Kodak launches new camera
Mumbai: Kodak India Ltd has launched the KZ 25 automatic camera pegged at Rs 1,295. The company would be adding many more cameras in the Indian market.

In the recent past, the company had introduced a brand specifically for the rural market. The KB Rural brand of cameras is pegged at Rs 795. Apart from this rural brand, Kodak India's portfolio includes KB 10 (at Rs 995) and KB 12 (at Rs 1,095).

KZ 25 boasts of its `Easyload' features and is considered to be technologically superior with a wide angle lens and auto power shut off facility. The new brand will aim to capture a 40 per cent market share in the automatic camera segment.
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Reliance can bid for PSUs
New Delhi: The disinvestment ministry has said that Reliance would not be disqualified from bidding for public sector undertakings, including IPCL, on the basis of the chargesheet filed by CBI under the Official Secrets Act.

We have examined the matter. Reliance would not be disqualified as the charges against it do not relate to national security. As per guidelines for disinvestment, in the case of non-security related matters, a chargesheet is not enough to disqualify the bidder, disinvestment minister Arun Shourie told reporters here.

The minister said Reliance has been charged under the Official Secrets Act for possessing documents pertaining to classification of excise duty rates, India's response to economic sanctions and government's view on monopoly clause in disinvestment.
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Maruti posts Rs 55 crore profit
New Delhi: Stricter cost management and improved sales helped Maruti Udyog Ltd (MUL) driving out of the woods, posting a net profit of Rs 55 crore in 2001-02. The firm, hit by a massive interest burden and growing competition, had slipped into the red in the previous fiscal and ended with a net loss of Rs 269 crore.

Its turnover marked a marginal growth to Rs 9,295.3 crore during the year as against Rs 9,219.6 crore a year ago. Its sales at 3.4 lakh cars represented a 1.4 per cent growth over the previous year.
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Pepsi to launch Slice guava
New Delhi: Pepsi Foods is expanding its range for Slice by introducing guava-flavoured juice.

The guava-flavoured Slice will be launched in both glass bottle and tetra pack. At present, Slice is available in mango flavour, priced at Rs 10 for a 250ml bottle and 200ml tetra pack. The company is expected to price the Slice guava at the same range.

Pepsi is planning to introduce more variants of Slice-ranging from orange to pineapple flavour.

Pepsi Foods is also putting its pulp sourcing points in place to introduce the variants of the Slice juice drink in future.
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Hyundai logs 12% sales growth
New Delhi: Hyundai Motor's Indian arm achieved a sales turnover of Rs 3,400 crore and sold 93,244 cars in the year to March.

The company's sales increased by 12 per cent from the previous financial year.

The increasing acceptance of Hyundai cars by Indian consumers reflects their growing confidence in Hyundai Motor India and its extensive sales and service network, said Y S Kim, its managing director.

Kim said that the company had made a profit since starting operations in 1998, but did not disclose details of profits for the current year.

Hyundai has launched three cars in India: the small-sized Santro and two sedans - the Accent and the Sonata.

The company said that it had sold over 250,000 Santros, 40,000 Accents and 2,000 Sonatas.
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Nanz to reopen shutters
New Delhi: Nanz, the supermarket chain that downed shutters last year, is all set to reopen within the next two months. Its previous owner Goetze India, an Escorts group company, has sold off its holding in the venture and the new owners are all set to revive the chain.

Nanz, which will sport the same brandname, is now being owned in partnership by an Indian and a foreign retail chain..

Nanz Food Products Ltd was floated by Goetze in a joint venture with Marsh Supermarkets of the US and Nanz AG of Germany.
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Bharti launches services in Tamil Nadu
New Delhi: Bharti telenet has launched fixed line telecom services in Tamil Nadu under the brand name TouchTel.

The services were inauguarated by the chief minister J Jayalalithaa, who made the first call from Chennai to prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

With the commencement of this service, various advanced telecom services such as voice, internet on dial-up, internet on ISDN would be made available in Tamil Nadu.
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RIL, RPL prepay Rs 2,500 crore to FIs
Mumbai: Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and Reliance Petroleum Ltd (RPL) have prepaid about Rs 2,500 crore of loans to financial institutions.

While the prepayment included most FIs, the major share of the prepayments was to ICICI Ltd, Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) and Industrial Financial Corporation of India (IFCI). This also included other public financial institutions like Life Insurance Corporation and General Insurance Corporation.
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Tata Ryerson to invest Rs 50 crore
Jamshedpur: Tata Ryerson Ltd (TRL), a 50:50 joint venture between Ryerson-Tull of the US and Tata Steel, is set to invest around Rs 50 crore to double its production.

TRL is going to put up additional cold rolled steel-handling facilities at Pune and small new plants for cold rolled products at Chennai and Ghaziabad, respectively, in the near future.

The company currently has CR and HR steel processing units here and at Pune.

