Stockholm - Swedish engineering group Sandvik said Thursday it planned to cut 1,040 jobs and reduce production over weakened demand mainly in the automotive and engineering industries.

The group has some 47,000 employees worldwide and operations in 130 countries.

Its core operations include tools for metal-working, machinery and equipment for rock excavation, as well as stainless and high-alloy steels and other metals.

ZTE Corporation, the leading global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions, has signed up a 1.33 billion ($194.73 million) RMB deal with China Telecom Corporation Limited for the initial phase of a CDMA network construction project starting this year, which will cover both wireless and service networks.

Global financial crisis has created a tough situation for industry and it is adopting various measures to save itself from long term losses. The Pawan Ruia-controlled tyre major, Dunlop India, has decided to close production in its mother plant in Sahagunj at West Bengal, in line with its cost cutting measures. The company had resumed operations at the production plant in January, after five year closure.

The officials of company said that it would utilize the time to reshape its production strategy and revival of plans. Dunlop would work on making the brand more popular across the country.

The ongoing world economic crisis has widely impacted the real estate sector. The largest real estate company in India, DLF has announced various measures to cut costs and reduce unnecessary expenses. DLF would terminate services of some of company's employees and stop working on some of its projects.

Unitech and Parsvnath Developers also retrenched their staff last month in line with cost cutting drive due to global meltdown.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), largest IT services provider in India, has further expanded its operations in China by inaugurating its fourth global delivery centre at Tianjin, which will have capacity of 300 seats. The other centres in China are at Bejing, Shanghai and Hangzhou. With this, the company will have a staff strength of over 1,300 in the region.

Public sector major NMDC Limited has signed a MoU with the West Bengal Mineral Development & Trading Corporation Ltd (WBMDTC) to explore, develop and mine Deocha-Pachmi coal block in Birbhum.

The area stretches to about 9.7 sq km, but initially, mining will be carried out only in 3.2 sq km area, which has a coal reserve of 450 million tonne, 100 metre deep. Both companies shall have 50-50 stake in the venture.

The MoU was signed in the presence of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, by NMDC Director (Technical) P S Upadhyay and WBMDCTC CMD Arun Kumar Sen.