities in various cities across India including Chennai, Jaipur, Mysore, Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Noida.

Time Technoplast Ltd has acquired 100% stake in Bahrain-based battery manufacturer Gulf Powerbeat WLL (GPW) for $10 million. The acquisition was made by the Mumbai-based company through its Hyderabad subsidiary NED Energy (NED) and the total investment will be financed through a mix of equity contribution from NED and raising debt overseas, an official release said.

GPW, Bahrain has installed capacity for telecom / automotive batteries of up to 150 mn AM with surplus capacity to produce vital battery components (grids and Lead plates) of additional 250 mn AH.

This acquisition of Gulf Powerbeat shall provide NED Energy 'ready to use' capacity which could be integrated fully with NED's operation in the next three months.

India's leading international telecommunications service provider, Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) has announced that it has sold 1,517,936 shares representing 10% of the paid up capital in its wholly-owned subsidiary VSNL Lanka Ltd. The shares have been acquired by Sunshine Holdings PLC, a Sri Lankan conglomerate for about Rs 27.2 million (US$690,254), an official release said.

Apart from telecom sector, Sunshine Holdings also has interests in pharmaceuticals, travel & tourism, tea & rubber cultivation and managing portfolio investments.

New Delhi, Dec.28: D K Sarraf has joined as the new Director (Finance) of ONGC.

Sarraf was selected by the Public Enterprise Selection Board some time ago. The position of Director (Finance) of ONGC had fallen vacant after R S Sharma was elevated from Director (Finance) to CMD in May 2006.

The Japanese electronics giant, Sony Corp. has announced that it will stop manufacturing rear-projection televisions to focus on its flat-panel products.

Sony said that the company will focus its resources on LCD and organic light-emitting diode technology to address the strong flat- screen TV market demand.

The production of rear-projection TVs, which are currently being manufactured at factories in Japan, Malaysia and Mexico, will stop in February, 2008, the company added.

Bilcare Singapore, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bilcare Limited, has issued 4% convertible bonds, due in 2012, to raise $90 million, an official release said.

The bonds may be redeemed in whole at the option of the bondholder on the maturity date at a return price of 130.726% of the principal amount, plus accrued interest, as per the terms of the issue.

The Bonds may be converted to shares of Bilcare Singapore Pte Ltd at maturity or 90 days after the completion of a Qualified IPO. The bonds will be listed on Singapore Stock Exchange.

Singapore government’s investment arm, Temasek Holdings and other leading global investors have agreed to buy up to 9 % stake in Bharti Infratel, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bharti Airtel for a total of USD 1 billion. After the deal, the valuation of the company will reach up to $12.5 billion.

Switzerland’s largest bank, UBS has announced that the bank has dropped plans to acquire mutual fund management business in India from the British group Standard Chartered.

UBS said in a statement, “Following the expiry of the sale and purchase agreement that it executed in January this year with Standard Chartered Bank, both the entities have decided not to continue negotiations regarding the acquisition of Standard Chartered’s mutual funds management business in India.”

Two-wheeler maker, Kinetic Motor Company has finally launched its 125-cc scooterette, Kinetic Flyte throughout the country. The company had launched “Flyte” in selected North Indian markets two months ago. It has already sold around 5,000 units of the new scoorerette.

The 125cc Flyte is priced at Rs 36,837 and is available in five colors. The company claims a 45 to 50 km per litre mileage for the scooter.

Kinetic Flyte, includes advance features like central locking, anti-theft magnetic key, mobile phone charging, crash resistant mirrors.

India`s biggest pharmaceutical company, Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd has announced that it has received final approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) to manufacture and market Cetrizine Hydrochloride Tablets (OTC), in 5 mg and 10 mg doses.

Cetirizine hydrochloride is a generic version of Pfizer's Zyrtec tablets of the same strengths. It is used for temporary relief from running nose, sneezing, itching of the nose or throat, and itchy. The drug is also effective in treatment of watery eyes due to hay fever or other upper respiratory allergies, company stated in a release.

London, Jan 4 : A new survey has revealed the odd jobs economy is on the rise in Britain, thanks to jobs like babysitting and car-washing.

The survey found that kids are paid nearly 700 million pounds a year for carrying out odd jobs and running errands.

According to the survey, nearly 30 percent of children between the age group of 11 to 18 regularly help out for cash.

Leading bank Abbey said that boys pick up an average 55 pounds a month as compared to girls' 38 pounds.

According to the ICM poll, babysitting is the most famous earner at an average 17 pounds for a four-hour shift.

Bangalore-based diamond and jewellery manufacturer, Rajesh Exports Limited has launched its nine international brands of diamond jewellery brands namely Harmony, I-teen, Ghazal, Eternal, Filigree, Aishwarya, Solitaire, Southern and Sushmita at a function held at Windsor Manor, Bangalore.

The company also plans to tie-up with leading retail chains worldwide to sell its branded diamond jewellery. It is already in discussions with diamond jewellery distributors and retail chains overseas such as Zara and JC Penny for strategic distribution agreements

World's sixth largest steelmaker, Tata Steel Ltd has announced that the company has signed a 50:50 joint venture (JV) agreement with state-run Steel Authority of India (SAIL), for coal mining activities in India.

SAIL's chairman S.K. Roongta and Tata Steel's managing director B. Muthuraman signed the agreement.

Under the agreement, the two will incorporate a joint venture company for the mining of coal in the state of Jharkhand.

