Microsoft on hiring binge, unveils new campus
Hyderabad: Microsoft is expanding its operations in India. Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft, inaugurated the company's largest development centre outside the US in Hyderabad, struck a development deal with Infosys and reaffirmed Microsoft's partnership with Wipro.

Ballmer announced that Microsoft would hire several hundred new staff at the Hyderabad campus next year. At present the company employs about 800 people in product development and support services in Hyderabad.

He said nearly half of Microsoft's global software applications would be developed at the centre and added that the global delivery centre in India, would manage the company's worldwide IT infrastructure.

Microsoft's 28-acre campus in the city will house the company's development centre, its global delivery centre and the sales and marketing division in India. The Hyderabad campus is part of Microsoft's $400-million investment plan in India, announced by chairman and chief software architect, Bill Gates, during his visit to Inda in 2002.

With Infosys Technologie, Microsoft plans to make a joint investment of $8 million to develop a software deployment tool that will help in faster deployment of the latest version of the Windows operating system.

Apart from this, Infosys and Microsoft will also develop a portfolio of solutions and services that will enable clients to realise a simplified and flexible IT environment.
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Reliance to invest Rs 2,000 crore in MP
Bhopal: Reliance group of industries plans to invest Rs 2,000 crore in Madhya Pradesh and also set up a methane gas-based power plant in Shahdol district of the state according to Reliance group chairman, Mukesh Ambani.

Ambani said methane has been found in abundance in Budhar area of Shahdol district and Reliance group would set up a gas-based power plant shortly.

Stating that Reliance would start mobile services in Bandhavgarh in the next three months, Ambani also told Madhya Pradesh chief minister Babulal Gaur that similar services would be launched in every city of the state with population above 20,000.
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Jubilant signs agreements with 30 US pharma companies
New Delhi: Jubilant Biosys, a subsidiary of Jubilant Organosys, has entered into agreements with a number of leading US-based pharma companies including Merck, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Genstruct, Ariadne Genomics, Novartis and Chiron to provide bio-informatics and informatics services.

This comes in the wake of the US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) licensing the company's services.

Jubilant's co-chairman, Hari S Bhartia, said the company has recently integrated 'PathArt', the world's largest database of manually curated pathways with the FDA's microarray analysis package ArrayTrack.

Catering specifically to the US market, the company has recently appointed US-based Austin Chemicals' vice president (Global Strategic Business Development) Mosur Sridhar as CEO of Jubilant Biotech. He will be based in Connecticut (USA) and focus on business development.

The US is projected as the single largest market for Jubilant Biosys, while Bangalore will be the hub of its back-office operations.
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Bru to be Hind Lever`s mother coffee brand
Bangalore: Hindustan Lever (HLL) has decided to position Bru as the mother brand for Coffee and run several sub brands under it.

While it already has the Bru instant and Bru Green Label (a ground and roast variety) it has launched a regional flavour Bru Malabar this festive season.

Bru Malabar is a 90:10 Coffee-Chicory mix, making it a rich coffee variety.

The company's similar exercise with tea was very successful. HLL clubbed its numerous tea brands like Taj Mahal, Three Roses and Red Label under the Brooke Bond brand, while positioning Lipton as a higher-end label.
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Deloitte in investment plan
Mumbai: William G Parrett, CEO, Deloitte global has announced that the company will invest $50 million in India over the next five years.

Seventy five per cent of the investment would therefore be primarily deployed in people while the rest has been allocated for the firm's systems and processes.

This expansion includes the recently announced addition of 2,500 people to support the local practices and global activities in India.

Deloitte's member firms (in India) expect an annual revenue growth of over 20 per cent per year for the next four years.
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Pallonji Mistry to get into BPO activities
Mumbai: Pallonji Mistry, a respected name in the construction sector, is getting into the business process outsourcing (BPO).Its group company, Forbes Gokak, which deals in textiles to consumer durables, has set up two firms, Forbes Technosys and Forbes Bradma Business Automation, to run the BPO business.

Forbes Technosys looks after the international call center business while Forbes Bradma Business Automation is focussing on the domestic business.

