Herbals work wonders for Arvind Remedies
Chennai: Herbal medicines have emerged as Arvind Remedies' fastest growing business segment after their introduction a couple of years ago. At present, the company is in the process of registering herbal medicines in Korea and Malaysia in order to examine the potential there. The herbal medicine division logged a turnover of about Rs 20 crore in 2002-03, around one-sixth the total sales of Rs 212 crore. Arvind Shah, Managing Director, Arvind Medicines, identified the herbal medicine business as the fastest growing segment of the company after its launch.
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Glaxo sues Dr Reddy's for patent breach
Hyderabad: GlaxoSmithLine (GSK) has sued Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd, the Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical major listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). It has alleged patent infringement by the latter on three of the four Orange Book patents as well as a process patent not listed in the Orange Book pertaining to Ondansetron Hydrochloride tablets currently marketed by GSK under the brand Zofran. Zofran, a branded product of GSK, is indicated for the prevention of post-operative nausea and vomiting, cancer chemotherapy induced nausea and vomiting and radiotherapy induced nausea and vomiting. The drug had recorded annual sales of around $900 million in all dosage forms and strengths in the US during the last year.
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RINL on better wicket with top techno-economies
Kolkata: Two important points emerge from the current operations of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd, the corporate entity for Vizag Steel Plant. First, with the vastly improved techno-economics that RINL has been able to achieve, it can withstand even severe downturns in the market in future. Secondly, having already prepaid sizeable loans and indicating its intention to carry the process further, the company has significantly improved its power of bargaining with the lenders. In several aspects of techno-economics, RINL is already posing a challenge to its private and public sector rivals.
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Ion Exchange unit for Rail Neer commissioned
Mumbai: Ion Exchange (India) Ltd, the water treatment company, has commissioned its plant for production of Rail Neer, packaged drinking water for the Indian Railways. The plant was inaugurated by the Union Minister for Railways, Nitish Kumar. The contract given by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation was to design, manufacture a 5,000-litre per hour capacity turnkey plant at Nangloi village, near New Delhi. The plant can produce up to 1.2 lakh litres of water per day and will cater to demand from the Northern, North Wwestern, North Central and parts of the Central Railway, the Managing Director of Ion Exchange, R. Sharma, said.
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IDBI ordered to give TCS report to SPIC Petro
Chennai: The Bombay High Court has recently directed Industrial Development Bank of India Ltd (IDBI) to give SPIC Petrochemicals Ltd a copy of the full report of Tata Consulting Engineers (TCE). The TCE report went into the question of viability of the petrochemical project the latter was implementing. According to sources in the SPIC group, IDBI is ``on the job'' of handing over a copy of the TCE report to SPIC Petro, for the company to prepare a revival proposal. Sources in the company say that with this ``breather'', this is the closest that the company has come towards a solution, in several years. The court gave this ruling in the course of a petition filed by SPIC against ICICI Bank when the latter sought to launch recovery proceedings.
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Palio to ply on Bangladesh roads soon
New Delhi: Fiat India Ltd on Thursday announced that it would shortly begin export of its popular B segment car, `Palio' to Bangladesh. The first consignment of 20 Palios are scheduled for shipment by the end of the current month. Fiat India would put on display both the Palio and Siena at the Dhaka Motor Show between May 22 and May 25 and expects to get more orders from the country, a company release said here. It had earlier exported 350 units of `Uno' cars to Bangladesh.
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A-I to earn Rs 150 crore from deals with foreign airlines
New Delhi: Air-India (A-I) is expecting to net around Rs 150 crore this year from commercial agreements signed with foreign airlines. It will also post better profits for the year-ended March 2003 of nearly Rs 100 crore, with its total debt reduced to $280 million. “We are reducing a debt of $110 million every year, and the entire debt for acquiring the six Boeing 747-400s will be wiped out in 2008,” a top company official said. Higher profits this year can be attributed to an increase in operations to the Gulf, the US and the UK, gradual decline in manpower and fuel prices being down for most part of the year, he added.
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Glenmark Pharma sets up arm in US, appoints CEO
Mumbai: Glenmark Pharmaceuticals has set up a wholly-owned subsidiary in the US to make further inroads into the US market for the company’s formulations and active pharma ingredients market. The company has appointed Jeffrey Weiss as chief executive officer (CEO) of the subsidiary, which will be based in Princeton, New Jersey. Mr Weiss said the the entity would act as a front end for the Glenmark’s global business. He brings with him over 15 years of experience in the pharma industry in the US and has worked with Dr Reddy’s and Ranbaxy in the US along with Akzo Nobel and Pliva Inc. The company plans to file 2-3 abbreviated new drug applications (ANDA) over the next 18-24 months in the US market along with 4-5 drug master files (DMFs), which are already off-patent, Glenmark Pharma managing director and CEO Glenn Saldanha said.
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TVS Motor racing bikes launched
Pune: TVS Motor Company Ltd launched its own racing bikes which Team TVS will test on the tracks in the Asian circuit. These bikes will make its debut at the inauguration of the National Motosports championships, the first leg of which is being held in Pune.