The company will take up four medium coking coal blocks in Jharkhand with reserves of approximately 600 metric tonnes (mt), an official release said.

The Gitanjali Gems Ltd, an integrated diamond and jewellery maker cum retailer, has announced that the company has acquired ‘Nakshatra’, the premium brand of diamond jewellery promoted by Diamond Trading Company (DTC) through its Dubai-based subsidiary, 'Gitanjali Ventures DMCC'.

Gitanjali Gems will now have full ownership of the premium jewellery brand. It earlier held a 33% stake.

A market expert said that ‘Nakshatra’ acquisition will increase the market share for Gitanjali in its jewellery business and give further help its overall margins

Mumbai-based Hikal Ltd has announced that the company has signed a long-term contract with Pfizer Inc., a global leader in Pharmaceuticals, for manufacturing and supply of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API’s).

However, the company has not disclosed financial details on the latest API deal.

Hikal is a reliable long-term outsourcing partner to companies in the Pharmaceuticals, Agrochemicals and Specialty Chemicals industry. The company has been supplying key APIs and intermediates, manufactured using stringent global quality standards, for it’s customers in the United States, Europe and Japan.

Sterlite Technologies Ltd has announced that the company has won a contract worth Rs. 1.4 billion ($ 35 million) from Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Prasaran Nigam Ltd (RVPN) India for manufacture and supply of ACSR Moose Power Transmission Conductors.

The company is a leading global provider of optical fibers, power transmission conductors, and telecommunication cables.

Leading provider of AIDC Technologies, Bartronics India, has announced that the company has raised $50 million through issuance of zero coupon unsecured foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs).

Company said in a statement that the bonds have a maturity of five years and are convertible at a price of Rs 290, which represents a premium of around 20% over the current market price.

The FCCB funds will be used to fund the US and Southeast Asian operations and acquisitions. The London-based corporate finance firm, Silverdale Services, was the sole lead manager for the offering, it added.

Silverline Technologies, an IT and BPO services company, has acquired Canadian-firm, Omega Direct Response, a global provider of customer interaction and management services for an undisclosed amount.

OMDR, formerly known as Omega Direct Responses, specializes in inbound, outbound and multilingual customer service.

Ravi Subramanian, Chairman, Silverline Technologies said, "This acquisition puts Silverline to be a contender in the service management space and well positions itself well to realise its fiscal 2008 goals of becoming a leading player of technology-enabled service management solutions, globally."

Carlyle India Advisors Pvt. Ltd, the Indian subsidiary of the global private equity firm the Carlyle Group, has invested USD 27.7 million (Rs. 110 crore) in Chennai-based Repco Home Finance Limited.

The investment will come from Carlyle Asia Growth Partners III, a 680 mln USD fund that invests in high growth companies in India, China, Japan and Korea, an official release said.

The funds raised would be used by Repco to expand its loan portfolio.
 

Volvo Bus Corporation has announced that the company will invest Rs 80 Crore for setting up a bus body manufacturing plant at Hosakote, Bangalore.

Akash Passey, Director, Volvo Bus Corporation Director said, “The company has entered into an agreement with India`s Jaico Automobiles to form a joint venture company, named Volvo Bus Body Technologies India (VBT).”

The joint venture company would have a manufacturing capacity of 1,000 buses per year and will meet the demand of both Indian and foreign markets.

Bharati Shipyard Ltd plans to construct a greenfield shipyard at Usgaon near the Dabhol port in Maharashtra. The yard would have the capacity to build vessels up to 100,000 DWT and will be fully operational in the next 2 years, an official release stated.

P.C. Kappor, Managing Director of the company said, "We are very proud to announce the Green Field Shipyard at Dabhol. The yard will be spread over an area of more than 250 acres. We have already acquired more than 180 acres of land. We are in the process of acquiring balance land."

Info Drive Software Ltd has announced that the Company has submitted a bid to acquire 100% interest in an IT Consulting Company having specialization in SAP related services in the US market.

India’s largest private sector shipping company, Great Eastern Shipping Company Ltd (GE Shipping) has announced that the company has signed a contract to sell its non-double hull panamax product carrier "Jag Anjali".

The 1986 built, 66,203 dwt vessel was acquired in April 2003 .The ship is scheduled to be delivered during the fourth quarter of FY 2008, an official release said.

The decision to sell this ship is in line with the Company's overall strategy of reducing its presence in the non-double hull tanker fleet. In line with the same view, the Company had sold its 2 non-double hull Aframax tankers "Jag Labh" and "Jag Leher" in Q3 FY 2008.

India's biggest engineering firm, Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has announced that the company has secured various new projects worth over Rs 3500 crore.

The biggest order valued at Rs. 2000 crore from Kingston Properties, which involves construction of various office & residential buildings in Mumbai, to be developed over a span of four years.

Apart from this project the Buildings and Factories (B&F) business unit of L&T`s Construction Division (ECC) secured orders for many assignments including Rs 665 crore from Cognizant Technology for development centers in Chennai and Kolkata.

Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces has signed a hotel operation agreement for 15 years with Saraya Islands. The agreement is regarding operating Taj Exotica Hotel & Spa in Ras Al Khaimah, UAE, which will become operational by end of year 2011.

The resort will include around 150 guest rooms including suites, 30 bunglows, two restaurants, conference facilities spa and other top-end amenities, an official release said.

