Ranbaxy gets US nod for drug
Mumbai: Ranbaxy Laboratories has received final approval from the US food and drug administration to launch a generic copy of GlaxoSmithKline cefuroxime axetil drug.

The drug has been the subject of patent litigation between Ranbaxy and GlaxoSmithKline with the British firm alleging that Ranbaxy was infringing its patent on the drug.

Analysts predict sales of between $30-50 million for the drug in the first year.
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Chinese firm eyes Cycle Corp
Kolkata: A Chinese firm has evinced interest in acquiring the Cycle Corporation of India (CCI) for commencing production of low-cost mopeds and scooters.
Representatives of Chinas Easy Link Development Ltd are slated to meet chief minister Buddhadeb Bhatacharjee and state industry minister Nirupam Sen to finalise the project.

The Chinese firm selected CCI due to its existing basic infrastructure for production of two- wheelers.

The firm is also planning to introduce some high-end products in collaboration with a UK-based firm.
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Supreme Telecom bags Rs 30 cr contract
New Delhi: Supreme Telecommunications has bagged a Rs 30 crore contract from RailTel Corporation for laying fibre optic cable networks.

The telecom company will lay fibre optic cable on New Delhi-Jaipur, Pune-Wadi, Secunderabad-Vijayawada sections of Indian Railways.

Supreme Telecommunications has also bagged turnkey contract for Rs 50 crore in Maharashtra from Hughes Telecom for providing external as well as internal cable plants using optical fibres and copper cables.

The company has been awarded a project management contract by Ericsson for their cellular infrastructure project in Karnataka.

It has also bagged a contract from BSSL for GSM infrastructure execution project for Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
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Mahindra to sell tractors in Europe
New Delhi: Mahindra and Mahindra is setting up a subsidiary in Europe by April to sell tractors in the region.

M&M would initially market its tractors through the subsidiary and later convert it into a unit for assembling those imported from India as knocked-down parts.

M&M would mainly target the 20-60 HP tractor market in Europe.
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UB breweries named as best company
Bangalore: Bangalore Stock Exchange has named United Breweries as the current year's winner of best company award.

Bangalore Stock Exchange recognises a listed company as the best company based on the following parameters: Disclosures/transparencies in the balance sheets, information to shareholders, corporate governance, dividend track record, shareholder wealth maximisation, percentage of public shareholding, bonus/rights issue, if any, and quick redressal of investor grievances.
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Tata Steel, Nippon Steel ink pact
Mumbai: Tata Steel has signed an agreement with Nippon Steel of Japan for sharing technical know-how in the cold rolled automative steel segment.

The agreement would cover advise on investment decisions, technical assistance in through process control, operational assistance in areas which influence production of automotive parts, training of Tata Steel personnel and technical assistance and direct involvement of experts in obtaining approval from two automotive majors in India.
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ABB sets up R&D centre in Bangalore
Bangalore: Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) has launched a research and development centre in Bangalore.

The centre, employing about 50 software professionals, will develop, maintain and support a range of software products and act as a partner for similar centres around the world.

The Bangalore centre will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Zurich-based parent company.
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Zee-ETC to target Punjabi diaspora
New Delhi: Zee Telefilms, which bought into ETC Networks, hopes to get a direct access to Punjabi diaspora with the ETC having the exclusive telecast rights for beaming Gurbani from the Golden Temple at Amritsar.

The international channel would air a mix of Gurbani and popular Bollywood music.

The strategic buy would also help Zee to consolidate its cable TV distribution network as ETC's promoters have a stake in Win Cable, a cable distribution network that has a strong presence in Mumbai and Delhi.

Zee has taken a 48.38 per cent stake in ETC Networks for a consideration of Rs 17.84 crore.
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SAB ties up with UK channel
Mumbai: Sri Adhikari Brothers has formed a 50:50 joint venture with the UK-based MATV Channel 6.

MATV Channel 6, set up two years ago to cater to the South Asian community in the United Kingdom, is a terrestrial broadcaster owning a restricted service licence for the Leicester region.

Sri Adhikari Brothers will invest $1 million for the 50 per cent stake.
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Infy, Tatas, MS among the best employers
New Delhi: Infosys Technologies, Microsoft India, Telco, Tisco, LG Electronics and Bhel have been listed among the 25 best employers in India in a survey conducted by management consultant Hewitt.

Others mentioned in the list include Colgate-Palmolive, Compaq, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Gillette India, Hewlett-Packard, IndianOil and Maruti Udyog.

About 204 companies across more than 15 industry groups participated in the study and data was collected from more than 52,000 employees.
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IOC's open offer to IBP shares at Rs 1551
New Delhi: Indian Oil Corporation will launch an open offer from 12 April to acquire 20 per cent stake in IBP at Rs 1551.10 per share.

