Hewlett-Packard (HP) Asia-Pacific and Japan region head of services business Som Mittal will be the new president of Nasscom. He takes over from Kiran Karnik, and will assume office from January 2008.

Mittal is not a new face at Nasscom. He was the chairman of the body in 2003-04, and is presently a trustee of the Nasscom Foundation, the social development arm of the association.

Jain Irrigation plans drip irrigation, food processing plants in TN and North India

Drip irrigation major Jain Irrigation will invest around Rs40 to 50 crore ($10 to 12.5 million) to set up one manufacturing facility in Tamil Nadu (TN) and another in North India, within the next six months.

The TN facility would require an investment of around Rs20 crore and will come up shortly, while the one to be set up in North India would take another six months, Jain Irrigation managing director Anil Jain told the media.

The object is not only increase capacity but extend the company''s footprint nationally, Jain said. The Maharashtra-based Jain Irrigation had recently set up a facility in Hyderabad, with an investment of Rs30 crore.

The Rs1,300-crore Jain group, which is also engaged in food processing, also plans to make an investment of around Rs30 to 40 crore set up a processing plant in North India - either in Punjab, Haryana or Uttarakhand - within the next six to nine months. It is in the process of identifying the location. It already has two processing plants, at Jalgaon in Maharashtra and Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh.

Jain is the number two players globally in drip irrigation, after Netafim of Israel. Its future strategy will be to continue its focus on its core businesses of drip irrigation and food processing.