Saraya Islands is investing $2 billion for the whole project. The Island has a unique location between desert and mountains and the project is composed of four islands and a main village, occupying 5.5 km of long Natural Island.

India’s leading healthcare service provider, Fortis Healthcare Limited has announced that the Company is exploring possibilities of Joint Venture (JV) with Emaar MGF Land Limited, for setting up of Hospitals.  

Fortis Healthcare, India was established in 1996 by the promoters of Ranbaxy Laboratories, among the world's top 10 generic companies. The company is India's largest pharmaceutical company. The company operates multi-specialty hospitals in the country, which provide secondary and tertiary healthcare to patients. The company also operates Fortis La Femme, a boutique style hospital that focuses on women’s health and maternity care.

India-based, Elecon Engineering Co Ltd has announced that the company has received combined orders worth Rs 15.74 crore for supplying crushers and wagon tipplers to some cement companies.

Elecon Engineering manufactures Material Handling Equipment, Helical gears, Spiral Bevel Helical gears, Elecon ET Series modular gear units, Elecon EP & Epex Series, Planetary gears, Worm gears, Couplings, Geared Motors as well as custom engineered drive solutions for specialized precision applications.

The firm presently holds market cap worth Rs. 2823 crore, PE Ratio of 46.38; EPS of 6.56 and BV of 60.76. The firm had registered a net profit of Rs 17 crore for the quarter ended September 2007 as against Rs. 16 crore in same quarter of corresponding year.

Educomp Solutions Ltd has announced that its subsidiary, Educomp School Management Ltd has signed a MoU with IIT Chennai to develop a world class Science Enrichment Program to enhance science education in schools.

The program aims to develop Science Enrichment Materials which would include designing hands-on and computer based activities in Physics and Chemistry based on the CBSE syllabus from class 5 to 12 for implementation in the classrooms, an official release said.

India-based IT firm, Geodesic Information Systems Ltd, has announced that it will raise USD 125 million through the Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds (FCCBs) route to raise funds to finance future inorganic growth.

The company intends to use the proceeds for overseas acquisitions and investments in joint ventures/wholly owned subsidiaries, an official release said.

The Mauritius-based Evolvence India Life Sciences Fund has entered into a definitive agreement with the Hyderabad-based Gland Pharma Ltd to invest $30 million.

Vishy Chebrolu, Advisor, Evolence India Life Sciences Fund said, “The fund will get a significant minority stake in Gland Pharma. The investment will help Gland Pharma to take up massive organic and inorganic expansion.”

The fund, which recently invested $5 million in Bangalore-based oncology services provider Health Care Global, is also interested in pumping in equity into more biotech and pharma companies.

Apparel maker Indus Fila Ltd has announced that its board has approved raising $50 million in the form of equity or debt.

Indusfila Limited. is a part of the Indus Mandhana Group. The company has diverse interests in textiles sourcing and manufacturing spanning a period of over five decades.

To capitalize on its core strength, the group has invested in vertically integrated units manufacturing fabrics and apparel to cater to the growing needs of apparel market worldwide.

At 12:15 pm, the stock was quoting at Rs. 340 on NSE, up 1% from its previous close of Rs. 337. It touched an intraday high of Rs. 345 and low of Rs. 340.

OM Metals Infraprojects Ltd has announced that the Om Metals Consortium, a partnership concern, has secured LOI for an estimated amount of Rs 600 crore slum rehabilitation project in Bandra Reclamation, Mumbai. The Company has 35% equity stake in the consortium.

OM Metals is a fast emerging conglomerate, with business interests in Hydro Mechanical Engineering, Real Estate and Infrastructure projects. The Company is in the process of executing large size real estate projects, and has more than 5 million sq. ft of land under development.

Patel Integrated Logistics Ltd (PILL) announced that the company has plans to invest around Rs. 60 crore over the next 12-18 months to expand its warehousing and technology infrastructure.

PILL is the merged company of Patel Roadways and POBC. The company provides unified solutions through door- to-door express cargo service, surface transport, air and sea transportation, besides offering services in warehousing and secondary distribution.

Arif A Patel, Executive Vice-Chairman said, "All the funds would go into the expansion of surface express cargo business."

The company would set up 13-15 warehousing hubs across the country to widen its logistics network, Mr. Patel said.

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd has announced that its leading compound GRC 8200 for the treatment of Type II Diabetes has received the international non-proprietary name (INN) "Melogliptin", from the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The name was selected during the recently held 45th Consultation on non-proprietary names and was suggested by the International Panel for Pharmacopoeia and Pharmaceutical Preparations.

Cords Cable IPO makes debut on Jan. 21 at price band of Rs. 125-135 per share

Cords Cable Industries Limited (CCIL), a leading cable manufacturer for a variety of industries, will enter the capital market with an initial public offering (IPO) of 3,085,000 equity shares of Rs 10 each for cash at a price to be decided through a 100% book-building process.
The company has fixed the price band between Rs 125-135 per share. The issue will open for subscription on Jan. 21, 2008, and close on Jan. 24, 2008.

India's petroleum major, Essar Oil Ltd has announced that Essar Energy Overseas Ltd, a subsidiary of the Company has entered into an agreement to acquire 50% stake in Kenya Petroleum Refineries Ltd. ("KPRL"). KPRL operates in Mombasa, Kenya with a capacity of 4 million metric tonnes per annum (MMTPA). The Government of Kenya holds the remaining 50% stake of KPRL.

