BPCL may export to Bangladesh
Kolkata: Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) is exploring opportunities for exporting its products to Bangladesh.
Preliminary discussions at the government level had already taken place.

BPCL was already exporting 1500 kilolitre of HSD to Bhutan.
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Bharti gets NLD licence
Mumbai: Bharti Telesonic, a subsidiary of Bharti Tele-ventures, has been awarded India's first private national long distance telephony licence.

Bharti paid a fee of $100 crore and submitted bank guarantees for $400 crore to the government for the license.

It has already laid out over 10,000 km of fibre optic network covering 50 towns.

India threw open the NLD business, which was a monopoly of the government, to private competition last year.

State-run, monopoly overseas telecoms carrier Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd and India's largest business conglomerate, the Reliance Group, are the other firms which have applied for the NLD licences.
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Ranbaxy gets FDA nod for painkiller
Mumbai: Ranbaxy Laboratories has received approvals from the United States Food and Drug Administration to launch generic tablets of painkiller acetaminophen and codeine phosphate, the Bombay Stock Exchange said on Thursday.

The approval was granted to Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals Inc, the US-based wholly owned subsidiary of Ranbaxy Laboratories.
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Rallis back in black
Mumbai: Tata Group company Rallis India Ltd reported a net profit of Rs 16.06 crore for the first half period ended September 30, 2001, as against a net loss of Rs 20.96 crore in the corresponding period previous fiscal.The company earned a profit on sale of its pharmaceutical business to the tune of Rs 18.14 crore during the period.

Net sales during the period, however, dipped marginally to Rs 516.68 crore, as against Rs 575.11 crore last year. Other income doubled to Rs 10.62 crore. Total expenditure at Rs 492.65 crore was lower as compared to Rs 551.41 crore in the same period last year
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Asiaweek to fold up soon
Hong Kong: AOL Time Warner Inc plans to shut down the Hong Kong-based English-language weekly Asiaweek.
More than 100 people, including 80 from the editorial department, will be affected by the closure. Asiaweek, which has a circulation of some 120,000, has been affected by the weak advertising market which has already claimed a number of media casualties in Asia.

The New York Times reported that two other AOL Time Warner-owned magazines Family Life and On, formerly Time Digital would also be shut down.
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Reebok plans fitness advice centres
Bangalore: Reebok is planning to start fitness advice centres throughout its showrooms in India. Each showroom would have a health and fitness expert to give advice on various Reebok fitness programmes and products to customers.

The company has established the Reebok University to develop research-based programmes and educational materials for fitness professionals in the world. RIA is part of this programme and has trained and certified about 350 fitness instructors in India so far,

This programme acts as a marketing vehicle for Reeboks sports and fitness products and educational material. RIA trains and certifies instructors who in-turn work with different aerobic studios and other institutes.
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Birla unit sold to Bhilwara
Kolkata: Eastern Spinning Mills & Industries, with 46,000 spindles and an installed capacity of 600 tonnes of yarn per month, has been sold off to the Bhilwara Group, one of the largest textile producers in the country. Kumar Mangalam Birla sold off more than 80 per cent of his holding in the company for about Rs 8 crore. ESMIL has an equity capital of Rs 12.23 crore. Birla still holds 15 per cent of the equity.

ESMIL produces a wide range of yarns which are blends of polyester, acrylic, viscose, flax and silk. The group had invested around Rs 35 crore to modernise the existing plant besides setting up another unit, Vikram Spinners, adjacent to the existing one.
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Reebok to dress cricket team
Mumbai: Reebok has bagged an exclusive contract to supply apparel for the Indian cricket team. The Reebok logo will now adorn the shirts, trousers and accessories of Indian players, whenever they come out to play or appear in any official Indian team event.

The Reebok logo will share space with the Sahara logo on the Indian cricket teams gear, since Sahara is the official team sponsor.

Reebok has entered into a three-year exclusive contract with the BCCI as the official sportswear brand for the Indian cricket team. The deal was negotiated through IMG.

The contract will come into effect from the English tour starting December 3 and will cover the World Cup in 2003.
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IDBI net profit dips
Mumbai: Industrial Development Bank of India has posted a massive drop of 84.69 per cent to Rs 25.2 crore in net profit for the second quarter ended September 30, 2001, compared to Rs 164.7 crore in the same period of the previous fiscal. Higher provisioning and a slowdown in the economy have impacted the profitability, IDBI chairman and managing director P P Vora told reporters here on Thursday.

For the first half ended September 2001, net profit was down by 46.70 per cent at Rs 207 crore (Rs 388.4 crore in H1 of last year) while income from operations was also lower at Rs 4,056.1 crore (Rs 4,114.7 crore), he said.

