Mega fabrication facility for microprocessors
Bangalore: The Centre is exploring ways to set up a mega fabrication facility for microprocessors. The cost of such a center is estimated at around $4 billion (around Rs.18,520 crore), according to the Union Secretary, Planning Commission, Rajeeva Ratna Shah.

Participating at the two-day 'Suminfra', the CII-sponsored summit on infrastructure in the southern States, here today, Shah said such a facility would enable India to "board the hardware bus at the next stop". The IT hardware and automobile sector, he said, were two sectors with big potential for investments.

The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajashekhara Reddy, special invitee to the meet, said Andhra Pradesh proposes to have a multi-crore semiconductor chip fabrication centre at Hyderabad with participation from private sector hardware majors and has sought the Centre's support for the mega project.

Dr Reddy said the State is in talks with potential partners, both MNCs and domestic companies. It would provide all necessary facilities for such a mega fab facility.
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Three Philips group companies to merge
Bangalore: Philips has announced that it was consolidating its operations in India by merging three group companies operating in the country. Philips India Ltd (PIL), Philips Medical Systems India Pvt Ltd (PMSI) and Philips Software Centre Pvt Ltd (PSCL) are being merged into a single entity to be known as Philips Electronics India Ltd, said a PIL press release.

The boards of PIL, PMSI and PSCL have approved the merger of the three Philips entities into a single legal entity, the release said. The share-swap ratio has been fixed at one share of PSCL for every two shares of PIL and 78 shares of PMSI for one share of PIL.

The merger and change of name will take effect after approvals from shareholders and the High Courts concerned. The merger is expected to be concluded in March 2005 and will have an 'Appointed Date' of 1st April 2004.

PIL, a subsidiary of the Euro 29 billion Netherlands-based RPE, operates in the areas of lighting, consumer electronics, semiconductors, domestic appliances and personal care. PMSI is a subsidiary of Philips Medical Systems International and operates in healthcare equipment market. PSCL with development facility in Bangalore is fully owned by RPE and has about 1,200 software developers. PSCL develops about 20 per cent of the software content for Philips worldwide.
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Dabur greenhouse in Nepal Maoist list
New Delhi: Dabur India Ltd (DIL) said the Banepa greenhouse operations of Dabur Nepal have found a mention in the fresh list Maoist rebels released on Tuesday asking business houses to suspend operations.

Dabur Nepal has a greenhouse operation in Banepa as well as manufacturing in Birganj, a company spokesperson said, adding the Banepa greenhouse has been closed for over a fortnight now.
Several other Indian businesses including Coca-Cola are facing a similar suspension of operations in Nepal since late August due to the Maoist threat. But even as the Maoists issued a fresh threat, Colgate Palmolive said today it has resumed operations at its Nepal subsidiary, as per a notice to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
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HP leads in overall Q2 sales
New Delhi: Hewlett-Packard has been ranked as a leader in the overall PC market sales in India during the second quarter of 2004, as per an IDC report.

"HP reinforced its number one selling position in the overall desktop market, with a 13.3 per cent market share (101,059 units shipped) and an 18.0 per cent share in value terms during the second calendar quarter of 2004," a company release said here.
In the commercial desktop space, HP had a market share of 14.1 per cent (70,213 units shipped) and a 19.5 per cent share in value terms. In the consumer desktop segment, HP posted a share of 12.0 per cent (30,846 units shipped) and a 14.3 per cent share in value terms.
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Seagate tops in disc drive sales'
New Delhi: Seagate Technology has said that market research company AC Nielsen named it as the number one disc drive company in India.

"According to independent market research company AC Nielsen's findings, Seagate leads all suppliers of hard disc drives in India, with more than 60 per cent market share for the personal and enterprise storage market segments in the second calendar quarter of 2004. The nearest competitor could achieve only 26 per cent market share," a Seagate release said here.
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Mercury Load Runner 8.0 has highest trial downloads
Bangalore: Mercury Interactive Corporation, a provider of business technology optimisation (BTO) tools, said that India has seen the highest volume of trial downloads of Mercury's Load Runner 8.0, the industry standard in application performance testing.

Mercury released downloadable Mercury Load Runner 8.0 in August as part of its strategy to expand the application delivery market worldwide and meet the demands of fast-growing markets such as India and China. Over 6,500 software professionals around the globe have downloaded Mercury Load Runner 8.0 in the first month of availability. Fifty one per cent of the total number of downloads originated from India and China alone.

India accounted for over one-third of all global downloads in this period.
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Wipro and Magic to market iBOLT
Bangalore: Wipro Technologies and Magic Software have announced a joint partnership to market and implement the iBOLT integration suite.

iBOLT provides a comprehensive platform for integrating front and back office applications, billing and inventory systems, customer service solutions and ordering systems.
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AirTel offers customers access to office e-mails
Hyderabad: Airtel in partnership with JP Mobile, a wireless technology solutions provider, has announced the launch of `Mail Live', a mobile service that enables AirTel's customers to access office e-mails, manage tasks and schedule their calendar directly from mobile phone.

This could be done through SMS (short messaging service), WAP (wireless application protocol) or GPRS (general packet radio service). With AirTel Mail Live, customers can read, reply, forward, delete or compose e-mail from their corporate e-mail account and can remotely modify contacts, view attachments from their AirTel phone and find them reflected on their corporate server account.

While the service has been initially launched for AirTel customers in Andhra Pradesh, AirTel also plans to launch it in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
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Mascon Global board okays hike in authorised capital
New Delhi: Mascon Global Ltd has said that it is looking at acquisition of IT companies focused on research and development work in North America.

The company has also informed the Bombay Stock Exchange that its board meeting held on September 6, considered and approved increasing the existing authorised capital of the company from Rs.180 crore to Rs.240 crore subject to members' approval.
According to the company, Mascon would consider acquisition of companies that were cash positive and with a strong client base, ruling out the takeover of start-up firms.

Mascon's development centres are in Bangalore, Chennai and Delhi. At present, 90 per cent of the company's revenues come from the North American market.
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BPL Mobile offers one-second billing
Mumbai: Joining the list of wireless operators offering more attractive packages to their subscribers, BPL Mobile has introduced one-second billing on both its pre- and post-paid services.

Post-paid subscribers will now be charged 2 paise a second, and pre-paid subscribers 3 paise a second for local calls to any phone.
Both kinds of subscribers can also avail themselves of a tariff of 1 paise a second to all GSM phones by subscribing to the Mobile Rate Saver scheme of Rs.25 a month.

The subscribers will also pay Interconnection User Charges of 60 paise a call, irrespective of its duration.

Including this 60 paise a call, said BPL Mobile officials, BPL users will find that their service offers better value for money. "
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WPP Group buys out balance stake in Quadra Advisory
New Delhi: The WPP Group has acquired 100 per cent stake in Quadra Advisory, an integrated strategic marketing consultancy.
The UK-based company had 50 per cent stake and recently bought out the remaining 50 per cent owned by the late Shunu Sen's wife Indu Sen, and Suhel Seth, CEO, Equus Red Cell. With the acquisition of the remaining 50 per cent, Quadra will be yet another company owned by the media group under the Kantar umbrella.

IMRB and Henley Centre are the other two companies under the banner. Quadra Advisory was set up by the late management guru Shunu Sen and was a WPP associate company. The WPP Group is believed to have increased its stake in the consultancy firm as it sees huge opportunities in market research.
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