HSBC contract for L&T
Hyderabad: The engineering, construction and contracts (ECC) division of L&T has bagged the contract to develop a built-to-suit mega project for the HSBC group's data processing centre in Hyderabad.

The project, to be developed near the Cyber Pearl in Hitec City, will have two buildings with total built up space of about 8 lakh sq. ft. With a total investment of about Rs200 crore, the project is expected to be ready within 12 months.
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Thermal power construction contract for Reliance Energy
Mumbai: Reliance Energy Ltd. has said it has been awarded a Rs2,097-crore engineering procurement and construction contract to build a 600-MW thermal power station for Haryana Power Generation Corporation Ltd.

The foundation stone for the project was laid by Om Prakash Chautala, Haryana Chief Minister. REL's engineering, procurement and construction arm will set up two 300 MW units at the site.

While the first unit of 300 MW would come up by March 30, 2007, the second would be commissioned by June 30, 2007.
REL's EPC division has orders in hand worth Rs4,000 crore, the release said.
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PowerGrid and ICICI Bank may tie-up for telecom services
Bangalore: Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) has begun negotiations with ICICI Bank for providing telecommunications facilities for its banking operations.

PGCIL has already concluded agreements with some of the telecom service providers (TSPs) for providing backbone facilities for both their data and voice carriage. Among the companies with whom PGCIL had already concluded agreements included the public sector Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, Reliance Infocomm and Tata Teleservices Ltd.

Most of these TSPs had sought carrier facilities for their networks in the North-East and in Jammu and Kashmir where PGCIL has a network. PGCIL currently has a network equivalent of 20,000 circuit kilometres linking up 60 cities in the country.

The backbone lease contracts were expected to generate at least Rs100 crore of revenues per annum for PGCIL.
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Google's India unit to build "great products"
Bangalore: Internet company Google is confident that their India team would build "great products" for the world.

Google has set up in Bangalore a "mirror image" of its Mountain View office in the US, with about 10 people, and is "hiring aggressively".

The company officials, however, would not say how much money would be invested or how many people would be recruited at the company's Bangalore and Hyderabad centres.

According to company officials Google scientists were working on an "expanded image search", besides a demo lab, using speech search. They had also begun working on understanding the nuances of Indian languages to make possible internet search in east Asian scripts.

The company said that additional features were to be added to Gmail, Google's free e-mail service, which is presently being offered on invitation, before making it available to more users.
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Panacea introduces nimesulide injection
New Delhi: Panacea Biotec has introduced Nimulid Safeinject, a nimesulide injection, 75 mg/2 ml, for rapid treatment of post-operative pain.

According to a company press note, Nimulid Safeinject, a novel therapy in postoperative pain, has early onset of action and provides cumulating analgesia, increasing pain relief dose after dose. The technology of Nimulid Safeinject has been patented worldwide with successful clinical trials done in India.

The intramuscular injection has convenient twice-a-day dosage, good safety and tolerability profile and causes no pain at the site of injection, added the release.
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Nalco expansion plans cleared
New Delhi: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved National Aluminium Company's (Nalco) Rs4,091.51-crore expansion plans. The company, which is the country's second largest aluminium producer, plans to expand its refinery and mines capacity.

According to Dasari Narayan Rao, Minister of State for Coals and Mines the proposal has been cleared and Nalco will generate 50 per cent of the funds required internally. The company would raise the balance 50 per cent of the funds via commercial borrowing.

The investment plan entails expansion of its aluminium, bauxite and alumina capacity. The funds would also be used to enhance the capacity of Nalco's 960-MW captive power plant to 1200 MW.

Nalco will increase its bauxite production capacity to 6.3 million tonnes from its current 4.8 million tonnes, while the alumina refining capacity would be enhanced from 1.5 million tonnes to 2.1 million tonnes.

The completion of the second phase of expansion is expected to make Nalco's refinery capacity the 6th largest in the world. Nalco is already Asia's largest integrated aluminium complex.
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Carrera to invest Rs.1,000-crore in Maharashtra
Pune: Italian textile major Carrera will invest Rs1,000 crore in Maharashtra over two to three years and plans to set up manufacturing plants at multiple locations across the State.

The Carrera group, with interests in leather, textiles and textile-related equipment, plans to set up garment processing units in Solapur and manufacture latest technology powerlooms, garment finishing machines and textile robotics at Kolhapur,
Carrera also plans to set up a design centre and locate its back-end operations at Mahape in Navi Mumbai.

Carrera Holdings had entered into an MOU with the State Government as part of which the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) will provide build-to-suit factories and facilities for the proposed projects.

The State Govt. expects that the Italian group's entry will pave the way for other large brands such as Armani which are interested in investing in the State.
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Allianz Cornhill initiates expansion programme
Thiruvananthapuram: Allianz Cornhill Information Services, a subsidiary of the UK-based Allianz Cornhill Insurance Plc., has begun a Rs35-crore expansion programme at its development centre in Thiruvananthapuram.

Besides acquiring an additional 50,000 square feet of office space at Technopark, the company will also recruit more employees as part of this expansion programme. The company expects to have 400 employees in Thiruvananthapuram by the end of next year.

The company said that by the end of 2005, approximately 350 people will work for the BPO unit, while around 50 people will be engaged in software development.
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Hughes Software looking for acquisitions
New Delhi: Hughes Software Systems has said it is actively scouting for acquisitions in the business process outsourcing (BPO) and telecom service provider (TSP) space.

The company also plans to hire 2,000 professionals in IT services segment in the next six quarters, and another 500-600 people to its BPO operations.

Currently, the company has 2,939 employees. The company said that it was actively looking at acquisitions. With close to $40 million in cash it intends to evaluate companies in India and overseas.

The company had formed a team of 4-5 members for the purpose and evaluated about two opportunities per month.
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LG targets Rs.1,300 crore in festival sales
New Delhi: LG Electronics India is eyeing a turnover of Rs1,300 crore during the festival season (October-November) and would be spending Rs100 crore on a high-pitched consumer promotion during the festival months.

Consumer electronics will contribute 50 per cent to the targeted sales, appliances 35 per cent, IT 10 per cent and GSM mobile phones five per cent.

The company has also announced a consumer offer called 'Dhoom Macha De'.

Meanwhile, LG, in order to upgrade consumers to higher value products, has launched a new refrigerator under the sub-brand SFF (semi-frost fridge), which intends to create a new category between the direct cool and the frost-free segments.
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Bunge unveils Dalda edible oil range
New Delhi: Bunge Ltd., which acquired the edible oils and fat business of Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) last year, has announced diversification of the Dalda brand into refined edible oils, including mustard, groundnut, soyabean, gingelly and sunflower oils.

Bunge has invested up to $40 million in India since 1997 and could pump in $150 million -$200 million over the next five years here.

With the entry of Dalda into edible oils, Bunge is eyeing the number one slot as an integrated agri-business company in India.

Bunge Agribusiness India Pvt Ltd's branded edible oils business was 1.5-2 lakh tonnes per annum and the company was looking to double it within the next three years.

While acquiring the edible oils and fat business from HLL, Bunge had ensured that the distribution of these products continues to be done by HLL. This arrangement was fee-based.

Bunge owns three separate manufacturing facilities in the country with combined capacity of about 1.2 lakh tonnes per annum. The company also uses third party manufacturing route to fulfill demand.
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