However, the company has not revealed the cost of the acquisition.

The refinery in Mombasa, previously half-owned by Chevron, BP and Royal Dutch Shell, is the only one in eastern Africa. It currently produces LPG, gasoline, diesel, kerosene and fuel oil. The refinery is planned to be upgraded by adding secondary units at a project cost of USD 400-450 million, an official release said.

JSW Steel Limited has announced that the company, through its Netherlands based wholly-owned subsidiary, has acquired 8 greenfield mining concessions in the Atacama region in North Chile. The deal has been valued at $52 million. These exploration mining concessions extend over an area of approximately 1200 hectares, an official release said.

Mr. Sajjan Jindal , Vice Chairman and Managing Director, JSW Steel, commenting on this acquisition said, "These mines are expected to have good quality magnetite iron ore deposits located near pacific coast facilitating shipment of ore at competitive cost. It acts as a natural hedge against high cost iron ore procured from third parties in India once these mines are operationalised".

Nagarjuna Construction Company Ltd (NCCL) has announced that the company has won six new orders worth Rs. 502 Crores. NCCL operates as a construction company in India. The company operates in six different sector including Buildings and Housing, Transportation, Water and Environment, Irrigation, Electrical, and Real Estate.

The Hyderabad-based company has bagged first order worth Rs 185 crores from the Andhra Pradesh government for water supply improvement scheme at Warangal. The project is expected to be completed over a period of 18 months.

Non-ferrous metals giant Vedanta Resources said that the company has plans to foray into steel sector by setting up a 10 million tonne steel plant in Orissa. The current plans are to invest Rs 50,000 crore to ramp up its mining and metals production capacity during the year.

Vedanta Resources is planning an IPO for Sterlite Energy, a subsidiary of Sterlite Industries (India) Ltd, in the next few months, said group Chairman.

Anil Agarwal, Chairman, Vedanta Group said, “Our bankers and advisors are working on the same. I cannot give you a specific date but it will come in a few months.”

The company would also consider option to sell shares via pre-IPO placement, he added.

Real estate giant, DLF Ltd has announced that the Company has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Gayatri Projects Ltd (GPL), one of the leading infrastructure development Companies in India. The agreement is to jointly develop roads and highway projects across the country.

Under the terms of the agreement, DLF-GPL would together leverage the strengths of both parties to form SPVs for development of highways, an official release stated.

DLF-Laing O'Rourke Ltd (LOR), the Joint Venture between DLF and LOR would be the contractor for the projects of DLF-GPL.

DLF and GPL together aim to develop projects worth Rs 1,000 crore every year and in turn build a strong portfolio of projects in a short period of time.

Unity Infraprojects Ltd (UIL) has announced that the company has received the Letter of Intent (LoI) from Magarpatta Retail Pvt. Ltd. for Civil Construction works of the proposed building for Magarpatta Retail Mall Project at Magarpatta City, Hadapsar, Pune. Infrastructure and Real Estate developers are having many orders in pipeline. The whole sector has witnessed a re-rating by stock market experts. Some big-cap companies from the sector have recently announced big value contracts.

The Contract is valued at Rs 102.14 crores (exclusive of VAT (WCT) & service tax) and the project is to be completed with 9.5 months from commencement of work, an official release stated.

India’s largest private healthcare services company, Wockhardt Hospitals Limited has fixed the Price Band between Rs 280 and Rs 310 per equity share for its initial public offering (“IPO”) of 2.51 crore equity shares of Rs 10 each for cash at a price determined through a 100% book building process.

The proposed IPO of Wockhardt Hospitals has been assigned an IPO grade of 4 out of 5 by rating agency, Fitch Ratings India. The company has filed a Red Herring Prospectus (“RHP”) with the Registrar of Companies, Maharashtra, at Mumbai, on January 17, 2008.

Housing Development and Infrastructure (HDIL), through its subsidiary, Blue Star Realtors, plans to launch HDIL Cybercity project at Kochi. The project cost is estimated at Rs 4000 crore.

The mega project will be spread across an area of 70 acres and it will be Kerala’s first integrated township including various facilities for professionals. Cybercity will offer excellent accommodation options for IT/ITES professionals.

Jaiprakash Associates Ltd has finally bagged the prestigious 1040 km-long Ganga Expressway Project that will connect Noida in the national capital region to Ballia in the eastern part of the Uttar Pradesh. The expressway was described as the biggest infrastructure project undertaken in the country so far and seen as an engine of transformation for the state economy.

"We have got it against stiff competition. The project will be completed over seven years," Managing Director Manoj Gaur said.

Second largest manufacturer of earthmoving equipment in Asia, Bharat Earth Movers Ltd (BEML) has entered into a joint venture agreement with Hyderabad-based Midwest Limited and Sumbermitra Jaya of Indonesia to enter into mining sector.

The joint venture, named BEML Midwest Limited, would provide total mining solutions, right from mine development to mine management and maintenance.

BEML was keen to tap the potential available in mining operations, a company spokesman said in a statement.

Public sector undertaking, BEML Limited is a premier ISO 9001-2000 Company in India. The company commands 70% market share in domestic earthmover industry. Nearly 40% of its equity has been divested to financial institutions and public.

The D. E. Shaw group, a global investment and technology development firm, has made an equity investment of US$ 15 million in Soham Renewable Energy India Private Ltd. to fund its expansion plan over the next five years, a company official said.  

