Air India slaps $4 hike on fares
Mumbai: With rising global fuel prices, Air India has decided to levy a fuel surcharge on air tickets effective from today. While the surcharge would be $4 per sector for all destinations, it would be $9 for destinations in the United States. There is no fuel surcharge for Hong Kong, as it needs the approval of the authorities there.
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TCS and CSIR consortium developing bio-suite
Hyderabad: The bioinformatics division of the Tata Consultancy Services, is working on a 'bio-suite' software that supports cluster computing required for high-end processing work in the areas of life sciences research, drug discovery and related bioinformatics applications. TCS says that the company would be able to develop and release the software by the middle of next year.

CSIR and TCS developed the bio-suite under the Rs 15-crore, New Millennium Indian Technology leadership initiative. The software can be used in applications for large data related work such as genome analysis, gene sequence analysis, 3D modelling, simulations, manipulations and structural changes. Drug design and pathway modelling and comparative genomics, where Indian researchers and technologists could play a big role, would benefit from this software.
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Two more Sun Pharma plants get USFDA clearance
Mumbai: Two of Sun Pharma's factories, the company's bulk actives plant at Panoli, that manufactures the ingredients that go into medicines and tablet-making plant at Halol were inspected and cleared by the US-Food and Drug Administration (USFDA), according to the company. With the recent approvals, Sun Pharma now has a total of three factories that are ready to manufacture for the US, including its Ahmednagar site.
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250 companies to participate in Hewitt survey
New Delhi: Hewitt Associates said it would, for the first time, include blue-collar workers while compiling India's 'Best Employer' list this year and expected about 250 companies across product segments to participate in this annual survey. Along with the usual list of India's 25 'Best Employers', `Most Admired Leadership' and `Most Popular HR Department', the study will also feature 'India's Five Best Managed Workforces'.

The survey will introduce several other firsts. It will be available this year in both Hindi and English and include opportunities for recognition of companies, which have done notable work in some key human resource function, and an option for participating companies to customise the Employee Satisfaction questionnaire. While companies across a wide cross section of industries take part in this survey every year, even public sector undertakings (PSU) have been keen to feature in the survey. Hewitt's `Best Employers' is a global study, conducted across nine markets in Asia. The company has been conducting this study in India for the last four years.
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Alstom India bags Renusagar upgrade order
Kolkata: The Renusagar power division of Hindalco Industries Ltd has entrusted Alstom Projects India Ltd with the task of modernising the boilers of its existing 2X68-MW capacity captive power plant at Renusagar in Uttar Pradesh. The cost of the work will be about Rs 70 crore. The boilers, originally supplied by Alstom (Combustion Engineering, USA) in 1982, will now be upgraded with advanced Alstom technology.
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Blue Star to air-condition Delhi airport
New Delhi: The central air-conditioning and commercial refrigeration major, Blue Star Ltd, has been awarded the contract for revamping the air-conditioning of the Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi. The Airport Authority of India (AAI), after evaluating various competitive bids, awarded the contract to Blue Star. The order is valued at around Rs 9 crore.

According to a company communiqué, Blue Star is already executing air-conditioning projects for AAI at three other major airports in Mumbai, Kolkata and Ahmedabad. This is a very important project for AAI, which is in the process of revamping the facilities at various major airports in the country. The new air-conditioning system will work with nearly 25 per cent lower power consumption, the company said.
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Thermax to buy out minority stake in Babcock
Pune: Thermax Ltd has said it is in the process of buying out a 40 per cent minority stake from Babcock & Wilcox International Investments (BWII) in its joint venture company, Thermax Babcock & Wilcox Ltd (TBW) making the venture a wholly owned subsidiary of Thermax. However, according to an official release, Thermax Babcock will continue to operate under its present name. BWII will continue to support technology transfer, revamp and retrofit in the utility market and help in augmenting business in the international market.
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Orchid and Par tie up
Chennai: Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals has announced that it has entered into an agreement with the US-based Par Pharmaceuticals to exclusively market its oral cephalosporin formulations in the US. The agreement runs over 10 years and the companies have the option to mutually renew it.

According to the agreement, the intellectual property on the drugs would remain with Orchid and the drugs would be supplied to Par under a profit sharing arrangement. Additionally, Par would reimburse Orchid's R&D and other developmental costs. Orchid's agreement with Par follows a similar agreement with Apotex in June 2003 to supply eight cephalosporin injectibles for the US market. Following the two deals, Orchid has tied up distribution arrangements in the US for 15 end-products.
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Tata Tele to upgrade services in Maharashtra
Pune: Tata Teleservices is planning to launch push to talk (PTT), pre-paid facility, data connectivity, games and data application soon. The company has recently signed a non-binding MoU with Qualcomm to use its BREWChat solution to offer PTT services in the country. This is an improvised version of the SMS wherein the customers would now receive voice instead of the message that flashes across the mobile screen.

The platform would enable Tata Indicom customers to download games, ring tones, communication, e-mail and business focused applications. The company is planning to launch its services in 34 new towns in the Pune region. The total investment would be close to Rs 100 crore, from the Rs 700 crore earmarked for expansion in Maharashtra.
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Subex bags $1.5-m order
Bangalore: Subex Systems has announced that it has won a $1.5-million order from a Tier-1 carrier with more than 15 million subscribers, in the CALA (Central America-Latin America) region, to deploy its flagship fraud management system, Ranger.
Ranger is part of the RevMax revenue maximisation suite from Subex, which includes the revenue assurance solution, Incharge.
Subex's global clientele includes AmericaTel, Global Crossing, Sprint, Teleglobe, Sonatel Mobiles, Sonatel Wireline, Cora, Ikatel and Econet among others.
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Sonata new ODC centre to support Symantec
Bangalore: Sonata Software Ltd announced on Wednesday the opening of its third development centre in Bangalore. With a total area of 35,000 square feet and four floors, the centre will house approximately 300 IT professionals. The building will house an Offshore Development Center to support Symantec's IT organisation, Sonata said in a notice to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
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New security solutions from Datacraft
Bangalore: Datacraft on Wednesday announced the launch of three new security solutions to help organisations combat against the rise in frequency of fast acting viruses/worms. Datacraft's new security offerings are called Worm Killer Solution, Traffic Auditing and Provisioning System (TAPS) and BS7799 Policy Gap Analysis, the company said in a press release.

Datacraft's security solutions are developed to arm enterprises and service providers with heightened levels of proactive security and damage control measures to safeguard against security breaches. It also provides organisations with the intelligence to elevate their security postures through a detailed assessment of the current IT security system, the release said.
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Amitabh to settle dues with endorsements
New Delhi: Bollywood superstar, Amitabh Bachchan will now be a brand ambassador for Doordarshan. Bachchan is slated to appear in 10 Doordarshan campaigns as part of a settlement of the Rs 12.52 crore interest which is payable by him to Prasar Bharati Corporation. The Big B's company, Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Ltd (ABCL, now called AB Corp) owed the national broadcaster Rs 32 crore, of which, Rs 19.53 crore was the principal amount and the remaining Rs 12.52 crore was the interest.
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