Lupin enters herbal sector
Mumbai: Lupin Ltd has announced its foray into the Indian herbal market, with an initial portfolio of nine products. Lupin plans to gradually expand its coverage from ethical medicines or drugs sold only on the basis of a doctor's prescription to over-the-counter (OTC) medicines.

The products are in therapeutic areas including diabetes, paediatrics, gastro-intestinal, pain management and gynaecology, and are priced at a premium. The company says that the products would be available across the country in a month's time.
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GE Shipping to acquire 10 new vessels
Mumbai: Great Eastern Shipping Company has concluded road shows to raise $50 million from the international market. It has earmarked a capital expenditure of Rs.1,170 crore over the next two years for its expansion strategy, planning to acquire 10 new vessels and two second hand dry bulk carriers.

The private shipping major has placed building orders for three product carriers, two Suezmax carriers, one platform support vessel and four anchor handling tug supply vessels.
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IA slashes 50 per cent on select flights
Mumbai: Indian Airlines has announced 50 per cent cuts on some routes, effective from April 1. These fares are for those travelling on the domestic leg before the flight proceeds to an international destination.

The Mumbai-Goa, Mumbai-Calicut, Mumbai-Cochin, Ahmedabad-Delhi, Ahmedabad-Hyderabad are the routes that will offer these cuts. Indian Airlines has also announced that various promotional and excursion fares, which were to end on March 31, have been extended.
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Bharti to connect 2,300 towns
Bangalore: Telecom major Bharti Tele-Ventures has announced that it would invest Rs. 2,000 crore in the fiscal 2004-2005 in order to connect over 2,300 towns.

The plans include Bharti rolling out its mobile services in six more circles -- Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh- East, West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar and Rajasthan.Bharti plans to scale up its network capacity to cater to more than 11 million subscribers from over six million now. The network would be scaled up to handle four billion call minutes a month.
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GAIL completes due diligence of Greater Calcutta Gas
Kolkata: Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) has completed technical and financial due diligence of Greater Calcutta Gas Supply Corporation Limited by way of management participation in the West Bengal government undertaking.

GAIL had engaged Projects Development India Limited (PDIL) for technical due diligence while consultancy firm Ernst & Young had been entrusted to conduct financial due diligence.Greater Calcutta Gas supplies piped coal gas to industrial and residential areas of the city. The corporation sources coal gas from Dankuni Coal Complex.
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US equity firm invests $30 m in Sutherland
Chennai: Oak Investment Partners has invested $30 million (around Rs 130 crore) as equity funding in the US-based Sutherland Global Services Inc, a global business process outsourcing (BPO) firm with operations in the US, India and Canada.

Sutherland would deploy the funds in infrastructure creation in India and meet the growth in the number of employees. The company's staff strength would increase to around 9,000 in 14-18 months globally, from the present 6,500, with about 85 per cent of the recruitment occuring in India. The company, which provides customer management services, including technical support and help desk for its customers, had revenues of about $150 million.
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HFCL gets MTNL order worth Rs. 250 crore
Mumbai: Himachal Futuristic Communications Ltd has informed the Bombay Stock Exchange that it has received an order from Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. for eight lakh lines of CDMA worth about Rs.250 crore.
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Hutch offers two way global roaming from Delhi
New Delhi: Hutchison Essar has announced that its pre-paid subscribers from Delhi would be able to make and receive calls while travelling in over 65 countries. The two-way international roaming facility is already available to Orange subscribers in Mumbai, the company said.
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IBM India is top laptop vendor
Bangalore: IBM India has said that it has been ranked as the No 1 laptop vendor in revenue terms by IDC PC tracker report for 2003.

IBM India, according to IDC, recorded a 31.3 market share in the notebooks segment in revenue terms, a one per cent lead over its nearest competitor, said a company press release. According to the report, the laptop market grew by 65 per cent in 2003 compared to 2002 in revenue terms.
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VIA Techs Nano-ITX motherboard
New Delhi: VIA Technologies has launched Nano-ITX motherboard along with the advanced digital media chipset for digital lifestyle and entertainment devices for homes and offices.
Claiming it to be world's smallest VIA Nano ITX motherboard, a company press release said the motherboard would help in extending a new wave of ultra-compact smart connected devices for a variety of applications such as digital entertainment, communications and embedded systems design applications.
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Emami enters Europe
Kolkata: Emami Ltd. has opened its first international marketing office in London. The company also plans to open exclusive lifestyle enhancing Spas, including aroma-therapy units and rejuvenation centres, and is already in talks with three UK-based companies for such centres.

The company would soon be launching its new "Ayucare" range of dietary-supplements products as single ingredient vegetable capsules, initially in the five European countries of UK, Spain, France, Italy and the Czech Republic.Emami's products are already exported to 48 countries, with a strong presence in the SAARC region.
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ICI launches acrylic latex paints in Kerala
Kochi: ICI PAINTS, one of the international majors, has launched its new acrylic latex based paints — Dulux Weathershield Max and Tileshield — for exterior walls and roof tiles respectively in the Kerala market.Kerala is the first market in the country selected for launching these two new products. Both products were useful in places where there is heavy tropical rainfall.

The latex paint preservative in the paint protects exterior walls from dampness, algae and fungus caused by rains. Its special latex forms a paint film with high elasticity that allows it to cover hairline cracks even on expansion or contraction of plaster and prevents rainwater from passing through it. Of the Rs3,700-crore paint industry in India, he said, ICI has 9 per cent market share.
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