Incorporated in 2000, Soham is focused on generating power from all the segments of the renewable power sector, including hydro, solar, and wind power. The company has also obtained carbon credits under the Certified Emission

Reduction (CER) program for this project and has sold the credits to one of the largest power utilities in Japan.
Soham recently commissioned a 22 MW hydro project in the state of Karnataka to supply exclusive power to a large multinational corporation.

Reliance Energy Ltd in consortium with CAF of Spain has been awarded the Airport Metro Express Line (AMEL), Project on BOOT basis for a concession period of 30 years.

The project has been awarded by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (DMRC) through an International Competitive bidding process. The estimated project cost is about Rs 2,500 crore.

The proposed 22.7 km of high speed metro rail line shall connect New Delhi Railway Station and New Delhi International Airport through Cannaught Place.

Rolta India Ltd, the software services company has announced the acquisition of Chicago-based Broech Corporation, an IT consulting company specializing in ERP applications as well as database and BI solutions, based on Oracle technologies. Broech carries out its business as "TUSC".

Company stated in a release that the consideration for this transaction is about US$ 45 million, including escrows and earn-outs.

TUSC is headquartered in Chicago, with excellence centers and offices across the US that are staffed by over 160 consultants. TUSC is a profitable Company and its 2007 revenues were in excess of US$48 million, with a CAGR of more than 30% over the past 4 years.

The US-based FreightCar America, which is engaged in the manufacture of railroad freight cars has entered a 51:49 joint venture with city-based Titagarh Wagons for developing new freight wagons for the Indian market.

The joint venture agreement was signed at the Writers’ Buildings in the presence of West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for this project was signed in December 2006.

Under the terms of the joint venture agreement, FreightCar America and Titagarh will initially develop prototype cars based on FreightCar America's designs and 'assess the market opportunity in India.

R Systems International Ltd has announced that it has completed the acquisition of Sento Europe B.V., a Netherlands corporation and Sento S.A.S., a French corporation (collectively known as Sento Europe) from Sento Corporation, USA.

Sento Europe with operations in Enschede, Netherlands and Metz, France provides a wide range of integrated technical support and customer care services through multiple channels in 18 European languages and 24 countries. The company has achieved revenues of approximately US$ 14.85 million during the year ended March 2007.

State-owned power equipment maker Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) has announced that the company has bagged a Rs. 866 crore order from Mukesh Ambani-promoted, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) for setting up a 365 MW gas-based captive power plant in Maharashtra.

The engineering, procurement and construction project involves supply and commissioning of an ‘advanced-class Frame 9FA’ gas turbine. RIL has placed the order for a 345 MW Gas Turbine based Combined Cycle Power Plant (CCPP) to be installed at Nagothane in district Raigad.

Global IT major, Microsoft Corporation has acquired a 35% equity stake in mobile-integrated platform provider, Oxigen Services India for an undisclosed amount.

Oxigen is an IT enabled multi-services platform and distributor of recharges, prepaid subscriptions and bill payments. The company currently has a pan India retail network of approximately 50,000 touchpoints.

Jump Games, a mobile game developer and part of Anil Ambani’s Reliance Entertainment, has signed contract worth $ 100 million with Manchester United football club to design, develop and distribute mobile games.

Under the three-year agreement, Jump Games will pay a license fee to Manchester United for creating content centred around the club. The deal also includes a revenue sharing engagement, details of which were not disclosed.

New York-headquartered, BlackRock has acquired the 40% stake held by Merrill Lynch in mutual fund DSP Merrill Lynch Fund Managers. The mutual fund house will be renamed DSP BlackRock Mutual Fund while DSP Merrill Lynch Fund Managers will be renamed ‘DSP BlackRock Investment Managers’.

The remaining 60 per cent will continue to be held by the DSP Group (Hemendra Kothari and his associate companies).

Hemendra Kothari, chairman of DSSML-FM, said the deal is in line with the realignment of Merrill Lynch asset management business and there is no cash transaction involved.

Nicosia, Jan 29: Sharjah-based Dana Gas in a recent announcement has said that its current production of 32,000 barrels of oil equivalent exceeded the company’s expectations.

The company attributed its good performance to the fact that its new discoveries have started production earlier than anticipated.

The El-Baraka discovery at Dana Gas’ wholly owned Komombo concession in Upper Egypt made its first shipment of oil several months ahead of schedule. The second discovery at West Manzala has also started production.

Drug Major Sun Pharmaceuticals has announced the commercial launch of generic Pantoprazole Sodium Delayed Release (DR) Tablets, 40 mg in the market. The drug is used for treating oesophagus ailments.

Sun Pharmaceuticals has launched the drug after the commercial launch by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and Wyeth’s generic Pantoprazole Sodium tablets product.

This strength of Pantoprazole Sodium has annual sales of around 2.3 billion dollar in the US. The product is being sold by its marketing partner Caraco Pharmaceutical Laboratories.

The company had received a USFDA approval for these tablets in Sep 2007.

Tata Chemicals has signed up definitive agreements in order to acquire a US-based chemical company, General Chemical Industrial Products Inc. (GCIP) for around Rs 4,000 crore ($1,005 million).
Harbinger Capital Partners is the majority owner of GCIP.
The deal is conditioned on the receipt of shareowner and other regulatory commendations.
GCIP is a major soda ash manufacturer in the USA. It has a capacity of 2.5 million TPA of Natural Soda Ash. Its manufacturing plants are situated at Green River Basin in Wyoming, USA.