The company has appointed Harjit Ahuja, former managing director of Webhelp India, as CEO of the BPO venture in both companies. Before Webhelp, Ahuja had worked with Reliance Infocomm and the GE group.

The BPO ventures are currently doing pilot projects at its facilities Andheri and Kandivili in Mumbai. On the anvil are plans to set up call centres in the Shapoorji Pallonji group-constructed IT park in Pune which will have 200 seats initially later to be increased to 800 seats.

The Mistry family also holds a stake in India's largest software company Tata Consultancy Services, which also has BPO interests.
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Tata Tea draws up new global, local plans for branded business
Chennai: Tata Tea is increasing its focus on the branded segment of the domestic and international tea markets, which provides the company better margins. At present, 83 per cent of the company's total business comes from branded tea while the share of bulk tea inthe total turnover has come down to just 8 per cent.

The company has already started selling its products in Europe, Russia and Pakistan and recently entered the South African market.

The company is also working on product innovation in high margin categories like orthodox tea, fruit tea, herbal tea, flavoured tea and iced tea to slowly bring down its dependence on black tea. This is because the former is growing at a rapid pace, while the market for the latter has been stagnating.

The specialty teas accounts for 50 per cent of the global tea market at present.

Tata Tea, the flagship brand of the company, has a market share of 10.4 per cent in fiscal 2004 up from 7.6 per cent during the previous fiscal.
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Temasek subsidiary acquires 6.9 pc stake in Satnam Overseas
Mumbai: The Singapore-based Temasek Holdings has acquired a 6.9 per cent stake in branded basmati rice exporter Satnam Overseas Ltd (SOL) from the open market.

Temasek Holdings' subsidiary, Arnada Investment (Mauritius), has purchased these shares. Most of the shares were purchased from the promoters of SOL, who have sold 10.85 per cent stake in the open market.

Arnada Investment bought 13.09 lakh shares at Rs73 each last week on NSE. The total value of the acquisition is slightly more than Rs9.5 crore. On the same day the promoters sold 20.63 lakh shares (10.85 per cent) on the NSE at the same rate. However, the buyer of the remaining shares was not known. On Friday, the stock price of SOL closed at Rs86.55 on NSE.

Tamasek confirming the acquisition said it made this investment as it believes that Satnam is a promising company in the Indian food industry which has good growth potential.

SOL is a major exporter of basmati rice and sells in more than 45 countries. It has also entered into a contract farming agreement with Punjab Agro Industries Corporation and Escorts Ltd to procure 40,000 tonnes of traditional basmati paddy.

This is the fourth big investment by Temasek Holdings in Indian listed companies. Earlier it has made investment in ICICI Bank (nine per cent in December 2003), Apollo Hospital (eight per cent in July 2004) and Matrix Laboratories (14 per cent in May 2004)
Temasek Holdings is an Asia investment company and it is committed to maximising long-term shareholder value as an active investor and shareholder of successful enterprises.
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The Park plans one more hotel in Bangalore
Bangalore: The Park, a member of the Apeejay Surendra Hotels, is setting up one more property in Bangalore.

Several leading international and Indian luxury hotels brands such as Marriot and Oberoi are also looking at Bangalore for expansion.

Lemuel Herbert, general manger of The Park, Bangalore, said the hotel was looking for a suitable site for developing a 100 to 150-room property.
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S Kumars to expand ready to wear collection
Bangalore: S Kumars, ready to wear division, Total Wardrobe Solutions, is looking to generate Rs300 crore worth of business over the next five years.

To achieve this the company is extending Reid & Taylor suiting fabric into the branded men's formalwear and will tap the economy, mid-priced and super-premium segments of the domestic apparel market.

Reid & Taylor is currently a Rs 200-crore lifestyle suiting business, while the ready-to-wear segment has a negligible presence as the Tamarind brand introduced some years back failed.

S Kumars expects to notch Rs800 crore worth of business between the two divisions in five years, with Reid & Taylor contributing roughly Rs500 crore and TWS contributing Rs300 crore.

Reid & Taylor, which currently has 14 stores across the country, will be expanded to 50 outlets within 12 months.
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