The offer envisages acquisition of 44.29 lakh shares of IBP and is slated to close on 11 May.
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Peugeot, Fiat extend JV until 2017
Paris: PSA Peugeot Citroen of France and Fiat of Italy have extended the operation of their joint venture in light utility vehicles to 2017.

About $1.5 billion will be invested in the production of two ranges of LUVs which will appear on the market from 2005 for this new phase of cooperation.

Under the agreement, research and development costs will be shared 50:50, while production costs will be allocated according to volume demand.

Since 1978, PSA and Fiat have jointly developed and produced a combined 3.5 million LUVs in their French and Italian factories.
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Alcatel, Mitsubishi sign telecom deal
Paris: Alcatel of France and Mitsubishi Electric Telecom Europe have signed an agreement to cooperate in providing products and services to support universal mobile telecommunications systems.

The two groups said the arrangement was aimed an ensuring the availability of terminals that are fully compatitible with integrated video functions in the initial deployment of UMTS networks.

It would also enable the provision of complete solutions for telephone, data transmission and video-conferencing operations.
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NIIT, SunGuard tie up for risk recovery solutions
New Delhi: NIIT has tied up with US-based SunGuard Planning Solutions to offer disaster recovery and business continuity planning solutions in Asia Pacific.

The tie-up will enable NIIT to provide these services to large organisations engaged in real-time data processing. NIIT will provide solutions ranging from assessment of risks associated with the customers's business.
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Grey Worldwide scouting for ad cos
Ahmedabad: Grey Worldwide is in the process of acquiring three companies in the public relation, direct marketing and advertising segments in India.

Of the ten firms Grey is in talks with, five are national level advertising agencies, three public relation companies and two are direct marketing companies.

Besides acquisition, Grey would focus on consumers segments as a part of building expertise and insight within these segments.

As on 31 December 2001 the company generated a total income of Rs 285 crore. The company expects to earn revenues of Rs 350 crore by the end of the current fiscal.
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ONGC serves removal notice on Enron Oil
New Delhi: Oil and Natural Gas Corporation has served a notice of removal on Enron Oil and Gas as operator of the Panna-Mukta oilfields as a result of its stake sale to British Gas.

ONGC has told Enron that the joint operating agreement among ONGC, Reliance Industries Limited and Enron stipulates for removal of operator by a notice by the non-operators. Through the notice, ONGC is also making it clear that the operatorship will not pass onto BG automatically as a result of the stake sale.
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Cadbury not to revise offer price
New Delhi: Cadbury Schweppes has decided not to revise the offer price of Rs 500 per share by its British parent for taking its holding in the Indian arm to 100 per cent.The offer closes on 22 February.

The present offer by Schweppes is part of the global policy to hold 100 per cent in all its subsidiaries worldwide.
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RBI warns against Bharti shares purchase
Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India has directed the FIIs, non resident Indians and persons of Indian origin against the purchase of Bharti Tele-Ventures shares without its prior approval.

No further purchases of BTL shares should be made on behalf of FIIs, NRIs or PIOs under the portfolio investment scheme without obtaining prior clearance from the apex bank, RBI said in a release.

The net purchases of Bharti in secondary markets have reached the limit of 47 per cent of its paid up equity capital, RBI added. Bharti on Monday listed itself at the Bombay Stock Exchange with an opening price of Rs 50 per share.
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L&T may form JV with Nuclear Power Corpn
Hazira: Larsen & Toubro is negotiating with the Nuclear Power Corporation for forging a joint venture for execution of forthcoming nuclear power projects.

L&Ts entry as an equity partner in nuclear power projects would be the first foray by the private sector into this highly sensitive area. L&T is already working closely with NPCIL for its ongoing nuclear power projects and currently has an order book position of over Rs 1,300 crore exclusively for NPCIL projects.

At present, there are 14 nuclear power projects with a total capacity of around 2,500 MW.

L&T has contributed actively to these projects as a major equipment supplier along with two other private sector players, namely Walchandnagar Industries and Kirloskar and the public-sector BHEL.
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NEG Micon to source wind mills from India
Chennai: The Chennai-based NEG Micon (India) Pvt Ltd (NEG MI) will be a major hub in the Asia Pacific region for its parent, the Denmark-based NEG Micon for the supply of wind mills and components.

NEG Micon is a world leader in wind turbine manufacturing and has under its banner over 10,000 installations totalling 4000 mw in 40 countries. Its Indian subsidiary is setting up a modern state-of-the-art factory here to be ready by year-end. The Rs 25-crore facility will roll out higher platform range machines.
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Bhel revives plan for overseas facility
Kolkata: Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (Bhel) has revived a plan to set up a manufacturing unit abroad.