Real Estate major Puravankara Group is planning to invest Rs 1000 crore on four to five hotel projects over the next one year. The company is planning to offer 600- 700 luxury rooms in these hotels at different locations. The land for the project has already been purchased by the company.

Puravankara is ready to confederate with some reputed brands to award the management contracts. The first super luxury hotel will be established in Cochin. The other locations include Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Coimbatore. Hotel industry has seen a good increase in revenues over the past 1 year. The occupancy rate has increased despite a steady rise in the hotel room tariffs. Experts believe that the industry may register a decent growth over next two quarters.

The boards of directors of Kingfisher Airlines Ltd and Deccan Aviation Ltd have finally agreed to merge Kingfisher with Deccan Aviation.

Kingfisher Airlines, an unlisted company, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of UB Breweries Holding, the UB group’s investments holding company.

The airline business of the Kingfisher Airlines will be demerged into Deccan Aviation and the combined airline company will be renamed as Kingfisher Airlines.

After the merger, the UB group and its founder Vijay Mallya will together own about 69% of Deccan Aviation Ltd. The demerger will be effective from April 1 this year, subject to statutory approvals.

All Major Indian Steel Companies raised the price of Steel by Rs 1500 – 2500 per tonne for various products. Higher demand and high input costs triggered the move. Tata Steel raised the price of hot-rolled steel by Rs 2000 per tonne. PSU Steel Major SAIL also raised the price of its flat and long products by Rs 1500 – 2000 per tonne. Uttam Galva Steels raised the price of galvanized steel by Rs 2000 per tonne.

Ispat Industries, JSW Steel and Essar Steel also hiked the price for their products.

Fiat desires that Tata will share its technology regarding Jaguar and Land Rover, the two global brands it is trying to capture from Ford.
 
Fiat is considering the technology made by Jaguar and Land Rover to use for its ‘Alfa Romeos’ and ‘Maseratis’, a company report said.
 
Fiat’s Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne told, “Fiat’s close association with Tata would make it possible to share Jaguar’s rear-wheel drive chassis platforms and Land Rover’s four-wheel drive systems.”
 

Mindteck (India) Ltd, a global technology and IT services company has announced that the company has acquired US-based Infotech Consulting for USD 21 million. 

Infotech Consulting, a multi-disciplined technology services firm based in pennsylvania, US with estimated revenue of $31 million as of December 31, 2007, employs over 250 people in the US. The company has a large commercial and governmental customer base and significant expertise in Business Application Consulting (BAC), and Security Infrastructure and Managed Services (SIM),

The largest power generation PSU, National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd (NTPC) has announced that the corporation has inked a MOU with Bharat Forge Ltd.

The motive of this MOU is to promote a Joint Venture Company to make power plant components.

As per the agreement, the shareholding pattern of the new company will allow NTPC to hold 49 percent stake and Bharat Forge will hold a majority stake of 51 percent.

NTPC further informed that the limited review of the un-audited financial results for the quarter ended December 31, 2007 has been conducted by the auditors.  

Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) Bank has announced that the investor grievance committee of the bank under Employees Stock Option Scheme on Feb 7 2008 has approved allotment of 101,100 equity shares to the employees.

The Bank provides housing finance and other banking services. It has its number of subsidiaries which include HDFC Developers Limited, HDFC Investments Limited, HDFC Holdings Limited, HDFC Asset Management Company Limited, HDFC Trustee Company Limited etc.

Kolkata-based business conglomerate Usha Martin Limited has announced the launch of the newly formed company Usha Breco Realty Pvt. Ltd.

Usha Breco Realty, which will be headquartered in Mumbai, will focus on joint ventures for property development under a profit or revenue sharing arrangement. The projects include a multi-tenanted IT building in Kolkata with an estimated budget of Rs.75 crore. The company will also develop Rs.175 crore integrated residential-cum-commercial project at Ranchi in Jharkhand. The company is currently implementing projects with budget over Rs. 250 crore.

The group has appointed Uday Dharmadhikari as CEO of Usha Breco Realty.

Mumbai, Feb 11: Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group’s Reliance Power on Monday listed at 548 rupees, which is a premium of 27.4 per cent to its issue price of 450 rupees, on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), while it listed at 530 rupees on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

During early trades, the scrip touched a high of 600 rupees, and a low of 401 rupees.

It may be recalled that the much sought after Reliance Power Initial Public Offer (IPO) was subscribed approximately 70 times. The IPO attracted over five million bids from all categories of domestic and international investors.

Mumbai, Feb 11: Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group's Reliance Power stock, that was listed at 548 rupees on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), was trading at 417 rupees, a discount of 33 rupees, at 1200hrs. Around 34 million shares were either sold or bought so far on the exchange.

On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the stock was listed at Rs 530, and was trading at 418 rupees with around 80.5 million shares traded on the exchange.

Reliance Power, which last month made the country’s largest-ever initial public offering of three billion dollars, fell at its debut on the stock markets.

Hyderabad-based, National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) anticipates that international price for iron ore may increase by 40-50% by April this year.

The price hikes in the international markets are determined mainly by Australian, Brazilian and Japanese iron ore positions, said V K Jain, director (production), NMDC.

The company is also eyeing acquisitions of iron ore mines in Canada and West Africa.

NMDC Limited engages in the exploration and production of a range of mineral products in India. The company has produced 20.1 million tonnes of iron ore during April-December 2007, recording a 12.5 per cent growth over the same period last year.

