Dr Batra's to expand
Hyderabad: As part of its plan to double its turnover from Rs 25 crore to Rs 50 crore this financial year, Dr Batra's Positive Health Clinic Ltd (DBPHCL) has lined up five new clinics, including one in London taking the total to 25.

Announcing this at a press conference the company has said that the new clinics would come up at Chennai and Kolkata as well.
Dr Batra's grew by 70 per cent during 2003-04 by registering a turnover of Rs 25 crore. The company has tied up with 400 corporate entities, which include some top hospitals such as Apollo Hospitals and Escorts.
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Granules India facility gets USFDA approval
Hyderabad: Granules India Ltd, the Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical company, has announced that the United States Food and Drugs Administration (USFDA) has audited and approved its manufacturing facilities.

These include the active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) and pharmaceutical formulation ingredients (PFI) manufacturing facilities located at Jeedimetla and the dedicated PFI manufacturing facility at Gagillapur near Hyderabad. The company already is a major exporter to the regulated markets and its products are well received by several International formulations companies. Granules India had commissioned one of the largest facilities in the world for manufacturing PFIs at Gagillapur during last August.
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Orchid's drug clears phase one trials in Europe
Chennai: Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals has announced that Bexel Pharmaceutical's anti-diabetic molecule had cleared Phase I (b) of human trials in Europe. Bexel is its drug discovery associate. The company's press release said it aims to out-license the molecule after it completes Phase 2a. This phase would be finished by July 2004.
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Tata Motors to go for capacity expansion
Mumbai: Tata Motors Ltd plans to have 50 per cent additional production capacity for cars in place by end fiscal 2005. According to company officials this will increase capacity from the current 140-150,000 cars per annum to 220-225,000 cars per annum. The company's capital expenditure for purposes including capacity expansion and product development will average Rs 1,200 crore per year for the next five years. To part finance this, Tata Motors has already raised $400 million by way of convertible notes.

Officials said another $100 million would be raised over the next few months taking the quantum of funds so raised to Rs 2,250 crore. Officials also said that at least one model from the Daewoo portfolio will hit the Indian market this fiscal. Officials also said that the company had shipped out 6,700 City Rovers to the UK, of which MG Rover is believed to have sold around 5,000. MG Rover will start selling the car in continental Europe possibly by this summer end.
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GSM operators bring down roaming charges
New Delhi: Mobile phone operators using the Global System for Mobile (GSM) platform have brought down their roaming tariffs in line with the charges prescribed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). Various companies suchas Airtel and Hutch have confirmed that their revised roaming tariffs now stood at Rs 4.90, Rs 5.45 and Rs 5.65 per minute for the 50-200 km, 200-500 km and over 500 km slabs.

The rates were brought down after TRAI issued a directive on May 14 asking mobile operators whose tariffs exceed the ceiling as prescribed in the 18th Telecom Tariff Order. As per the TRAI directive, the operators had been asked to limit the roaming charges at Rs 3.45 per minute (Rs 3 plus 15 per cent surcharge). In addition, the subscribers were to be charged the interconnect user charges (IUC) for carriage, termination and ADC (access deficit charge) as applicable for the different slabs.
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Nortel emerges lowest bidder for BSNL deal
New Delhi: Nortel Networks has emerged as the lowest bidder for the State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd's (BSNL) Rs 6,000-crore tender for 11 million new mobile phone lines using the Global System for Mobile (GSM) platform. As per the BSNL norms, Nortel would be able to get the contracts for only two of the circles, while the third, to be decided as per a new norm, will be offered to the second lowest bidder for that circle.

The participating vendors were made to sign an undertaking regarding a new L1 to L2 ratio (lowest to second lowest), which stipulates that in the event of a single vendor emerging as the L1 in all the three circles, the circle where the L2 is the closest to the lowest bidder will have to be relinquished by the L1.
As Nortel has emerged the lowest bidder in all the circles, it will have to relinquish the circle where the second lowest bidder's quote is closest to its bid.
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Artisan to invest in its Bangalore R&D centre
Bangalore: Artisan Components Software, the Bangalore-based R&D centre of US-based $68 million Artisan Components, is planning to invest up to $10 million, and also intends to ramp up R&D hire by 100 people. According to the company it will focus on `fundamental IP development from India,'. The Bangalore centre is Artisan's third development centre. Company officials also said that it was not cost savings but the engineering talent in Bangalore that was the main attraction for the company.
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O&M bags account for new Bajaj bike
Chennai: O&M has got the account for Bajaj Auto Ltd's new bike, codenamed the K-60. The bike will be launched some time in August While O&M handles the advertising for Pulsar and now for its new bike, Leo Burnett handles the advertising for Boxer and the recently launched CT100 in the entry-level segment. The advertising for Wind 125, the Caliber and the scooter range vests with Lowe. Bajaj's R&D department has, like the Pulsar, developed the K-60 entirely in-house without any assistance from its technical partner, Kawasaki. The bike will be in the range of 125-135 cc, and like the Pulsar will use a DTSI (digital twin spark ignition) engine, a patented Bajaj technology.
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