Telco, Maruti Udyog, Toyoto, Hyundai, Ford are some of TRLs customers among auto companies, while Whirlpool, LG, Voltas are among the white goods manufacturers using its products.

TRL currently handles around 30,000 metric tonnes of Tata Steels CR material each month against the steel majors CR steel production of one lakh metric tonne per month.
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Tata Steel posts record output
Kolkata: Tata Iron & Steel Co (Tisco) has reported an all-time high production and sales in 2001-02 fiscal.

According to a Tisco release, the private sector steel major sold 3.56 million tonne of steel in 2001-02, a 4 per cent increase over last year. Crude steel production stood at 3.75 mt, an increase of 5 per cent over last year. Hot metal and coke production at 4.04 mt and 2.3 mt respectively, surpassed their respective previous best figures by 3 per cent. For the first time hot metal production exceeded 4 mt.

It sold 0.68 mt of cold roll products and gained 15 per cent market share in the high-end original equipment manufacturers segment.
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McKinsey to chalk out Reliance Infocoms strategy
Mumbai: Reliance Infocom has appointed McKinsey & Company for drawing up its infocom strategy.

A McKinsey team is currently at Reliances headquarters in Mumbai to formulate the plan for Reliance Infocom.

Reliance Infocom is currently building a broadband network across the country which is expected to connect over 100 cities.
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Asian Paints eyes Snowcem
Mumbai: Asian Paints Ltd is in advanced talks with Snowcem India Ltd for a possible takeover.

Talk of Asian Paints acquiring Snowcem has been doing the rounds of the stock market for quite some time.

Acquiring Snowcem makes business sense for Asian Paints because the company lacks strong products in cement paints segment. Snowcem is the largest player in cement paints with a 25 per cent market share.

Asian Paints controls more than 40 per cent of the country's Rs 4,500-crore paint market.
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HMs rural vehicle gets approval
New Delhi: Hindustan Motors has received the approval of the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) for an LPG-powered rural transport vehicle.

The RTV is the first LPG vehicle in the country to get ARAI approval, Hindustan Motors said in a statement.

The approvals are currently for passenger carrier, goods carrier and ambulance versions of RTV that has gained popularity as CNG-powered vehicle in the capital.

The vehicle will be available with 1817-cc petrol engine that develops 72 hp and can run about 400 km.
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CDPQ picks up more stake in UTV
Mumbai: CDPQ of Canada has picked up an additional 15.8 per cent equity stake in UTV through a private placement.

Following this transaction, CDPQ's holding in UTV has risen to 30 per cent. The promoter group of UTV, lead by Ronnie Screwvala, holds 40 per cent and NewsCorp holds 15 per cent. Remaining 15 per cent is held by financial investors including Mistui of Japan and Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS).
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Sify pacts with Hindustan Times
New Delhi: Sify.com, the horizontal portal from Satyam Infoway Ltd, and The Hindustan Times Ltd have formed an alliance to promote each others business interests and also to offer bundled packages to advertisers.

Sify.com will also promote Hindustan Times and HindustanTimes.com across its various properties as well as across some other Internet-related services. Hindustan Times will promote Sify.com through its newspapers and Web site.
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ITI to make CDMA handsets
Bangalore: ITI Ltd plans to manufacture Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) handsets in the financial year 2002-03.

The firm would be looking at producing close to 2 million handsets by 2003 April-end. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), which offer limited mobility services would be ready customers for such sets.

Qualcomm owns the CDMA technology and ITI was likely to enter into vendor licensing agreements in its bid to manufacture the CDMA handsets.
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InfraSoft ties up with MicroStrategy
Mumbai: InfraSoft Technologies Ltd has formed a strategic alliance with the US-based MicroStrategy for high-end business intelligence applications for banking and financial markets.

InfraSoft will be a global partner for MicroStrategy Ltd UK and for MicroStrategy Business Intelligence Platform in India. InfraSoft will use MicroStrategy's business intelligence platform to develop risk management, asset and liability management, wealth management and decision support MIS application.

InfraSoft will use the platform to offer retail and investment banks a comprehensive Web-based reporting and analysis of financial data, allowing banks to manage risk and monitor operational performance.
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Keltron to set up e-commerce portal
Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Government will soon launch a Web-based portal for promoting and marketing handloom, coir, handicrafts and artifacts by making use of the e-commerce platform.

Kerala State Electronics Development Corporation (Keltron) has been entrusted with the task of setting up the online shop being activated as part of the portal.

Support of global e-commerce giants such as eBay and national and international non-government organisations working in the field are being sought for implementing the project. The portal will actively focus on markets in the US, Europe and the Gulf.

The portal will feature information on the products, their genesis, associated myths and assorted history if only to enhance user value and awareness. The portal will also cater to the demands of the tourism industry.
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Blue Star earmarks Rs 6 cr for advt
Mumbai: Blue Star Ltd has chalked out a huge promotional programme, having earmarked a Rs 6-crore advertising budget for the March-May period.