London, Feb 14: A French engineer-cum-inventor, who has received the backing of India's TATA Group, has announced that within a year he will start selling an "Aircar" for 2,500 pounds.

According to Guy Negre, the OneCAT will be a five-seater with a glass fibre body, weighing just 350kg and will be driven by compressed air stored in carbon-fibre tanks built into the chassis.

According to the BBC, the tanks of the car can be filled with air from a compressor in just three minutes - much quicker than a battery car.

Alternatively, it can be plugged into the mains for four hours and an on-board compressor will do the job.

Nicosia, Feb 16: Germany’s RWE Gas Midstream recently became the sixth strategic partner in one of the most important gas infrastructure projects in Europe - the 3,300 km-long Nabucco Gas Pipeline.

Nabucco will make new gas deposits in the Caspian region available to European countries.

The pipeline is expected to transport 31 billion cubic metres of natural gas a year through Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary to Baumgarten near Vienna and from there to other European markets.

Micro Technologies India Ltd has entered into a strategic agreement with I-systems to market Micro Products and its licenses to Sri Lanka.

Colombo-based, I-systems has been into construction and real estate business for last 20 years.

Kavinda Jayasooriya, Managing Director, I-Systems said, “ Sri Lanka has a very lucrative and rapidly expanding Market, which offers excellent opportunities for Micro Technologies security products and their product licenses. The increasing demand of security at homes and vehicles have given birth to new security demand altogether.”

The world's biggest private equity firm, Blackstone Group is all set to invest around Rs 240 crore to purchase 10.38% stake in Mumbai-based logistics firm Allcargo Global.

Besides, the US-based company has also expressed its intention to buy another 4.61% of the enhanced paid up equity from the open market.

Allcargo will issue 1,000 equity shares and 1,081,081 fully and compulsorily convertible debentures (FCCD), convertible into an equal number of equity shares, at Rs 934 each to Blackstone.

Anil Ambani led Reliance Communications (RCom), India’s second biggest wireless operator, is consolidating its global business under the single umbrella brand of ‘Reliance Globalcom.’

Punit Garg, president, Reliance Globalcom stated that Reliance Globalcom, a division of RCom, will be headquartered in London, and will come up with an initial public offer (IPO) shortly.

“As this company is outside India and all its revenues are in foreign currencies, it is but natural that it will be listed on an exchange there, after evaluating where we can get the best possible investors,” said Mr. Punit Garg.

Steel pipe manufacturer Welspun-Gujarat Stahl Rohren has received an order worth Rs 1.20 billion from a European customer, to supply ERW line pipes in Southern Europe

The novel order takes Welspun’s total order book position to Rs 46.59 billion.

Group president Akhil Jindal stated that the deliveries of the small-diameter pipes will begin in July.

The company has recorded a 2.36 times growth in its net profit to Rs 974.00 million for the quarter ended December 2007 as against Rs 412.00 million in the corresponding period of 2006.

In early trading (11:00 am), shares of the company are trading at Rs 489.25, up 4.8%.

Chennai-based FMCG major CavinKare announced that it has forayed into the south by getting hold of Salem-based regional player, Maa Fruits, for Rs 30 crore (including debts).

Maa Fruits, No. 4 in south Indian market with a market share of 5% has now become fully-owned subsidiary of CavinKare.

The current portfolio of Maa Fruit’s comprises mango, pineapple, apple, pink guava range of Fruit drinks in different package sizes, manufactured at a plant at Dharmapuri, Tamil Nadu.

The country's largest two-wheeler maker, Hero Honda Motors Ltd, has finally reduced prices on all its models, ranging from Rs. 1000 - 2400.
 
The company has reduced the price of Splendor plus by about Rs 1300 (ex-showroom Delhi) and of Karizma by about Rs 2400 (ex-showroom Delhi).

Similarly, the price of its best-selling 150cc bike Hunk has been reduced by about Rs 1800 (ex-showroom Delhi).

Recently, the company has signed as a co-sponsor for Twenty20 Indian Premier League (IPL), scheduled to start from April 16.

Tata Motors has rolled out the new version of the Sumo utility vehicle (SUV) that it declared at the Delhi Auto Expo last month.

The new ‘Sumo Grande’ has been specifically designed like a rugged ‘SUV’ together with all comforts of a small family car in order to fulfill the requirements of city customers in the regions of drivability, manoeuvrability and fuel efficiency.

In a declaration, S. Krishnan, Vice President of the Passenger Car Business Unit of TATA Motors said, “The Sumo Grande is for customers in the urban and semi urban markets. That is what we are really planning to cater to.”

British billionaire Sir Richard Branson has finally launched his telecom brand “Virgin Mobile” in India under a franchisee agreement with CDMA major Tata Teleservices.

Under the deal, Tata Teleservices, which is the second largest CDMA operator with 22 million customers, will sell the mobile service under the brand name of Virgin Mobile to target young consumers. The venture will offer music, entertainment and news about Indian film industry, sports and stock market.

This is Virgin Group's seventh launch after Australia, Canada, France, the UK, the US and South Africa, and the investment would be the largest in the country.

Venus Remedies has announced that the company has received approval from the Drug Controller General of India to launch Cephalosporin, used in the treatment of Cystic Fibrosis.

Cystic fibrosis is a hereditary disease that mainly affects the lungs and digestive system, causing progressive disability and early death for some patients.

