Cognizant to add 4,000 more employees
Mumbai: Cognizant Technology Solutions is expanding its operations in India by setting up three development centres totalling 6 lakh square feet of space for 6,500 employees in Chennai, Bangalore and Pune. Work on these facilities is expected to begin in early 2004. This plan is expected to cost about $40 million over the next two years for the company. Once fully occupied, these additional facilities are expected to generate annual operating expense savings of close to $10 million, compared to expanded use of leased facilities. In terms of number of people, the company will be adding 4,000 on board to the existing 9,000 people.

"Cognizant has grown faster than the competition this year and demand, including the pipeline, continues to be at an historically high level," said Lakshmi Narayanan, the new CEO and president of the company.
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Maruti cuts workforce by 27% via VRS
New Delhi: Maruti Udyog Ltd has said it has cut its workforce by 27 per cent through a voluntary retirement scheme as part of efforts to control costs and improve profitability. In a statement here, it said that 1,251 employees opted for the VRS, the second in two years in the company. "There were 4,606 employees in the company prior to the launch of the scheme. On account of the VRS, the number came down to 3,355 employees," Maruti said.

In the first phase of this VRS, 276 staff, including supervisors, executives and managers took the offer between September 22 and October 18, this year. Maruti spent Rs 29.4 crore to pay the employees in this phase.
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HPCL announces 60% interim dividend
Mumbai: The central government will get about Rs 103 crore from Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd as interim dividend. The company is the first oil PSU to announce the amount of interim dividend. HPCL on Monday informed BSE that the board of directors of the company has recommended paying Rs 6 per equity share towards interim dividend. The central government holds around 51 per cent stake in the company.

Analysts say the interim dividend is higher than expected. Most industry observers had expected oil companies to announce dividends similar to last year's levels. Last financial year, HPCL had announced an interim dividend of Rs 3 per share amounting to Rs 34.61 crore. The government had collected Rs 2,687 crore as interim dividend from oil companies.
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Perot acquires HCL out of JV for Rs 479 crore
New Delhi: The US-based Perot Systems has acquired HCL Technologies' stake in their joint venture, HCL Perot Systems, for $105.3 million (Rs 479.6 crore) in cash, thereby ending a two-year feud. With this deal, the $1.3 billion Perot Systems' holding in the joint venture has gone up to around 88 per cent from 45 per cent.

HCL Technologies held around 43 per cent in HCL Perot Systems, while 45 per cent was held by Perot Systems. The balance is held by the employees and the management of the company.
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Sundram pays £1.5 million for Dana Spicer unit
Chennai: Sundram Fasteners Ltd (SFL), the city-based auto component major, announced its acquisition of the precision forgings business of UK-based Dana Spicer Europe Ltd, for £1.5 million. The precision forgings division has been hived off as a new company called Cramlington Precision Forge Ltd (CPFL), based in UK and would be a fully owned subsidiary of SFL.

CPFL would be SFL s third manufacturing base outside India. The company, through its subsidiary TVS Autolec Ltd, already has a oil and water pump manufacturing base in Malaysia. SFL is also setting up a high tensile fasteners unit in Zhejiang province in China.
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