Tata Motors unveils Indigo Marina
Pune: Tata Motors has unveiled its much-awaited estate car, the Indigo Marina, backing it with a promise to "mainstream the segment.

Marina, the fifth model from the car manufacturer since the inception of its passenger car business, will attempt to repeat the success of its sedan sibling the Indigo, which has clocked 50,000 units sales in the last 20 months, with some aggressive pricing positioning and value-add for the consumer.

Explaining the lack of success that this segment has experienced, Tatas have pointed that station wagons launched by other players have traditionally not succeeded mainly because of the premium pricing and also because the mother brand itself has not been successful to begin with. Most of these models have also been positioned as a weekend-use car and offered to the consumer in only one fuel option.

With the marina, Tata Motors are hoping to mainstream the segment by offering value-for-money pricing and various fuel options. The car will be positioned as an every day use vehicle.
The exterior of the latest entrant to the company's passenger car portfolio is styled with roof rail, integrated glass house, and roof high sparkling tail-lights that gives it a sleek trendy appearance and will be available in three models of petrol and two models of diesel.

The car is powered by the 1.4 litre 85 PS petrol engine and the 62 PS turbo-charged diesel engine. The company is expecting to sell between 4,000-6,000 units of the estate every year.

According to the Tatas, the company is right now in the midst of a capacity expansion programme that will up production capacity by 50 per cent from the existing levels of 450-500 units a day by the end of the current fiscal.
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Zee declines to re-bid for cricket rights
Mumbai: Zee Telefilms Ltd (ZTL) has decided not to re-bid for the rights to broadcast cricket matches played in India.
"The board of directors in its meeting on September firmly decided against re-bidding," ZTL said in a press release issued here on Tuesday. ZTL's board had met on Monday following Bombay High Court's suggestion to go in for a fresh and final bid.

The Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) had awarded the broadcast rights of cricket matches to be played in India between October 2004 and September 2008 to ZTL, which emerged as the highest bidder at $308 million. ESPN-Star Sports, the second highest bidder, took BCCI to court challenging its decision to grant rights to ZTL.

This decision now brings the issue back to the court. The matter will come up for direction at the Bombay High Court before Chief Justice D.S. Bhandari and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud on Wednesday. Hearing on the ESPN-Star Sports case will come up on Thursday.
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Ind-Swift focusing on contract research
New Delhi: The Chandigarh-based Ind-Swift Laboratories has entered into a contract research arrangements worth $3 million to $5 million with two European companies for molecules with a market size of over $8 billion to be completed in the next 18 months.

The company is focussing on Contract Research and Manufacturing Services (CRAMS) in a big way and hopes to generate 40-45 per cent of its bottomline to come from here in the next two-three years.
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Cygnus to partner with SURE for knowledge-based services
Hyderabad: Cygnus Business Consulting and Research, the Hyderabad-based knowledge services organisation, has finalised a long-term business partnership with the UK-based SURE group to service their knowledge process outsourcing needs.

SURE group is into offering value-added knowledge inputs online to the global class of managers and organisations. According to Cygnus, the global market for information services currently stands at $300 billion with over 10 per cent of high-value added segment consisting of business research and analysis.

The knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) in this high-end area is of recent origin and involves outsourcing of services such as intellectual property rights (IPR) search, secondary market research, data mining, financing modelling, equity research, bond analysis, economy analysis, industry analysis and company analysis.

Users of these services including consulting companies, commercial banks, investment banks, institutional investors, large corporates, media houses and governments. These services demand deep domain knowledge in various industries coupled with strong analytical skills that were backed up with robust professional services culture. The KPO services are expected to witness a ten-fold increase in the next five years to reach $20 billion from about $2 billion in 2003.

The SURE group consists of four companies - checkSURE, successSURE, terrorSURE and reportSURE. While checkSURE is an online commercial credit checking services company, terrorSURE offers services pertaining to comprehensive assessment of the risks faced by commercial and government organisations. successSURE enables global managers to download practical, time saving productivity tools for their personal use instantly, and reportSURE is a global portal for industry and country surveys with specially configured news feeds and an audio magazine in an MP3 format.

Cygnus, which publishes reports covering economies, industries and companies globally, has domestic customers such as the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Bulk Drug Manufacturers Association (BDMA), Aurobindo Pharma, Nicholas Piramal, Kodak, Institute for Research and Development in Banking Technology (IDRBT), Nagarjuna Fertilisers and Chemicals and Surya Lakshmi group. Its global customers include Standard Chartered Bank, Robo Bank, Societe Generale and Ernst & Young, the release said.
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AirTel launches virtual STD/ISD calling cards
Mumbai: Airtel has become the first GSM operator in the country to launch virtual calling cards in the country with the launch of its 'AirTel STD/ISD Calling Card' in Mumbai.

