Trevira makes Reliance the world's largest yarn and fibre producer
Mumbai: Reliance Industries Ltd. has announced that it would acquire German polyester producer, Trevira GmbH, for 80 million euros (roughly Rs 440 crore). The acquisition will make RIL the world's largest polyester fibre and yarn producer.
Trevira, former division of multinational Hoechst, which operates polyester plants in Germany, Belgium and Denmark, will add 1.3 lakh tonnes to RIL's existing polyester capacity. This will take RIL's polyester capacity, combined with its expansion plans in India, to 1.8 million tonnes - the largest in the world.

According to RIL, Trevira is a highly specialised polyester producer with several valuable patents and technologies and strong R&D. The company has been adding polyester capacity through major acquisitions since 2002 when it acquired IPCL followed by the acquisition of the NOCIL petrochemicals division earlier this year. Over the next three years, RIL intends to hike its total petrochemical capacity to 15 million tonnes from the present 12.4 million tonnes.
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Major Indian portals form association
Mumbai: The Internet and Online Association, a body formed by key Indian portals was officially launched here on Thursday. Set up by HT.com, indiatimes.com, MSN.co.in, Rediff.com, Sify.com, Yahoo.co.in and the online media agency, Mediturf in January 2004, the not-for-profit organisation aims to increase the Internet user base to 100 million by year 2007. The association plans to achieve its target through a multi-pronged strategy that involves partnership with the Government and trade bodies in a bid to shape policies and legislations that affect the industry.

Other measures that the association plans to use are encouraging the adoption of global standards and guidelines that would increase customer confidence and develop educational material through global and national partnership to raise the level of knowledge among members and users. The association believes that the target of 100 million online users by 2007 is possible and at that size India will be one of the top five Internet markets in the world. The executive council members of the IOA include Neville Taraporewalla (yahoo.com) as joint vice-chairman, Ramani as joint vice-chairman and Upen Rai as secretary along with Preeti Desai who has been appointed as the president of the association.
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Now Hotmail ups storage capacity
New Delhi: MSN has announced that it will provide 250-megabyte storage space to all its 170 million Hotmail customers, free of charge, starting "later this summer." While the storage space being offered is less than the 1,000 MB or 1 GB space to be offered by Gmail of Google, it is more than double the 100 MB offered for free by Yahoo!. At present, Rediff users also get 1 GB space. MSN said it would start making upgrades for its customers, along with free anti-virus scanning of incoming e-mails, starting in early July, with the new capacity limits taking effect later this summer.
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Rani Mukherjee goes Munch-ing with Nestle
New Delhi: Nestle India said that it has signed Rani Mukherjee as brand ambassador for its chocolate brand Nestle Munch and the advertising campaign will be released tomorrow. According to the company Nestle Munch at Rs 5 is already the largest selling SKU in the chocolate and wafers category with sales in metros as well as smaller towns.
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Himatsingka sets up US arm
Bangalore: Himatsingka Seide Ltd has set up a wholly owned subsidiary in New York, the Himatsingka America Inc. and has invested $1.5 million towards initial equity capital of the subsidiary, the company said in a notice to the Bombay Stock Exchange. The New York subsidiary will help the company to strengthen its distribution network and to set up a design studio, the company has said. The US is one of the major markets for the Bangalore-based silk fabric and yarn exporter.
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Continental Coffee to set up freeze-dried plant
Hyderabad: Continental Coffee Products (India) Ltd will set up a freeze-dried coffee plant at Duggirala in Guntur district at a cost of Rs 125 crore. The freeze-dried plant would be the first of its kind in the country. According to the company the freeze-dried coffee is a premium product targeted at niche clients.
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Godrej Agro enters poultry JV in Bangladesh
Mumbai: Godrej Agrovet Ltd has entered into a 50:50 joint venture with Advanced Chemical Industries Ltd, Bangladesh, to set up animal feed and poultry businesses in Bangladesh. The joint venture has been named ACI Godrej Agrovet Pvt Ltd. The JV will set up feed mills, poultry breeding, hatchery and poultry rearing operations in Bangladesh. ACI distributes household insecticides marketed by Godrej Sara Lee Bangadesh Ltd. The joint venture company is expected to start operations early next year and help further improve competitiveness of Godrej Agrovet, a press release said. ACI, listed on Dhaka and Chittagong Stock Exchanges, is present in pharmaceuticals, agro-chemicals, FMCG and household insecticides.
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Licence fee for IP-II category bandwidth providers reduced
New Delhi: The Government has announced a 60 per cent reduction in licence fee for Infrastructure Provider Category-II (IP-II) operators from 15 per cent to six per cent of the annual revenue. The decision will cost the Government only about Rs 3-4 crore annually. The move will marginally benefit companies such as Gas Authority of India Ltd, Power Grid Corporation, Railtel Corporation, Tata Power, Comsat Max and Hughes Escorts Communications. Together, these companies paid about Rs 7 crore as licence fee annually.
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Nokia launches road shows to promote mobile imaging
Hyderabad: Nokia has initiated a mobile imaging campaign in India to promote the benefits of imaging amongst cellular subscribers. As part of this initiative, road shows are to be held across the country to demonstrate the imaging capabilities of Nokia camera phones based on the 'click, share and print' application.

The roadshows are under way and will be extended to Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Pune and Ahmedabad over the next 12 weeks. Participants will be able to visit Nokia kiosks and use the Nokia 3360 or 6600 to take pictures and print out the images captured.
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CSC to invest $10 m in Hyderabad centre
Hyderabad: Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), the third-largest global IT services corporation with revenues of $15 billion, has announced plans to invest $10 million in its Hyderabad centre and induct about 1,000-1,200 techies over the next 12 months.
CSC India has been witness to a year-on-year growth of 75 per cent, which is more than double the industry average as per Nasscom estimates. Its revenues are about $50 million now and expected to touch $85 million this year. CSC India is a fully owned subsidiary of the US corporation, which has over 90,000 employees operating across the world. The India centre came through an acquisition of PMSC (Policy Management Systems Corporation) India.
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LogicaCMG bags Rs 25-cr deal
Bangalore: LogicaCMG has announced that it has been awarded a Rs 25-crore contract by Tata Teleservices Ltd to implement a CDMA-based next generation SMS Centre (SMSC) solution.
Tata Teleservices will implement the SMSC to enhance its capability to offer reliable SMS to subscribers. It selected LogicaCMG's SMSC as it offers flexible and completely scalable solutions to meet various operating requirements, said a LogicaCMG release.
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Skoda launches the Superb
New Delhi: Volkswagen group company Skoda Auto India plans to launch the Fabia and Octavia 2.0 next year. This would be followed by the launch of the compact vehicle Roomster in 2007.
According to company officials, Skoda sold about 5,000 units in the last fiscal and is targeting more than 50 per cent increase in the current year.

Meanwhile, the company has announced the launch of the luxury sedan, the Skoda Superb priced at Rs 23.45 lakh (ex-showroom New Delhi). Skoda Auto India will introduce the diesel variant of the 'Superb' by the end of the year and is targeting to sell about 500 units this year. The Superb comes with a 2.8 litre, V6 petrol engine and is based on B5 platform of the Volkswagen Group.The company also plans to increase the number of dealers from 35 to 40 this year.
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