TVS to set up overseas plant
New Delhi: The TVS Motor Company has decided to set up a manufacturing base in southeast Asia, either in Vietnam or Philippines.

The overseas unit will cater to the entire step-thru and non-geared scooter demand in the ASEAN region.
The project will be set up in a joint venture with a local partner, with TVS holding the controlling stake.

TVS had bought out Suzuki's 25.97 per cent holding in the company at mere Rs 9 crore, hiking its stake to 58 per cent.

Since then, the company has also terminated its license and technology agreement with Suzuki.
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Bajaj Auto posts 25% rise in sales
New Delhi: Bajaj Autos net profits have accelerated by almost three times as compared to the same quarter last year. In fact, they exceeded Rs 100 crores.
Sales have crossed the four-figure mark as compared to the almost Rs 900 crores achieved in the quarter ending December 2000.
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Zee Tele Q3 net declines
Mumbai: Zee Telefilms Ltd has posted a 25.63 per cent decline in net profit for the third quarter ended December 2001, at Rs 23.90 crore compared to Rs 32.14 crore in the corresponding quarter of previous fiscal.

Net sales and services in the reporting quarter were also lower at Rs 85.33 crore as against Rs 103.12 crore in Q3 of last year.
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Satyam Q3 revenue jumps
Mumbai: Satyam Infoways October-December net loss halved to $8.2 million from $17.8 a year ago as revenue rose 34 per cent.

The Chennai-based company, which also provides corporate Internet and consulting services and operates a portal www.sify.com, said that its cash loss (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) narrowed 59 per cent to $3.9 million.

Corporate services contributed 49 per cent of total revenue and retail Internet access 34 per cent.
Satyam Infoway's retail subscriber base increased to 600,000 by the end of December from 550,000 at the end of the preceding quarter.
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Hughes Q3 net slips 21%,
New Delhi: Hughes Software Systems (HSS) reported that its net profit fell only 21.19 per cent in Q3 on a year- on-year basis compared to 50-60 per cent decline forecast by analysts.

Total income rose 6.8 per cent to Rs 62.9 crore compared to 58.9 crore in the year-ago period. On a sequential basis, the company, however, showed significant improvements. HSS reported a 130 per cent increase in net profit on a quarter-on- quarter basis and sales grew 12 per cent over the previous quarter.

Its product business showed some signs of a turnaround with 13 new customer wins in the reporting quarter. It added a total of 15 customers this quarter, compared to just three in the previous quarter.
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GM cuts Corsa prices
New Delhi: General Motors India has decided to cut prices of its entry-level mid-sized car Opel Corsa with immediate effect. The price cut is in the range of 1-3 per cent.

This comes within a week of GM announcing a 2.5-3 per cent upward revision in the pricetags of its luxury car Opel Astra. Ford India has also hiked prices of its mid-sizer Ikon by Rs 4,000-22,000.
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Bids for Hindustan Newsprint invited
Mumbai: SBI Capital Markets has invited preliminary enquiries from bidders for a controlling stake in state-owned Hindustan Newsprint Ltd.

The government plans to sell either 74 per cent or 100 per cent holding in the company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of government-run Hindustan Paper Corporation. It operates a 100,000 tonnes newsprint plant in southern Kerala state.

Bidders have to submit their expression of interest applications by February 28.
The bidders are also required to have five years' experience in any manufacturing activity or three years in the manufacture of paper or related businesses.
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eFunds invests $3.4 mn in India
Mumbai: The US-based electronic payment services, eFunds, has opened its second Indian call center in Mumbai at an investment of $3.4 million.

The centre, operated by its subsidiary eFunds International India, has a capacity of 200 seats with the option of going up to 400 seats.

eFunds' first call centre, set up with an investment of $4.5 million, is located nearby and offers telemarketing services for US-based West TeleServices.

Besides call centres, eFunds also operates an IT-enabled services center in Gurgaon near Delhi and two software development centres in Chennai.
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Ericsson, BPL Telecom enter alliance
Bangalore: Ericsson has entered into a strategic alliance with BPL Telecom to market and distribute its range of enterprise products, nationally.

The alliance would enable Ericsson to access BPL Telecom's network of operator channels across 76 cities to distribute and market its range of enterprise products, including new generation digital PBX systems.
Ericsson is launching new generation PBX solutions for the Indian market.

Ericssons range of PBX systems are positioned at medium and high application segments including stand-alone call centres and web-based call centres.
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New '.name' suffix goes live
Washington: The new '.name' Internet suffix has come into effect, allowing individuals to set up personal Web and e-mail addresses outside of established domains like .com and .org.

The suffix .name is aimed squarely at individuals. Customers who pay an annual fee of roughly $30 get a three-tiered Web-site address, such as

www.elvis.presley.name, and an e-mail address such as elvis@presley.name that can be forwarded to another account.

The .name addresses could eventually be used for cell phones and privacy-enhancing encryption codes, as well.
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BPL Mobile launches Net access service
Mumbai: BPL Mobile has introduced its general packet radio service here, enabling the users to access Internet through the GPRS handsets.

The service is available at a one-time activation charge of Rs 1,200 and Rs 750 monthly fixed charge for unlimited GPRS usage with no airtime expenses.

The user could connect the GPRS phone to the home PC, laptop or pocket PC and log on the Internet.It allowed high-speed data transmission of up to 30 kbps. GPRS also enabled the users to shuttle between regular calls and access the data simultaneously.

The GPRS handsets were available in the market at a price starting from Rs 10,000 and going up to Rs 40,000.
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SAIL to prune staff
Mumbai: Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), is planning to further cut down its work force by another 10,000 heads. SAIL has a work force 1.2 lakh.