The prepaid calling card offers savings of up to 55 per cent on the usual ISD calling bills (for example a tariff of Rs.6.99 per minute to the US instead of Rs.16.99 per minute). The launch of the card would specially benefit AirTel customers who have not got the STD/ ISD facility activated on their mobile phone, said a news release from the company.

As part of a phased launch, the AirTel STD/ISD calling card has been first made available to AirTel customers in Mumbai. These cards however can be used anywhere in India with local AirTel SIM card access. The card is available in multiple denominations starting from Rs.54 to Rs.3,240, with the access number being toll free, being an AirTel predefined number that allows access only through a secure password.

Currently this facility has been made to AirTel postpaid and prepaid customers. While roaming, AirTel customers would be able to use the long distance STD/ISD calling card by calling from the local AirTel SIM.
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iGate to pay 15 pc dividend
Bangalore: iGate Global Solutions Ltd has informed the BSE that the board of directors has recommended a dividend of 60 paise (15 per cent on a equity share of par value of Rs.4) for the year-ended March 31, 2004. Further, they have transferred a sum of Rs.24 lakh to general reserves.

The directors have proposed that the 11th annual general meeting of the company be held on October 14.
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Wipro signs up American Traffic Solutions
Bangalore: Wipro Technologies has announced that it has signed up a new customer, US-based American Traffic Solutions Inc, a provider of electronic toll and traffic management applications.
Wipro will help ATS in building key portions of its next generation traffic violation system - Axsis Violation Processing System product line (Axsis VPS). However, Wipro Technologies did not disclose the deal size or the number of people it would deploy on the ATS account.

The ATS Axsis product serves wide ranging needs for commercial and government stakeholders in enabling efficient management of traffic-related violations.

The product will use Wipro's expertise in business process management (BPM), data-warehousing and web security. The workflow automation functions will be based on Flow-briX, Wipro's BPM solution, said a Wipro press release.
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Teledata Info buys equity in Bitech Dubai and Bitech Singapore
Chennai: Teledata Informatics Ltd, a Chennai-based software firm, has acquired 100 per cent of equity in Bitech Dubai and 51 per cent stake in Bitech Singapore.

According to the company, the acquisition cost in both would be around $4.5 million (around Rs.20 crore. The acquisition would help Teledata attract experienced employees to work abroad. The company would also use Bitech's brand to market Teledata products abroad, and establish a strong base in the Persian Gulf.
Established in 1988, Bitech executes software projects for clients in banking and finance, insurance, retail and distribution, health care, government and utilities, telecom and networking. Bitech Singapore's clients include IBM Singapore Pte Ltd, I Force Consulting and Cap Gemini Singapore.

Bitech Dubai's clients include Standard Chartered Bank, Caltex, Mercator, Reuters and Emirates Banks.
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Cisco opens new business units in India
Bangalore: Network equipment vendor Cisco Systems has announced the launch of its leasing arm - Cisco Capital - in the Indian market. Cisco Capital will offer leasing and financial services to customers and channel partners in India.

The company has formed four separate vertical business units to focus on key segments of IT services, enterprises, services providers and the government.

The IT services business unit will focus on software development and IT- enabled services firms, while the enterprise unit will focus on banking, manufacturing, small and medium businesses and the education sector. The service provider business unit will focus on broadband, corporate data services and 3G Mobile wireless space while the business unit focussing on government and defence will target the e-governance initiative and defence communication infrastructure.
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HP expands its products range
New Delhi: Hewlett Packard has announced the expansion of its consumer product portfolio with the launch of three new digital cameras and a new printer.

The company also expects to maintain or exceed the industry growth rate of 15 to 30 per cent across various segments in 2004. According to IDC quarterly market tracker, in Q2 HP led in all imaging and printing categories. The company has notched a 73 per cent market share in lasers (overall), while in the case of Monochrome lasers it has cornered a 72 per cent market share.

Its market share in the Laserjet printers ranges from 66 per cent to 93 per cent, while that in the colour laser market was 89 per cent. HP has also launched an all-in-one PSC 1315 with functionalities such as printing, scanning and copying, at a price tag of Rs.4,999.

To expand its reach, the company also plans to open outlets in smaller towns. HP increased its retail outlets to 2000 last year and now plans to add 700-800 new outlets in a year's time.
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