Ranbaxy gets milestone payment from Schwarz
Mumbai: Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd has said that it has received its first milestone payment of $4 million from Germany's Schwarz Pharma AG, for a prostrate drug that the company had licensed out to it. The two companies had inked a licensing pact about two years ago, for the development of Ranbaxy's New Chemical Entity (NCE) RBx 2258, indicated for the treatment of Benign Prostate Hyperplasia (BPH).

Schwarz Pharma completed Phase-I clinical trials of RBx 2258 in Europe and the molecule was now moving into Phase-II trials in Europe and South Africa, a Ranbaxy communication said. In India, the compound RBx-2258 is currently progressing well in clinical Phase-II trials. In the event of successful development, Schwarz Pharma would pay Ranbaxy a total of $42 million over the next five to six years, including an upfront payment of $6.3 million, followed by royalties on commercialisation - Ranbaxy had said when the deal was signed.
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Titan to set up facility in Himachal
New Delhi: Titan Industries has said that it is aiming to achieve over 19 per cent growth in sales turnover this year at Rs 1,150 crore, fuelled by its jewellery business (under the Tanishq brand).
To take advantage of the excise benefits offered in Himachal Pradesh, Titan has decided to set up a watch manufacturing unit in the State. The new unit will have a production capacity of two million watches per annum.

At present, Titan has manufacturing/assembly units located in Hosur (Karnataka), Ooty (Tamil Nadu) and Dehradun (Uttaranchal). Titan has also launched sunglasses under the FasTrack brand in the price range of Rs 695 - Rs 1,995
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Mobile phones: Revenues decline as usage goes up
New Delhi: Indians are talking more but paying less. While minutes of usage for cellular services increased by 45 per cent from 222 minutes per month per subscriber in March 2003 to 322 minutes in March 2004, the average revenue per user declined 19 per cent from Rs 537 per month to Rs 436 during the one-year period. According to the performance report for the telecom sector released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the revenues declined owing to a 28 per cent reduction in tariffs from an average of 64 paise a minute to 44 paise a minute. What may come as good news for operators is that the share of pre-paid subscribers has declined by 2.7 per cent to 75 per cent at the end of March 2004.

BSNL and MTNL have, however, outdone the private operators when it comes to revenue per subscriber for cellular services. While BSNL and MTNL's average revenue per month for cellular services during the quarter ending March 2004 was Rs 453, for the private operators it was Rs 431. The Internet subscriber base touched 45.49 lakh as on quarter ending March 31, 2004, as compared to 36 lakh during the previous year.
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VSNL Q4 net down 57 per cent
Mumbai: The continuing decline in revenues and profit from its international telephony business has more than halved VSNL's net profit for both the quarter as well as the year ended March 31, 2004. Net profit for the quarter declined 56.9 per cent, to Rs 82.2 crore from Rs 191.1 crore which was reported for the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Net profit for the year as a whole declined 51.6 per cent, to Rs 377.7 crore from Rs 780 crore the previous year.

The company attributed the fall in performance to a drop in international voice revenue on account of a sharp decline in international settlement rates, domestic tariffs, competition, and also the "growing concern of the ILD grey market." For the year-ended March 31, 2004, total income decreased 29.9 per cent, to Rs 3,371 crore (Rs 4,812.5 crore). Profit before tax for the year fell to Rs 543 crore, down from Rs 1,254 crore. The board of directors has recommended a dividend of 45 per cent.
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Zenith to launch Infotainer 2 with new Intel chips
New Delhi: Zenith Computers Ltd has announced that it will soon launch the sequel to Infotainer PC - Infotainer 2 based on Intel's latest chips - 915G and 915P. The new PC will support advanced sights and sounds, with improved graphics capability. This would enable users to watch TV or play games on the PC, while simultaneously working on Windows for other applications on two separate monitors, says the company release.
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HCL Tech is global systems integrator for Microsoft
New Delhi: HCL Technologies has announced it has been named a global systems integrator partner of Microsoft Corporation. This would enable HCL Tech to build and deliver solutions on the latest Microsoft technologies. The companies would also co-operate in taking Microsoft-based HCL Tech solutions to the market.
Microsoft would also support the relationship by enhancing the capabilities of HCL Tech's skilled software professionals through regular training sessions, said a company release.
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Affiance launches India operations
Mumbai: Global security firm Affiance Group LLC has announced the launch of its India operations. The subsidiary Affiance Security & Loss Preventions Solutions India Pvt Ltd (Affiance India) would be headquartered in Mumbai with sales and marketing offices in New Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore and Kolkata.

The company aims to capture 25 per cent of the Indian electronic security market by 2005-end. Estimated at $100 million, the nascent Indian electronic security market is expected to grow at the rate of 30 per cent and offers huge potential for the security firm. With a focus on the banking and finance, retail, manufacturing, hospitality, Government and defence sectors, Affiance will predominantly go to market through channel partners, informed a company release.
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Rediff aims for global e-mail user base
Mumbai: By taking on the likes of Yahoo and Google by offering 1GB storage space to all e-mail users, Rediff.com hopes to snap up 60 per cent of all new e-mail users and increase revenues by 50-60 per cent through online advertisements.

Currently, Rediff has 25 million users for its free e-mail service and five per cent of this base comprises subscribers (users of paid e-mail service). The 1GB storage space is an extension of Rediff's value-added service offerings such as the recent launching of a spam filter service and a user-friendly interface on its e-mail site.
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Rasna launches vanilla `Cola Cola'
New Delhi: Rasna has announced the launch of vanilla flavoured Cola Cola, primarily targeted at kids, and said that it was eyeing an even larger share of the Rs 3,000-crore cola market with this. The new product would be backed by a pricing strategy at 50 paise per glass, the company said in a statement here. As part of its expansion into the cola market and to consolidate its position across various markets, Rasna is focusing on increasing its distributor network strength to 500 by the year-end for deeper penetration of the mass market.
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