GTB sacks 7 senior officials
Mumbai: Seven senior officials, including the executive director of Global Trust Bank, have been sacked following alleged deviations and serious irregularities in adhering to the laid down procedures as well as internal guidelines of the bank.

The seven officials, four from Mumbai and three from Secunderabad, are executive director Sridhar Subasri, president K A Choudhry, executive vice president Nageshwara Rao, senior vice presidents K V Rao and B N Prakash, and vice presidents S R Krishnamurthy, and S R Kalluria.

Reserve Bank of India has been intimated about the decision.
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AIG, Tata up equity in insurance co
Mumbai: American Insurance Group and the Tata group on have increased the equity capital in their joint-venture insurance company, Tata AIG Life Insurance, by Rs 600 million.

India's Tata holds a 74 per cent stake, while AIG has 26 per cent in the joint venture.

The Tata group had invested Rs 444 million more, while AIG brought in an additional Rs 156 million.

The total equity of Tata AIG after the fresh capital investment stands at Rs 1.85 billion.
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RIL shareholders to vote on merger with RPL
New Delhi: Shareholders of Reliance Industries (RIL) will meet on 8 April to vote on the merger of Reliance Petroleum with their company, which comes into effect retrospectively from 1 April 2001.

As per the proposal, which has already been approved by the board of directors of both companies, RPL will be merged with RIL to create a Rs 58,000 crore fully integrated energy company and thus enhance shareholder value.

The shareholders of Reliance Petroleum will meet on 15 April to consider the merger proposal, for which RIL has already moved the high court.

The merger has been proposed at 1:11 (one share of RIL for 11 RPL shares) and together with the interim dividend of the two companies will cost Rs 900 crore.
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Escotel to repay Rs 70 crore debt to banks, Fis
New Delhi: Escorts group cellular company Escotel will repay Rs 70 crore of its debt to banks and financial institutions in the 2002-03 fiscal.

Out of the total outstanding debt of Rs 850 crore from banks and FIs, the company would be repaying Rs 70 crore in the 2002-03 fiscal.
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India Seeds picks up 74% in HLL company
Mumbai: India Seeds Holdings, a Mauritius registered company, has acquired 74 per cent stake in Paras Extra Growth Seeds, a subsidiary of Hindustan Lever.

With this transaction, PEGSL would become a joint venture company. Its capital base would be expanded and FMCG major would invest Rs 7.19 crore to retain 26 per cent stake in the joint venture.

The seeds business of HLL with approximate turnover of Rs 100 crore would stand transferred to PEGSL as a going concern for a consideration of Rs 115 crore.
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Binani board approves restructuring
Mumbai: The board of Binani Industries has approved restructuring proposals including hiving off Zinc division into a separate company Binani Zinc effective 1 April.

The speficified assets and liabilities of Zinc division would be transferred to the new company and shareholders of BIL would be alloted three shares of BZL for every 13 shares of the former free of cost, the company said in a notice to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Balance in the share premium account would be used to cover the costs of debt restrcuturing.
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Dabur sets up diagnostic lab
New Delhi: Dabur India Ltd has set up a molecular diagnostic lab at the Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute.

The centre would use new diagnostic methods based on genomics and proteomics profiling of molecular changes associated with the disease, which would in turn help customising treatment.

Dabur has developed the latest molecular diagnostic tools that would help in checking individuals' responsiveness to different treatments to come up with customised therapeutic decisions.
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Murugappa group plans new co for IT services
Chennai: The Chennai-based Murugappa group is planning to start a company for IT-enabled service.

At least three specific areas are being considered: legal support services such as handling the legal documentation and doing legal research in India for overseas clients, insurance-related services such as processing of claims and engineering-linked services such as cataloguing, design and drawings.

Since Webword Holdings was taken over by the Murugappa group, the number of people working in the company had been going up.

In the last three months, over 60 people have been added. The company now employs around 350 people, which is expected to go up to 1,000 in a year.
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Playwin online lottery draw held
Mumbai: The inaugural draw of the country's first online lottery, Super Lotto, launched by the Essel Group and promoted by Playwin Infravest Pvt Ltd, was held at Gangtok, Sikkim.

The six winning numbers were drawn via an imported draw machine thus ensuring complete transparency, said a release.

Chief minister of Sikkim Pawan Kumar Chamling and Essel group chairman Subhash Chandra were present at the draw.
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Surana to launch voice over Net phone
Hyderabad: Surana Telecom Ltd, which has a Category B Internet Service Provider (ISP) licence, is all set to launch the country's pure voice over Internet telephone services.

Targeting corporates, educational and research institutions, public call offices (PCOs) and people with NRI connections, the company plans to be a one-stop shop for Internet telephony right from offering a netphone, ISP services only for voice communications and international calls.

A user of this facility will have to pay Rs 500 a month for this service and the call rates are now pegged drastically lower in comparison to the current international call rates.

For instance, a call to the US can be made over the Internet for Rs 4.38 per minute, Rs 5 to the UK and Rs.7.38 to Australia.

Surana has a strategic arrangement with Pioneer Networks, part of the Hyderabad-based ISP, for coverage in 10 major towns across the state and will rely on its own infrastructure for services within the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad.
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Pepsi lines up more launches
Kolkata: PepsiCo India has launched Pepsi A-ha, a cola with a hint of lemon.

In the next three months, the cola major plans to roll out two new Mirinda flavours and four new variants in the juice category under the Slice brand.

Pepsi A-ha was launched here by Sourav Ganguly, India's cricket captain.

It will be available across the country in 300-ml glass bottles priced at Rs 10 and in 500-ml PET and cans, both of which will have an introductory offer price of Rs 15.

The same product is known as Pepsi Twist in other countries.
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Delphi (I) to go for business refocus
New Delhi: Delphi plans to refocus from predominantly auto to a more widespread business application with a portfolio expansion in India.

Delphis Indian operations have invested heavily on software sourcing from India and it would now look at extending that to other businesses as well.

The business refocus could also trigger fresh investments for India by the company which has so far put in $100 million in equity.
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Gesco to expand in North India
New Delhi: Gesco, one of the largest listed real estate companies in India, has decided to focus on activities in Delhi, Greater Noida, Gurgaon and Mohali as potential locations for both commercial and residential projects.

The company is in discussion with various authorities for a possible joint development of residential complexes in areas like Noida, Gurgaon and other potential cities of North India.

Gesco recently merged with Mahindra Reality, the real estate arm of the Rs 5,000-crore Mahindra & Mahindra group.
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Nirlep arms to merge
Pune: Silverlight Nirlepware Industries and Duraware - the manufacturing and marketing companies of the Nirlep brand of non-stick cookware - are set to merge.

The process of merging the two companies in the cookware segment would be completed during the next financial. Both are located at Aurangabad. The merged company could be named Nirlep Appliances, to leverage the Nirlep brand name.

Nirlep, which has extended its product range to include pressure cookers, is set to launch a three-litre non-stick pressure cooker.
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