Kale, IATA to develop airline software
Mumbai: Software firm Kale Consultants and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) have entered into an agreement to create a new generation business intelligence and knowledge management tool intended for CEOs and top airline management.

Kale provides software products and services for the airline and financial sectors, while IATA represents over 250 airlines.
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Sebi asks Mallya, Chhabria to offload stake in Herbertsons
Mumbai: The Securities and Exchange Board of India has asked UB Group chairman Vijay Mallya and associates, Kishore Chabbria and M D Chabbria to divest their holdings in Herbertsons, which was acquired in violation of listing agreement and regulations, 1994.

Mallya and people acting in concert should divest five to six per cent of their holding in Herbertsons acquired in violation of listing agreement norms and bring down the stake to 21.38 per cent, Sebi said in its order.

In case of K Chabbria, M D Chabbria and associates, Sebi said they should scale down their holding to 10 per cent, the threshold limit of takeover code, and disinvest 37-38 per cent equity bought in violation of the norms.

These shares should be sold to public through an open offer, Sebi said.

The offer price for the sale shall be at the face value of the shares on the date of the order or lowest price at which they were acquired, whichever is lower, it said.
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Jindal Strips eyes acquisitions in Asean region
New Delhi: Jindal Strips is in talks with companies in Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia for a possible acquisition by end of the current fiscal.

Jindal is looking at acquisitions which would add a manageable capacity of 40,000-60,000 tonnes.

Jindal Strips is also in the process of setting up offices in China, Vietnam and Europe.
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Dabur CGU Life may tie up with Amex Bank
New Delhi: Dabur CGU Life Insurance is in talks with American Express Bank for selling its products through foreign bank's branches.

Dabur CGU Life has already tied up with Canara Bank, Lakshmi Vilas Bank and ABN Amro Bank for bancassurance.

The company where Dabur India has 74 per cent stake and UK's leading insurer CGU has the remaining 26 per cent, is slated to start operations within a few months.
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Timex to increase equity in Indian subsidiary
Bangalore: Timex Watches B V would invest Rs 20 crore to increase its equity in its Indian subsidiary Timex Watches to 83.85 per cent.

Timex Watches said here in a statement that its board has approved the equity infusion that would be subject to necessary approvals.

This money will be used to further expansion plans and fund marketing initiatives in the Indian market.

Timex sales have increased by 15 per cent over the last nine months. The company's market share has also gone up significantly in a stagnant market.
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Satyam, Hummingbird enter mktg tie-up
Mumbai: Satyam Computer Services has entered into an alliance with Canadian software developer Hummingbird Ltd to jointly offer software and consulting services to clients around the world.

The new partnership will deliver consulting and integration services based on Hummingbird's entire portfolio of enterprise software solutions.

Hummingbird makes software solutions that provide corporates the ability to access and act on information and resources through a single user interface.
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HDFC Standard Life launches personal pension plan
Mumbai: HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company Ltd has launched its personal pension plan designed to offer customers financial security after retirement.

Under this plan, a customer can choose to pay a single or regular premium during the savings period and on retirement the policyholder becomes entitled to the sum assured plus the attaching bonus.

Only a part of this entitlement can be taken in cash, subject to prevailing regulations, while the rest can be converted to an annuity, which would provide pension to the policy holder for his/her lifetime.

The insurance company is also looking at introducing group pension products later in the year.
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Indica to enter France, Switzerland
New Delhi: Tata Engineering is all set to launch its flagship model Indica in Switzerland in the first quarter of next fiscal. This will be followed by rollouts in Germany and France.

The car will initially be exported to these markets only with a diesel engine. The company is aiming to sell around 10,000 units per annum in Europe within three years.

The company has already put some seeding volumes in Spain, Italy and Portugal.

The firm is also negotiating with local engine makers in Europe for sourcing a petrol powertrain for the premium hatchback.
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Kinetic launches new scooter
Indore: Kinetic Motor Company has launched a four stroke scooter, Nova.

Apart from its unique design, suited best for Indian conditions, the 115 CC Nova's major attraction would be its average, which is 60 km to a litre under test conditions.

The company which has its plant for Kinetic scooters at Pithampur near here, plans to sell nearly 50,000 Nova's and export 20,000 within a year.

The company hopes to achieve its target soon as it has priced it competitively with an ex-showroom price at Rs 34,970.
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Apple to introduce new iMac in India
New Delhi: Apple Computer will launch its latest iMac in India, carrying a price tag of Rs 1.22 lakh.

This flat panel iMac houses its CPU, hard disk in a 10.6 inch compact hemisphere, improving upon the previous format packed in the cathode ray tube.

The flat-panel iMac 800 Superdrive boasts of a DVD and CD read as well as writing capabilities to help professional and amateur photographers to create movies with built-in iMovie and iDVD software.

It has also bundled software to help users to handle music, movies and pictures. The flat-panel iMac 700 Combo, sporting a DVD drive, is expected to be priced at Rs 1.07 lakh while the iMac 700 with CD RW capabilities has been priced at Rs 95,000.
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ABB(I) net up 21%
New Delhi: ABB Indias net profit has jumped 21 per cent to Rs 65.3 crore for the year ended December 2001.

