Pfizer withdraws liquid Gelusil
Mumbai: Pfizer India, the company owning the Rs 20-crore Gelusil brand, has withdrawn all dosage forms of its liquid Gelusil due to odour-related problems. The company has also snapped ties with the Andhra Pradesh-based Greesha Laboratories Pvt Ltd — the third party manufacturer that had apparently produced the defective product. Pfizer has stated that the withdrawal of the product is a voluntary recall, as part of its commitment to product quality and is not related to any health concerns.
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Biocon's `Insugen' to hit market soon
Bangalore: Insugen, the first of Biocon's branded products, is slated to hit the national market in the first half of this year. Clinical trials are on and it would be launched after the regulator's clearance. The company plans to launch a range of branded cardio-diabetic formulations. Biocon is also jointly working on a oral insulin product which has a market worth around Rs 9,955 crore.
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Grasim's Harihar plants resume operations
Mumbai: Grasim Industries Ltd. has informed the BSE that in view of sudden release of water by the Bhadra Dam Authorities in the Tungabhadra River, both its Viscose Staple Fibre (VSF) Plant and Pulp Plant at Harihar (Karnataka) have restarted from February 26.

The company does not visualise any significant impact on the current quarter's profitability as the company's other two VSF plants at Nagda (MP) and Kharach (Gujarat) are already operating at more than rated capacity, and the company has already built up sufficient inventory level to meet the customers' requirements.
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Sigma Aldrich to place production lab in Hyderabad
Hyderabad: Sigma Aldrich Corporation, the US-based $1.2-billion life science and high-technology company, proposes to set up a laboratory scale production complex in Hyderabad.
The facility would eventually house around 80 new chemists doing contract research, process development and small-scale custom synthesis work and would largely cater to the needs of pharmaceutical customers.
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Geometric to partner with VSCE
Mumbai: Geometric Software Solutions Company Ltd has entered into an agreement with the Detroit-based Virtual Supply Chain Engineering Inc (VSCE) to make an investment of up to $5,00,000 in its 9 per cent non-convertible preference shares. According to the company it had been looking at entering the field of design engineering and the partnership would fit in well with this objective, as the projects undertaken under the arrangement would be for VSCE's automobile customers. VSCE, with its knowledge of the local market, would serve as the front end and promote Geometric's solutions in that country. VSCE is into diverse businesses such as onsite placement, process engineering, supply chain and design engineering.
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Petronet LNG to double capacity at Dahej
Mumbai: Petronet LNG Ltd (PLL) is the only company other than Shell India to be short-listed for NTPC's tender for supplying liquefied natural gas to its Kawas and Gandhar power plants.
According to the company, it plans to double the capacity of its five million-tonne LNG terminal at Dahej by adding another LNG storage tank of roughly 1,60,000-tonne capacity, and hopes to begin supplies to NTPC by March-end.

PLL's initial public offer opens on March 1 and closes on March 9. PLL will issue 26.1crore equity shares of face value Rs 10 each through the book building process within a price band of Rs 13-Rs 15 per share. The company hopes to raise Rs 750 crore through this issue, which will be used for doubling capacity at its five million-tonne LNG terminal at Dahej. If awarded the NTPC tender, the company may add another LNG storage tank of 2.5 million tonne capacity. PLL is also planning a 2.5 million-tonne LNG terminal at Kochi.

PLL is a joint venture between GAIL (India), ONGC, Indian Oil and BPCL, which hold 12.5 per cent each in the company. Gaz de France holds 10 per cent in the project while the Asian Development Bank recently picked up a 5.2 per cent stake.
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EFI banking on its India centre
Bangalore: With products from the India centre going onstream, EFI India plans to expand its workforce to 200 this year. The company, which is participating in several campus interviews this year, says it expects the India centre to create printing workflow applications, web applications and standalone service applications. The company expects that India would grow to become the largest development centre outside the US with inputs for its colour server and core imaging technologies.
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SDG Software to expand operations
Bangalore: SDG Software India is planning to increase its workforce from 50 to 200 over the next 18-24 and is also planning to leverage its onsite, nearshore and offshore resources to develop e-security solutions and e-strategy consultations for the North American market. The company also plans to tap the Indian market, especially banks and insurance companies as well as quasi-government bodies, such as universities, for its e-security solutions.

According to the company investment in security services grew 18 per cent in the past year, and that the overall market for security, in India, was between $16 million and $20 million.
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Datacraft India sees 25-pc rise in revenues
Chennai: Datacraft India Ltd, an IT services company, hopes to report revenue growth this fiscal better than that of the domestic IT industry, and 25 per cent over that of last year. For the fiscal ended March 2003, the Indian subsidiary of Datacraft Asia reported revenues of Rs 288.23 crore.

According to Datacraft India, it is also bidding for a few Government projects on IT infrastructure with each project worth about Rs 45 crore. The company also plans to aggressively market its Workforce Management Solution (WMS) with Indian call centres.
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VXL Instruments offers new network device
Bangalore: VXL Instruments Ltd, a provider of Window-based terminals and thin clients, has introduced its new Itona TC, a high performance thin client device for corporate networks.

According to the company Itona TC's low price, combined with the device's revolutionary sidecar add-on provides organisations with the cost effectiveness of a thin client solution as well as the application reliability of a traditional PC.
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Marico goes with McCann Erickson
Mumbai: McCann Erickson India, will be the new creative agency for Marico Industries, makers of Parachute, Saffola and Revive. McCann Erickson was appointed, following a multi-agency creative pitch, to handle the strategy and creative advertising accounts of three of Marico's lead brands— Saffola, Shanti Amla and Mediker. The combined size of the accounts is in the vicinity of Rs 20 crore. Ambience Publicis will continue to handle the entire Parachute franchise and Hair & Care brand.
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LG: Captain of India campaign for cricket series
New Delhi: LG announced today that it would be rolling out a new campaign during the India-Pakistan cricket series called "LG Captain of India", which would be featuring Sourav Ganguly, Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri and K. Srikkanth. The campaign has been conceptualised by Percept D'Mark. The company, which has earmarked Rs 40 crore in advertising and marketing for cricket-related activities over the next few months, is also planning to launch a consumer promotion around this theme in March.
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