These performance machines have not been launched to make a statement but the learning out of working on such bikes goes into making of better product for the mass market,” TVS Motor president CP Raman said. Participation in motor racing is a logical extension of the product development and testing process of the company offering the best possible man-machine interface, he said. The award-winning TVS Victor suspension technology are an example of this R&D effort. TVS has an annual R&D spend of Rs 80 crore.
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IFCI takes over Rewari unit of East India Syntex
New Delhi: IFCI has taken possession of the Rewari unit of East India Syntex under the Securitisation and Financial Assets & Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002. East India Syntex, promoted by NP Garodia and Rajiv Modi, has defaulted on loans worth Rs 9.24 crore to IFCI and another Rs 10.38 crore to Allahabad Bank and Canara Bank since April 2000. According to IFCI, “Although the company has developed all facilities with financial assistance from IFCI, it has not been paying the dues since April 2000”. This prompted IFCI to slap notices under the Act.
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BPCL completes pilot project to improve LPG deliveries in North
New Delhi: The Bharat gas pilot project for improving LPG delivery services to customers located in the northern region will be over by the next fiscal. Over 600 LPG distributors in the northern region will be covered under the on-going pilot project aimed at improving overall delivery standards for cylinders. Speaking to reporters, Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) executive director RK Singh said that the company has just completed its first phase of test marketing for improving the delivery services at 152 LPG distributors in the northern region. “BPCL will cover half of its distributors located in the region by the end of the current fiscal,” he added.
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DRL seeks FDA nod for Ondansetron
Hyderabad: Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (DRL) on Thursday said that it has filed an Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Ondansetron Hydrochloride tablets, equivalent to 16 mg base, with a Paragraph IV certification on the four Orange Book patents, said a DRL release here. Ondansetron Hydrochloride is the generic version of GlaxoSmithKline’s Zofran. The branded product is indicated for the prevention of post-operative nausea and vomiting, cancer chemotherapy induced nausea and vomiting and radiotherapy induced nausea and vomiting.
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Jindal Steel 2002-03 net jumps 35 per cent to Rs 145 crore
New Delhi: Jindal Steel & Power Ltd has reported a 35 per cent jump in net profit at Rs 145 crore for the year-ended March 2003, from Rs 107 crore in the previous year. Riding high on the record turnover of over Rs 1100 crore achieved during 2002-03, the company has declared a dividend of 125 per cent (Rs 12.5 per equity share) for the year. The turnover increased by 70 per cent from Rs 654.22 crore in the previous fiscal.
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UTi Worldwide acquires IndAir
New Delhi: Dutch freight forwarder UTi Worldwide has taken over one of the country’s largest freight forwarder IndAir. With this the Dutch company will have two subsidiaries in India--Indair Carriers and UT Worldwide (formerly Union Transport India). "The two companies will work separately under one umbrella but will be forming a strategic alliance for their business operations," said UT Worldwide director Vikram Paul. While Indair will get the advantage of getting a global access through the tie-up, UTi will be able to get greater access to the Indian market.
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For STD calls, cell firms prefer BSNL to Bharti
New Delhi: Cellular operators, including Idea, Spice Telecom, BPL Mobile, RPG Cellular and Escotel, are planning to direct their STD traffic through BSNL. Until now, most operators were carrying a bulk of their traffic through Bharti’s NLD backbone or had started diverting a part of their STD traffic to VSNL. Some of the cellular operators have already signed the new interconnect agreement (revenue-share agreement in telecom parlance) with BSNL, while others are expected to hammer out a deal soon. Till now, BSNL offered only 5 per cent of the STD revenues to cellular operators for calls originating from their networks. However, with the revenue sharing norms defined in the IUC (interconnect usage charges) regime, BSNL is offering a “more competitive” arrangement.
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Toyota to infuse Rs 100 cr in new India JV
New Delhi: Toyota Motor is planning to infuse Rs 100 crore in its textile machinery making joint venture in India -- Kirloskar Toyoda Textile Machinery Ltd (KTTM). This fresh infusion, which will hike Toyota's stake in the venture, is also aimed at changing the JV's profile to move away from producing textile machinery and venture into making auto components for the Japanese major's global operations.Meanwhile, Toyota has decided to hold back plans to introduce its luxury sports utility vehicle Landcruiser Prado in India.
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HM chalks a new corporate strategy, redesigns logo
New Delhi: The country's oldest surviving car maker Hindustan Motors is finally turning a new leaf. As part of a new strategy, Hindustan Motors has decided to go in for a complete makeover, both with its corporate logo and with the age-old workhorse Ambassador. The firm has hired the bangalore-based Ray & Keshavan Designs to design a new corporate logo for the firm. All of its products, dealerships and even the office stationery will now wear the new logo, which will be finalised by this weekend.
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VentureTech buys out Sterling Comm in Sify
Bangalore: Venturetech Solutions, which along with SoftBank Asia Infrastructure Fund (SAIF) pumped in fresh investments last October in Sify, India’s first private ISP, has now increased its equity stake in the company. It has picked up the stake held by Sterling Commerce, a unit of SBC — a global telecom major — in Sify. The transaction has added approximately 1.5 per cent to VentureTech’s “ownership stake” in Sify and takes its total equity stake to around 13.5 per cent.
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