Revenues also increased by 30.8 per cent to Rs 1,055.8 crore over Rs 806.8 crore in the previous year.

For the quarter ended December 2001, net profit grew 24.3 per cent to Rs 36.2 crore over revenues of Rs 398 crore which also went up by 36.8 per cent.

ABB India declared an annual dividend of 50 per cent, the same as that announced in 2000.
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D-Link to relocate R&D work to India
Mumbai: D-Link Corporation, a Taiwanese networking product company, is to expand its research and developmentactivity in India with initial investment of $2 to $3 million.

Part of the R&D work being done in United States and Taiwan will be relocated to India as quality of talent here is highly skilled and cost effective.

D-Link India, an Indian subsidiary, would have a R&D team of 100 persons in a year's time.

The Indian subsidiary is already working on development of products for internet-based telephony at its Bangalore unit.
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Lufthansa to start daily service to Mumbai
New Delhi: Lufthansa Airlines will commence daily service to Mumbai from 1 April, making it the only airline to offer daily non-stop service to Frankfurt.

The airline currently offers five flights a week to Mumbai as well as a daily service to Delhi.
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Tata Engineering announces financial restructuring
Mumbai: The Tata Engineering board has approved a financial restructuring proposal, whereby it would set off Rs 1,180 crore carried in balance sheet on account of miscellaneous expenditure against the securities premium account.

The company currently has a balance of Rs 1,702 crore in SPA, which would stand reduced to Rs 522 crore with the proposed set-off, Tata Engineering said in a release here.

This balance would increase to Rs 874 crore as on 31 March 2002, on conversion of the fully convertible debentures recently issued by the company, it said.
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Coke signs up Sushmita Sen, Sehwag
New Delhi: Coca-Cola India has signed up former Miss Universe, actress Sushmita Sen as a brand ambassador for Thumps Up. It has also signed up cricketer Virender Sehwag to promote key brand Coke.

Coke will also launch Aishwarya Rai in the first 2002 life ho to aisi campaign. The 60-second commercial will initially be viewed on the Star TV.

From 2002 summer, Coke will launch an aggressive Sen-Thumps Up multi-media campaign and on-ground initiatives.

The official said Sehwag has been chosen as his success with hard work and aspirations relates to every teenager. The FM TV commercial with Rai starts with a bunch of children venturing into a FM station and creating their own music.
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ED to initiate prosecution against ITC, Shaw Wallace
Kolkata: The Enforcement Directorate is finally preparing to file formal charges against ITC for violation of Foreign Exchange Regulation Act.

Enforcement Directorate has completed the investigation against ITC and the department is ready to file cases.

The ED had raided ITC premises in 1996 for alleged FERA violations and had arrested a number of top ITC officials including former chairmen, K L Chugh and J N Sapru.

ED will also initiate action against liquor giant Shaw Wallace and Company Limited for alleged FERA violation very soon.
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Bal Pharma to enter ayurvedic neutraceutical
Bangalore: Bal Pharma Ltd plans to enter the ayurvedic neutraceutical segment this year and has already identified new products.

The company is aggressively focusing on womens healthcare and the anti-diabetic segment. It expects a turnover of Rs 48 crore this fiscal and hopes to achieve a growth rate of 50 per cent.

The company plans to start a separate division for the ayurvedic neutraceutical segment and will invest about Rs four crore in the new segment which would start production by mid-2002.

The company is also planning to introduce a protien health drink for diabetic patientsPro Beteswhich is expected to fetch Rs five to six crore sales in the first year. The product, which has therapeutic values, would take care of all associated morbid problems faced by a diabetes patient.
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Alfa Laval ties up with Katzen
Pune: Alfa Laval India has tied up with US-based Katzen Inc to source technology for ethanol fuel production plants. With 10 to 12 distilleries expected to come up in the country, Alfa Laval is looking at grabbing 60 per cent market share.

The company has also got into another tie-up with Cemcorp of Canada for advanced distillation technology for production of high quality potable alcohol, directly from the wash, using less energy. Alfa Laval will be able to blend both the Katzen and the Cemcorp technologies to offer flexible, multi-product plant to maximise production and efficiencies.
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VISLs due diligence completed
Mumbai: Sunflag Industries and Indian Seamless Metal Tubes, which had submitted expressions of interest for joint venture participation with Steel Authority of India Ltd, have completed their respective due diligence exercise for the Visvesvaraya Iron & Steel Plant (VISL).

Sunflag Industries and Seamless Metal Tubes Ltd are the only two competitors in fray for VISL.

Sail had invited the EoIs from domestic and international players for acquisition of 74 per cent stake in the proposed joint venture company. The plant which has an installed capacity of 2.05 lakh tonne of hot metal and 77,000 tonne of alloy steel and special steel is located at Badhravati in Karnataka.
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SNF Floerger to set up unit in Vizag
Hyderabad: SNF Floerger, a $530 million French company in the polyacrylamide based water-soluble polymers business, plans to to set up a manufacturing unit at Visakhapatnam.