It has provided Rs 162.9 crore (Rs 130.9 crore) in Q2 and Rs 426.9 crore in H1 (Rs 210.9 crore) towards bad and doubtful debts/investments written off, Vora said.
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Aussie lab forms JV with Dr Reddys
Hyderabad: Gribbles Group, one of the largest private pathology firms in Australia, has formed a 51:49 joint venture with Dr Reddys Laboratories to open a chain of 28 laboratories across India.

Starting out with an investment of $25 million, Pathnet India, the joint venture firm, intends to be Indias largest private pathology operator within 4 years. This also means that rare and expensive tests that were earlier referred to overseas laboratories, particularly the US, for testing, will now be available in India at a fraction of the cost.

Gribbles intends to launch 5-6 labs and 170 collection centres in Mumbai, followed by similar facilities in Chennai, Calcutta, Bangalore and Hyderabad.
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M&M launches 4-tonner
Mumbai: Mahindra & Mahindra, which has been operating in the 2.5 tonne segment for long, has introduced its first 3.5 tonne vehicle, Loadking, to compete with Telcos 407, the market leader in this segment.

The new commercial vehicle is powered by a brand new engine, jointly developed with AVL of Austria, and has been designed to compete with Telcos 407. M&Ms light commercial vehicles were till now based on the DI 3200 platform, which is an entry level in the segment.
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Taylor McKenzie to open shop in India
Mumbai: Global consultancy firm Taylor McKenzie (TMc), which specialises in technical consulting services for the telecom sector, is setting up operations in India. It has formed a 100 per cent subsidiary in India called Taylor McKenzie Asia (TMc-AL), which will be the regional headquarters for its operations in the Asia Pacific region. The company has applied for FIPB approval.
The Indian subsidiary will be based in Mumbai.
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Graphite Ind to merge with CEL
Mumbai: The board of Graphite India Limited (GIL) on Thursday approved the merger of group company Carbon Everflow Limited (CEL) with itself. Post-merger, the K K Bangur engineering firm will become the largest producer of graphite electrodes in south Asia.

As per the amalgamation scheme, GIL shareholders will get 14 shares of Carbon Everflow for every 10 shares held by them. The companys name Graphite India Limited will not undergo any change, post-merger.

The merged entity will have a combined capacity of 31,000 mt per annum which will go up to 38,000 mt per annum on completion of GILs expansion plans. It will have a total power generation capacity of 33 mw.

GILs wholly-owned subsidiaries, Graphite Holdings Limited and Graphite Investments Ltd will be merged with each other. But their scheme of merger will be considered separately.
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AP Housing Board forms JV with S'pore co
Hyderabad: Signapore's government-owned planning and construction company CESMA International on Thursday entered into a joint venture agreement with Andhra Pradesh Housing Board to develop a world-class satellite township near here comprising 10,000 houses.

The project involves establishment of a township at Pocharam village, about 18 Km from the city, on a 705-acre land.
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Essar to resume Vadinar project
Mumbai: Essar Oil will resume work on its 10.5-million-tonne Vadinar refinery project in Gujarat, with IDBI, one of its institutional lenders, giving it the go-ahead.

Work at the Vadinar refinery site was suspended in 1999 when financial institutions asked the promoters to bring in additional equity capital as a condition for the release of additional funds.

ICICI, another lending institution, has already cleared the proposal.

The revised project cost is Rs 8,000 crore. This is to be funded by a debt of Rs 5,852 crore and equity of Rs 2,184 crore.

According to Essar Oil, 64 per cent of the project has been completed at a cost of Rs 6,300 crore. Machinery worth $430 million has already been procured.

The company has said that it would be able to complete the work within 18-24 months.
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Reva to enter Nepal market
Bangalore: Reva Electric Car Company (RECC) has entered into a three-year agreement with Ecovisions to facilitate export of Reva to the Nepalese market, a company release said here on Thursday.

RECC will export 150 cars in the first year and 450 cars over the next two years.

For Nepal, the import of Reva will attract only a 10 per cent duty as against the 60 per cent to 110 per cent on other conventional cars brought into the country.
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Nippon ties up with Maruti
New Delhi: Nippon Audiotronix Ltd has tied up with Maruti Udyog Ltd for designing and manufacturing security systems, which would be sold as genuine accessory by the car maker.

Under the Maruti Mobile Security tag, safety gadgets such as remote lock, trunk release, starter immobiliser and panic alarm will be made.

Nippon Audiotronix is the sole manufacturer of Kenwood car audio system in India.
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Ford's Escape to debut at Auto Expo
Mumbai: Ford India Ltd (FIL) is likely to introduce its sports utility vehicle, Escape, in India at the forthcoming Auto Expo. The company has sought government approval for importing the vehicle.

The company plans to launch the model which comes in two versions - 2 litre diesel turbo-charged version a 2-litre petrol version.

The 5-seater Escape is the first model jointly developed by Ford Motors and Mazda and is internationally placed in the same segment as Hondas CR-V and Toyotas RAV-4.
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