PSL bags orders worth Rs 300 crore
Mumbai: PSL Ltd has bagged three orders for a value totalling Rs 300 crore from Bangladesh Gas Transmission Co Ltd, Indian Oil Corporation and Hyundai Heavy Industries for ONGC. The first order worth $ 9.3 million for the supply of 30-inch diameter API steel pipes for gas transportation from GTCL will be executed by PSL at its Chennai and Vizag facilities. The second order bagged from IOC is for the coating of 700-km-long Chennai-Tiruchi oil pipeline.

This order, worth Rs 32.1 crore, will be executed at the company's Chennai coating plant. The third order is for the contract of offshore pipe coating work for the Mumbai Uran Trunk (MUT) pipeline project along with Feeder Pipelines from HHI, Korea (EPC contractor) of $ 48.50 millions. This project is for a 510-km pipeline length and is the biggest pipeline project in the Asia Pacific region. It will be completed in a tight schedule between July 2004 and March 2005.
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UB group plans low-cost 'Kingfisher' airline
New Delhi: The Chairman of the UB Group, Vijay Mallya has said that the group would be launching a low-cost airline to be branded `Kingfisher' by the year-end. The UB group, which already has a no-scheduled operators licence, plans to approach the Government for converting the licence into a scheduled operator permit next week.
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New drug from Natco Pharma
Hyderabad: Natco Pharma Ltd has announced the launch of Ganciclovir said to be one of the latest generation drugs used in the treatment and prevention of cytomegalovirus. The drug was launched in 250 mg capsules and 500 ml injection forms.

In a release, the company has said that cytomegalovirus retinitis is a potential threat in immuno-compromised and AIDS patients, patients undergoing chemotherapy and recipients of organ transplants. In these cases, cytomegalovirus could lead to irreparable blindness. According to the company, Ganciclovir, on its intake, converts itself to a triphosphate and effectively inhibits DNA polymerases and consequently its replication. The drug would effectively combat the eyesight threatening infection.
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TV18 to raise Rs20 crore through rights issue
Mumbai: Television Eighteen India Ltd (TV18) is offering a rights issue of Rs 20 crore in the ratio of one rights share for every 12 held. The price band for the proposed right issue will be Rs 150-180. The money will be used to finance the company's plans to expand its broadcast operations. The promoters of TV18 have also committed to underwrite the issue by offering to subscribe to the entire unsubscribed portion.

Each rights share would also entitle the holder to two detachable warrants. Each detachable warrant will be convertible into one equity share - the first detachable warrant would be converted at the end of 18 months and the second detachable warrant would be converted at the end of 36 months. Both these detachable warrants will be converted at a discount of 25 per cent to the average share price prevailing at the time of conversion. The phase-1 of a 40,000 square feet broadcast facility is coming up at Mumbai. The company said it expects to launch its new, expanded broadcast operations in the last quarter of the current year
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Amul sales up 18 percent at Rs 2,882 crore
Ahmedabad: The milk producers of Gujarat have received 15 per cent higher prices for their produce during the year even as the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) has achieved an 18 per cent growth during 2003-04 to close the year with Rs 2,882 crore turnover.

Speaking at the annual general meeting held at Anand, Dr Verghese Kurien, Chairman, GCMMF, said the present achievements were a result of the farmers who decided to set up their own brand, Amul, some 50 years ago.
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Tata Tele to invest Rs 445 crore in Andhra Pradesh
Hyderabad: Tata Teleservices has unveiled plans to invest Rs 445 crore in the Andhra Pradesh circle this year. The expansion would be funded through internal accruals and part-funded by financial institutions.

Tata Teleservices, which commenced operations from Andhra Pradesh, has 4,80,000 subscribers with fixed wireless, fixed wireline and mobile services accounting for about one-third apiece.
This investment would mean increase in services from 21 to 166 towns, 169 to 478 cell sites and capacity of 4,12,707 to 11,20,296 touching about 27 per cent of the State's population.
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Bharti launches 'Enterprise Business' unit
New Delhi: In a bid to tap the lucrative corporate segment, Bharti Tele-Ventures has created a new business unit by merging its data and broadband group with key corporate accounts of mobility and fixed line businesses. The new unit called "Enterprise Business" has been created with the objective of offering a single-window solution to the communication needs of corporate clients.

Currently, the data, broadband and fixed-line businesses are under Bharti Infotel Ltd, while the mobile business is under Bharti Cellular. After the restructuring, the corporate accounts of the mobility segment would also be brought under the new business unit. The new business unit will be placed under the umbrella of Bharti Infotel.
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Hutch acquires Aircel operations in Tamil Nadu
Chennai: Hutchison Essar has announced that it has acquired the cellular operations of Aircel from Sterling Infotech Ltd. The price of the acquisition has not been disclosed. Sterling Infotech owns Aircel Ltd, which operates in Tamil Nadu circle, and Aircel Cellular Ltd, which operates in Chennai circle. Announcing the deal, a Hutchison release said that the acquisition was subject to approvals from the relevant authorities.

Hutchison Essar operates a GSM 1800 licence in Chennai and the parties are in the process of making the necessary application to seek approval from the Department of Telecom. This will be the first intra-circle merger transaction since the announcement of the intra circle merger guidelines, it said. At the end of May, Hutch had a total subscriber base of 5.6 million and this acquisition will make it the largest operator in both the Tamil Nadu and Chennai circles.
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TCS and IBM to cross sell products and services
Mumbai: Tata Consultancy Services Ltd has announced that it has expanded its long-standing relationship with IBM to cross-sell each other's products and services. Under this agreement, the TCS will train its employees and create focussed solutions using IBM hardware and middleware platforms. The two companies will market each other's products and services in key vertical markets such as banking, financial services, insurance telecommunications, retail and manufacturing, according to a company release.

This relationship will enhance TCS' delivery capabilities in several areas including portals, security and on-demand computing.
IBM will have dedicated relationship managers and sales, marketing and technical support for projects for which TCS proposes IBM's hardware and middleware platforms and IBM proposes TCS software products. According to the release, TCS is part of IBM's ISV Advantage initiative, which enables TCS to migrate its products and solutions to IBM platforms.
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HP BRS for free on Compaq notebooks
New Delhi: Hewlett Packard India has announced a free bundling of back-up recovery service — HP BRS — on select configurations of HP Compaq NC4000 ultra portable notebook and HP Compaq NC6000 thin and light notebooks targeted at corporate and enterprise customers.

The company feels that this scheme of free bundling of HP Back-up and Recovery Services (BRS) would provide value to customers in the form of 500 MB of storage space valid for one year on HP hosted Datacentre for free.
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BenQ launches notebooks
New Delhi: Networked digital devices company BenQ has announced its entry into Indian notebook computer market with the launch of two Centrino-based `Joybook' models. The two models - Joybook 5000 and Joybook 6000 - priced at Rs 99,900 and Rs 1,30,000 respectively, would be distributed and serviced nationwide by Redington.

The Joybooks can link display devices, mobile phones, PCs, digital cameras, recordable CD disk drives, and MP3 players to edit, store, transfer and share data in both wired and wireless environments, said a company statement.
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