The company plans to invest about $15 million in the production facility which will have a capacity of 10,000 mt.

SNF already has a production unit with 3,000 mt capacity at Patancheru, near Hyderabad, which was bought from ION-Exchange recently. It manufactures a range of products based on emulsions, solutions, coagulants and powers.

The proposed plant will be a state-of-the-art plant and will nanufacture bio-acrylamide from acrylonitrile and convert it further to various polymers or copolymers.

SNFs products are used in a variety of industries such as oil drilling, paper manufacture, mineral processing, sugar, textiles, ceramics, cosmetics and agriculture.
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Indus Soft merges with US-based R Systems
Pune: Indus Software Pvt Ltd is merging with the US-based R Systems International Limited.

After completing the legal formalities, Indus would become a division of R Systems. The duo will be looking at a public offering of stock in two years time.

R Systems, headquartered in El Dorado Hills, CA, has a facility in Noida near Delhi with 450 IT professionals and is into the IT solutions business. It is one of the eight companies worldwide operating Intel certified applications solution centres.

Indus is a 12-year-old software company with facilities in Pune and Chennai and a subsidiary in the US.
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US company looking for e-learning partner
New Delhi: US based e-Learning Systems Strategies is looking for partnership with software companies as well as government in India.

The company has developed the core software engine and demonstrated the concept successfully in the state of Massachusetts in US. It now wants to extend partnerships with other Indian companies and the Indian government to develop a complete open platform for primary education.

The idea was to create an open and license-free technology infrastructure to enable e-learning in the area of primary education.
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Godrej hikes prices of Cinthol soaps
Mumbai: Godrej Consumer Products Ltd has hiked the price of its existing popular range of Cinthol Lime Fresh and Skin Fresh from Rs 10.50 to Rs 11 and its existing international range of lime and spice premium deodorant soaps from Rs 12 to Rs 13.

This year, the company plans to strongly focus on Cinthol, Fairglow, hair dye, Ezee and Godrej No 1.

GCPL has embarked on globalising Godrej hair colours by way of exporting the product to a number of countries. In India, the company has achieved a marketshare of around 45 to 50 per cent, whereas in the liquid detergent market, the company has garnered a marketshare of around 80 per cent through its Ezee brand.
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Kyndal plans Indian subsidiary
New Delhi: Scottish liquor major Kyndal Spirits Ltd, producer of scotch whisky, has decided to set up a wholly-owned subsidiary in India with an investment of $1 million.

The proposed subsidiary will sell technical knowhow to Indian liquor manufacturers, apart from undertaking bulk import of spirits for bonded warehouse sales.

The subsidiary, which will have a foreign equity of $1 million, plans to sell technical knowhow at the rate of $1 million per distillery, of which 90 per cent will be repatriated to the parent company, making this the costliest technology to be available in India in the liquor sector.
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Six Continent to bolster Indian presence
New Delhi: Six Continent Hotels plans to have hotels in Mumbai and Goa shortly and is looking at having a presence in Bangalore and Chennai.

The company has tied up with the Bharat Hotels group, and Ravi Ghei, an entrepreneur, for hotels in Mumbai.

Besides, the company had also tied up with Bharat Hotels for having an Inter-Continental hotel in Goa. The new properties would be taken up on management agreement basis.

The company owns, manages, leases or franchises more than 3,200 hotels and over 510,000 rooms in close to 100 countries.
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Alembic lines up new drugs
New Delhi: Alembic Ltd has lined up new drugs in diabetes, cardiac and nutraceuticals segments.

The company recently launched Isovon, a nutraceutical drug for the treatment of premenopausal and menopausal symptoms.

Alembic has entered into a tie-up with the US-based Cognis Health and Nutrition for the import of soy isoflavones.

Priced at Rs 10 per capsule, Isovon comes in a pack of 10.
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Skoda to roll out C+, D segment cars
Bangalore: Volkswagens Czech venture Skoda has plans to introduce the latest Fabia car into the C plus segment and top of the line Octavia Laurin Klement in India towards Diwali this year.

While the Fabia Sedan is likely to be priced in the range of Rs 7.5 lakh to Rs 9 lakh, the Laurin Klement will be targetted for the D segment users at Rs 15-16 lakh.

Skoda is focussing on setting up 17 full-fledged dealerships accompanied by 31 authorised service centres in India this year.

The first offering from the Skoda stable, Octavia, a C+ + car with a price tag of around Rs 11.5 to 12.5 lakhs in Delhi and Mumbai markets, will be made available across the southern and many more northern and western markets in the coming weeks.
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RIL to pump in $300m in exploration
Ahmedabad: Reliance Industries is planning to pump in $300 million in the first phase of its ambitious three-year offshore oil and gas exploration programme beginning May this year.

RIL, which has a portfolio of 25 onshore and offshore oil and gas blocks, has already acquired a drill ship to begin operations in one of the two deep water blocks off the east coast of the country.

About 10-15 wells are planned to be drilled next year. Of these, five would be in the deep water blocks, two on the east coast and three on the west and other 10 in shallow water blocks.
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