TISCO into joint venture with Thai firm for limestone
Mumbai: Tata Iron and Steel Company Limited (TISCO) is planning to source limestone from Thailand and has formed a joint venture with Thai-based Unistretch Ltd. The joint venture will be a shareholders' agreement which is by way of being a long termsolution to procure the raw material. The project is being implemented through a new company called Sila Eastern Company Ltd in which the Tata group entity would have 49 per cent stake with the balance being held by Unistrech. The Tata's have clarified that they will, however, have management control over Sila Eastern Company.
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Toyota to set up R&D centre
Bangalore: Reacting to the budget announcement about the 150 per cent tax concession to auto R&D centres, Auto major Toyota has announced that it is planning to set up a research and development centre in India. According to the company the tax sop would help more auto majors to draw up their plans for setting up R&D base in India. Company officials have said that the concessions would allow the existing R&D centres to increase their investments and expand their activities.

Daimler Chrysler and General Motors have already set up their research and development centres in Bangalore. Last year, auto companies like Maruti Udyog, Honda Siel, Ashok Leyland and Ford India spent a total of Rs 300 crore on research and development activities. Toyota manufactures the multi-purpose Qualis and the world's largest selling car, Corolla and imports Camry as a CBU in India. The company posted a 62 per cent increase in sales during 2003 to end the year with 40,500 units. Corolla sold a total of 8,020 units in 2003 while Camry sold 1,043 units and Qualis sold 31,444 units.
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