SAIL has also firmed up plans to increase its capacity to over 10 million tonnes.

The capacity enhancement will be done through de-bottlenecking operations. The existing blast furnace, which is currently closed, will not be operated and the capacity augmentation will be carried on the operational blast furnaces.

SAIL is also in the process of demarcating its products into separate strategic business units. The process of forming separate SBUs for long and flat products and other divisions is in progress and things are expected to be finalised by April 2002.
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I-T slaps Rs 16 crore notice on Pidlite
Mumbai: The Income Tax department has slapped a liability notice on Pidilite Industries for an additional income to the tune of around Rs 16 crore.

The company has surrendered the amount to the Income Tax department. The tax calculated on this income works out to around Rs 12 crore.

In November 2001 the department carried out a search in the premises of group companies, and found several cases of impermissible claims under section 80IA of the Income Tax Act. The Group is understood to have claimed deduction of around Rs 16 crore under 80IA.
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Saurashtra Cement to issue preferential shares
Mumbai: The board of Saurashtra Cement will consider a proposal to issue fully paid up 13 per cent optionally convertible cumulative preference shares and 13 per cent loan instruments on preferential basis.

The board meeting, to be held on January 22, will also take into account the unaudited results for the second quarter/half-year ended December 2001.

Saurashtra Cement, with a capacity of 1.3 million tonne sells the Hathi brand of cement.
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Palio bags best car award
New Delhi: Fiat Palio has been named Car of the Year. It also bagged the Best Value for Money Award at the CNBC Autocar Auto Awards function here on 16 January. Ford Mondeo emerged winner in the best drivers car and best looks and styling categories.

Mercedes C-class emerged as the most technologically advanced cars, while the most improved car of the year award went to Tata Indica. Hyundai Motor was named the manufacturer of the year. The awards were given by heavy industries minister Manohar Joshi.
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Mehta to increase its stake in CAL
New Delhi: The Mehta family plans to increase its stake in the Clutch Auto Ltd (CAL) to 51 per cent from the existing 47 per cent by the end of this year.

The family plans to increase their equity by buying shares from the market over the next few months.
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HSS to enter telecom services
New Delhi: Hughes Software System (HSS) has decided to enter into the telecom service providers arena with its turnkey network integration solutions.

The company is ready to roll out its new services. HSS is also talking to telecom operators in India.

HSS will take up projects to integrate heterogenous network infrastructure and applications like billing systems for the telecom operators. A core team was already in place and would be further expanded in the near future.
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Nirlep to expand range of cookware
Kolkata: Nirlep, a Duraware group company, plans to enter the hard anodised cookware segment which is currently dominated by Hawkins. Nirlep will introduce a new sub-brand for all its products in the range that is slated to hit the market in April.

Nirlep will introduce products ranging from pressure cookers to non-stick cookware. The products will be priced a shade lower than Futura, the hard anodised range from Hawkins.

Nirlep, which has recently entered the Rs 600-crore pressure cooker market with Safe Cooker, will also introduce exterior lid pressure cookers by the end of calendar 2002.
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Marlex sold to Kanchan group
Mumbai: The promoters of Marlex Appliances have recently sold off the company along with its brand rights to Kanchan Group of Companies.

The promoters of Marlex Appliances, Chandan Sidhwani and Anand Sidhwani are now diversifying into the film industry. The duo had financed Dil Chahta Hai which turned out to be a box office hit.

After changing hands, Marlex plans to extend its product portfolio from pressure cookers, non-stick tawa, mixer grinders, LPG gas stove to a range of electronic appliances such as toasters, iron and hand blenders.
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NIIT promoters raise stake to 38.4%
Mumbai: The promoters of NIIT have increased their stake in the company from 34.5 per cent to 38.4 per cent through the creeping acquisition route.

Mutual funds including UTI have reduced their holding in the company from 10.1 per cent to 6.3 per cent for the quarter ended December 2001.

With the Sebi recently hiking the creeping acquisition limit to 10 per cent till March 2002, the promoters of NIIT may not have to worry about making any open offer in the market if they decide to hike their stake further.
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Orange launches SMS in regional languages
Mumbai: Cellular service provider Orange has introduced short messaging service in Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati languages.

The service would be available to subscribers at no extra cost and will also be operational in Delhi and Gujarat through Hutchison Essar and Celforce, it affiliates in the two circles.

The feature would initially be available on selected Nokia handsets.
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LG plans expansion
New Delhi: LG plans to increase the production capacity of air conditioners by 50 per cent in this calendar year and has also doubled its export targets for the year 2002.

However no new investment is being made for the capacity addition. The expansion will be undertaken by the implementation of the Digital Manufacturing System whereby the manufacturing process is being modified and processes are being innovated to increase the efficiencies and capacities of production.
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LG Electronics to sponsor cricket
Kolkata: The India-England One-day cricket series starting at Eden Gardens on 19 January will now be called the LG Cup. LG Electronics India will be putting up Rs 8 crore to sponsor the series.

LG's association with cricket began with the 1999 World Cup. The company will also sponsor the ICC World Cups in 2003 and 2007.
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Tata Elxsi Q3 net up 19%
Mumbai: Tata Elxsi has posted a net profit of Rs 4.65 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2001, compared to Rs 3.95 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2000.

Total income has declined from Rs 35.17 crore in 2000 to Rs 27.3 crore in the quarter ended December 31, 2001.

Interest expenditure has decreased from Rs 0.75 crore to Rs 0.45 crore.
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Toyota Kirloskar workers go on strike
Bangalore: The workers of Toyota Kirloskar Motors have launched an indefinite strike following the termination of the services of two union leaders.

The company termed the strike as illegal and said that the suspension of a team member was following his performance appraisal.
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