Bhel will become the first public sector company to set up a manufacturing unit abroad. Several PSUs including Bhel have overseas marketing offices.

Bhel is considering setting up a manufacturing unit either in Dubai or in Malaysia to participate in the larger markets that are revolving around these regions.

Bhel, which reported a turnover of Rs 6,350-crore in 2000-01, had planned a similar base some years ago, but sluggish demand coupled with oversupply made it change its mind.

Bhel exports equipment as well as total projects to various countries including Italy, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Oman, Azerbaijan, Taiwan and Ethiopia. In 2000-01, it had export orders worth Rs 715 crore on its books.
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Bilcare to import COC films from Ticona
Mumbai: Bilcare, a division of Bi Ltd, would shortly commence importing of Cyclo-Olefin Copolymers (COC) films from Ticona GmbH.

The extreme temperature and the humidity range in Asian countries along with poor existing storage facilities with stockists and retailers has called for the usage of COC which is an eco-friendly speciality polymer.
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LG to set up assembly line in Chennai
Chennai:  LG Electronics India Ltd is planning to set up an assembly line for consumer electronics products in Chennai.

The plant in Chennai would be mainly used for assembling colour televisions. This will help the company save substantially in logistics and high entry tax of around 20 per cent. LG Electronics currently has five manufacturing facilities in the country at Noida, Kolkata, Lucknow, Surat and Guwahati.
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Inox to invest Rs 100 cr for 8 multiplexes
Mumbai: Inox Leisure is investing around Rs 100 crore in setting up multiplexes across the country.

The first multiplex will come up at Pune in mid-March with an investment of Rs 36 crore. It will have a 1,300 seating capacity, with four auditoriums. The second multiplex will be at Vadodara with an investment of Rs 25 crore. The 1,300-seat capacity will be operational by July.

The company has also tied up with the Saraf Group to set up a multiplex theatre in central Kolkata at Forum which is a large shopping mall complex of 200,000 square feet. The Inox multiplex at Forum will occupy a space of 30,000 square feet with four screens, exhibiting Hindi, English and Bengali films.

Inox plans to have multiplexes in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Nasik in 2003. The project will involve international architect firms like Walker Architects from New Zealand and TK Architects of Kansas, USA.
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Dell to ramp up software development activities
New Delhi: The US-based Dell Computers is looking to ramp up its global support and software development operations in India.

The company is seriously contemplating expansion of its Bangalore-based support and development activities catering to the global requirements of the company.
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ABB opens R&D centre in Blore
Bangalore: ABB has inaugurated the research and development centre for software development and industrial information technology in Bangalore. The Bangalore Centre will be part of the global R&D centres catering to the four core business areas of the Swedish conglomerate.

The Bangalore centre with 30 to 50 people will focus on industrial automation products and software solutions.

The centre is part of the international knowledge network of ABB dedicated to develop intellectual properties. The centre would also outsource its software requirement from the Indian IT companies.
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Amul rolls out premium pizzas
Mumbai: Amul has rolled out an eight-inch frozen Utterly Delicious Heat and Eat Premium Pizzas in a new packaging in Mumbai.

The new premium pizzas is targeted at households. While initially the new range will be available in Mumbai for the next two months, Amul targets to expand the marketing base to touch additional 100 major cities.

The new Amul premium pizzas will be marketed through 2,000 retail outlets in Mumbai this week and touch 6,000 retailer outlets by March-end 2002.
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Sony Ericsson to launch cellular handsets
Mumbai: The first batch of Sony Ericsson-branded cellular handsets will be launched sometime in the early second quarter 2002 simultaneously with the global roll-out.

The product strategy will revolve around content and applications like imaging, gaming, music and entertainment rather than pure voice-driven functionality.

The Indian arm of SEMC is expected to maintain a portfolio of six to eight handsets and related accessories at any point of time.
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Switcher to enter Indian mkt
New Delhi: Switzerlands apparel major Marbouc SA has set its sights on Indias leisurewear market with its Switcher brand.

India is already a major hub of sourcing for the company, accounting for around 40-45 per cent of Switchers sourcing requirements. Now, besides sourcing, the company plans to establish Switcher Swiss Concept by building a countrywide network of exclusive showrooms and multi-branded outlets.
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UB to acquire Rajasthan Breweries
Mumbai: United Breweries is close to clinching a deal to buy out Rajasthan Breweries, the one-time brewer of American beer Stroh's, for about Rs 40 crore.

The deal is expected to be finalised within a few weeks. The brewery, owned by Rajasthan-based Jain group, used to bottle Cadbury Schweppes products, besides bottling Stroh's.
Rajasthan Brewery, situated on Delhi- Jaipur highway, 100 km from New Delhi, has a capacity to produce 5 million cases a year.
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