The Company is all set to launch this innovative therapy for APE/Cystis Fibrosis patients after completion of the multi-centered Phase II Clinical Trials. The commercial launch of this product shall be a boon to the Cystis Fibrosis patients being the only solution for the treatment of life threatening infections caused by P Aeruginosa / MRSA in these patients.

Internet giant Yahoo! Inc has strengthened its research and development activities in India by setting up a new research and development (R&D) lab in Bangalore.

First of its kind in India, ‘Yahoo! Labs – Bangalore’ will concentrate on next-generation search and multimedia retrieval products for its worldwide customers

Prabhakar Raghavan, senior vice-president and head of Yahoo! Research said, “Yahoo Labs Bangalore intends to build a world-class team focused on delivering the most valuable insights and leading-edge technologies to delight all of our customers worldwide.”

Nagarjuna Construction Co Ltd has pocketed three new orders valued at Rs 424 crore.

The first order worth Rs 266 crore is received from the Commissioner, Indore Municipal Corporation for constructing sewerage system and other allied works. The project is to be finished with a period of 36 months.

The second order, from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, Maharashtra, is valued at Rs 112 crore. The project, completed over a period of 18 months, is for the construction of flyovers on Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marg.

Reliance Energy Ltd (REL) has announced that its board of directors has given sanction to the buyback of its shares, valued at Rs 2,000 crore, in two different phases.

During the initial phase, Rs 8 billion will be spent on the share buyback that will be effective within the next 10 days.

Another Rs 12 billion would be deployed in the second segment, which would commence after 45 days, as the company has to receive sanction from its shareholders.

India’s top IT services provider Tata Consultancy Services is now eyeing smaller customers by setting up small and medium businesses (SMBs), which will not only offer IT-as-a-service (ITaaS) to its customers, but also offer software, hardware and the underlying networking infrastructure to small and medium-size companies on pay-as-you-go basis.
 
In IT-as-a-service (ITaaS), the users who do not have much ability to spend, will get the benefits of the technology by paying only periodical instalments of licence fees.
 
IT-as-a-service (ITaaS) is similar to the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model.
 
Through the new SMBs and business model, TCS is addressing what is probably the most underserved segment of the Indian market.
 

Tata AutoComp GY Batteries (TAGB), an equal joint venture of Tata AutoComp Systems and Japan's GS Yuasa, is all set to invest around Rs 100 crore in order to swell its four-wheeler automotive battery manufacturing ability to one million units by October 2008.

The company also said that this capacity would further be increased up to 2 million units over the coming two-three years.

Besides, the company also announced that it would invest around Rs 25-30 crore to start production of two-wheeler batteries by the end of the existing year (2008).
 

Mitsui Corporation, Japan’s second-largest trading company, has announced that the company has set up a joint venture with Yamaha Motor India to produce motorcycles in India.

Further, Mitsui, reveals that it will pick up a 30% stake in Japanese two-wheeler giant Yamaha Motor’s new motorcycle manufacturing company for Rs 168 crore.

Last year, Mitsui had acquired 3% stake in the parent company Yamaha Motors of Japan.

India's leading FMCG producers, Godrej Consumer Products Ltd. (GCPL), has announced that the company has fixed the rights issue price at Rs 123 per share to raise Rs 400 crore.

The issue will be in the ratio of 1:7 i.e. one equity share of the face value of Re 1 each for every 7 equity shares of the face value Re 1 each held on record date.

The company has fixed Mar. 19, 2008 as the record date for the purpose of rights issue of equity shares.

The company plans to utilize the proceeds for funding capital expenditure, repayment of debt, investing in a subsidiary Godrej Netherlands BV and its joint venture Godrej SCA Hygiene. It also plans to finance acquisitions and strategic initiatives through raised funds.

Chinese durables giant Haier is paving its path for the betterment of its customers, and looking to make India an export center for its worldwide operations.

Haier Appliances India, the wholly owned subsidiary of China-based global consumer durable firm Haier Group Corp (HGC) is eyeing to accumulate a turnover of Rs 550 crore in India within the existing year (2008).

The company aims 70% advancement in its revenue in 2008 via launching a slew of products and product ranges coupled with strong ad campaign to attain the said objective.

State gas firm GAIL India is eyeing to acquire Asian Development Bank’s 5.2% stake, which it likely to offload by 2008 end, in Petronet LNG, India’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) importer

GAIL, ONGC, Indian Oil and Bharat Petroleum, which hold 12.5% equity stake each in Petronet, have the initial right of refusal in case the multilateral agency (ADB) was to exit the company.

Shares of Hyderabad-based IT solution provider GSS America Infotech has got listed at its issue price of Rs 400 per share on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

The scrip has touched a high of Rs 475 and low of Rs 400 in early trading. In early trading (9.56 a.m.), the scrip was trading at Rs 448.30, and around 358,444 shares changed hands on BSE.

The company entered capital market through a public issue of 34,97,495 equity shares at a price band of Rs 400 a share. The issue got subscribed about 1.08 times.

The leading international leisure travel group, Thomas Cook Group Plc is eyeing to boom in the travel sector.

The company is planning to get bigger in emerging markets by buying 54.9 percent stake in its domestic unit, Thomas Cook India Ltd (TCIL) from Dubai Financial, which values the deal at about Rs 950 crore, and a further holding of as much as 20 per cent in an open offer at a price of Rs 107 a share.

The open offer is expected by May-June.