It is also working on increasing its dealer network from the present 80 to 150 in 2002-03.

The company has already released the first round of advertisements in print, while television commercials are expected to be rolled out next week.

Blue Star currently had a 32 per cent market share in central air-conditioning segment, 42 per cent in water coolers, 55 per cent in deep freezers and 31 per cent in cold storages.
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Nerolac signs Mohanlal
Mumbai: Goodlass Nerolac has roped in the popular hero of Malayalam cinema, Mohanlal, to promote its acrylic exterior paint - Excel.

Mohanlal will also endorse other brands from Nerolac's portfolio in the future.

Considering Mohanlal is also featuring in Ram Gopal Verma's new film, Company, his launch into mainstream Hindi cinema should propel him as a national brand ambassador in the future.
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Essel group to foray into lifestyle retailing
Mumbai: The Essel group is planning to get into lifestyle retailing through the group company, E-City Retail, floated a year ago. The Group is taking its stores to Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai.

To begin with, its department store brand `Hours' will soon come up on Brigade Road in Bangalore. It will stock the group's private clothing labels for the first time.

The Essel Group will introduce its private clothing labels at its departmental stores both inside and outside these family centres.

With brand names such as Alaap (for ethnic wear), Orange Street (for casuals), Insignia (for formal wear) and Pampam (for kids), these will be in-store brands developed by the group.

Besides `Hours' will stock a host of household accessories, all sourced from various manufacturers across the country.
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ONGC tops in market cap
Mumbai: ONGC has dethroned FMCG major HLL to emerge as Indias largest company by market capitalisation. ONGC, with a current market cap of Rs 49,287 crore tops the list, followed by HLL (market cap of Rs 47,975 crore) and Wipro (Rs 38,025 crore).

This followed a sharp rise in ONGCs stock price over the past few weeks. From a low of Rs 235 on 12 March, it rose sharply to Rs 346 on 3 April on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

ONGC has seen a sharp Rs 31,606 crore or 179 per cent rise in its market cap to Rs 49,287 crore currently. The rise in HLLs market cap has been much lower at Rs 6,637 crore or 16 per cent.
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WorldCom to cut up to 7,500 jobs
Jackson: WorldCom plans to eliminate as many as 7,500 jobs.

The cuts would be focused primarily on WorldCom Group, which includes the telecommunications company's high-growth data, Internet and international businesses.

WorldCom is the second-largest US long-distance provider.

WorldCom's last major job reduction came a little more than a year ago when the company laid off about 6,000 US employees.
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NetGuru to invest $30-60m in India
New Delhi: Netguru will invest $30-60 million in India over the next six months in infrastructure for starting online architectural and construction engineering consultancy.

The company plans to tie up with conventional engineering consulting companies and teaming up with established service providers for outsourcing people from them while Netguru will provide the technology.

Netguru has already initiated talks for partnership with leading Indian construction and engineering companies besides IT services firms who are engaged in the ACE space.

The company which also develops voice over internet protocol solutions is in negotiations with a few Indian players who would be providing internet telephony for origination and terminations of calls.
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ABB to up stake in Universal Cables JV
Ahmedabad: Asea Brown Boveri is hiking its stake in Universal ABB Power Cables, from 74 to 90.60 per cent at an estimated cost of Rs 60 crore.

Universal ABB Power Cables is a joint venture between Universal Cables and ABB. It manufactures extra high voltage insulated power cables and cable accessories.

ABB Zurich is taking over 63.5 million shares of the company of face value of Rs 10 each. Following the increase in stake, ABB Zurich would have investments worth Rs 80.84 crore in the revised paid-up capital of the company.
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TCS setting up centres in Tokyo, Melbourne
Mumbai: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is setting up a software development center in Melbourne and Tokyo. TCS, the largest software services company in India, is also considering setting up a development center in China.

TCS already has sales offices in Korea, Taiwan and Singapore. Its Asia Pacific headquarters are in Singapore. TCS also has a state in a Singapore based company called e-Asia Finance along with McKinsey Consultants and SE Bank of Sweden.
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Forbes Gokak to acquire Electrolux stake
Mumbai: Forbes Gokak has concluded a deal to acquire Swedish white goods major Electrolux ABs 40 per cent stake in the joint venture Eureka Forbes for Rs 32 crore.

The acquisition will result in Eureka Forbes becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of Forbes Gokak since it already holds the other 60 per cent. Shapoor Mistry, son of Pallonji group Chairman Pallonji Mistry, is the new chairman of Eureka Forbes.

Forbes Gokak has also agreed to pay an annual royalty of Rs 25 lakh to Electrolux for using the Eureka Forbes brand name. This will be valid for a period of five years.
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