India
likely candidate for Intel's
chip plant
New Delhi: Intel, which is the worlds largest
computer chip manufacturer, said it was evaluating India
as a possible location for manufacturing chips.
The
company chairman Craig Barrett said India was one of
the several countries that Intel was currently evaluating
from a manufacturing perspective.
The
California-based Intel has a large development centre
in Bangalore. The unit designs and develops software
to power chips that drive computers and high-end networks
for Internet-based applications.
Intel,
and global firms such as Motorola Inc, have heavily
outsourced high-end functions like chip design to India
to benefit from the country's highly educated but low-cost
software pool.
Intel's
venture capital investment arm also has stakes in several
Indian software firms such as Subex Systems Ltd.
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ONGC
receives Asia's best Oil and Gas company award
New Delhi: PSU gas exploration major, Oil and
Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has received an award for
the best oil and gas company in Asia at the Seventh Annual
Global Finance Award ceremony held in New York.
The
survey to find out the best oil and gas company was
conducted by the US-based Global Finance, which used
several criteria to choose the winner including revenue
and profit growth, market capitalisation and share price
growth, corporate responsibility and product innovation
among others.
The
survey chose Exxon-Mobil as the best oil and gas company
in the world.
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Reliance
plans to acquire oil and gas fields in the Middle East
New
Delhi: Reliance industries, India's largest private
sector oil firm, is looking at acquiring oil and gas
fields in the middle East and West Africa.
Reliance
industries chairman Mukesh Ambani told reporters in
New Delhi that there is an opportunity for India in
emerging oil and gas fields in the Middle East and West
Africa. He added that the company would make announcements
in due course.
The
Mumbai-based giant has unveiled an ambitious plan to
grow aggressively overseas in the coming years by acquiring
small to medium-sized oil exploration and production
companies and taking part in oil and gas exploration
and production projects. It is focusing on the Middle
East and Africa.
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SKF
opens application development centre in Bangalore
Bangalore: The Rs750 crore Industrial
and automotive bearings firm SKF India has opened an application
development centre here.
The
centre employing eight professionals, will initially
focus on two wheelers and will cater to markets in Asia
as the continent accounts for over 83 per cent (20 million)
of the two wheelers produced in the world.
The
application development centre will support SKF two
wheeler customers worldwide, besides carrying out complex
simulation exercises for customer needs.
According
to the company India is one of its priority markets
besides China and Latin America.
The
company has drawn a roadmap for the Indian operations
in exports, domestic markets and in its focus segments
of bearings and bearing units, seals, mechatronics,
services and consulting and lubrications.
SKF
India is also betting on increasing exports of bearings
to US and Europe.
SKF
India grew by over 25 per cent in the first nine months
of the calendar year 2004-05.
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SABMiller
may aquire smaller regional brewers
Bangalore:
South African brewer SABMiller said it is looking at
acquiring independent regional brewers in India as part
of its growth strategy but will not make an outright
bid for United Breweries (UB) Ltd.
SABMiller
controls Shaw Wallace Breweries, the second largest
domestic brewer with roughly 35 per cent market share
following a $133-million transaction to buy 50 per cent
stake in May 2003.
The
company said it is in talks with two of the brewers
and will take a decision on the acquisition if it comes
at a right price and depending on synergies the brewers
offer in terms of footprint and strategic fit to the
brand portfolio.
The
UB stock has been on an upwards spin climbing to 52-week
high of Rs294 on Thursday following speculation that
its chairman has entered into an understanding to sell
a strategic stake to a leading global brewer, either
SABMiller or the Belgium-based Interbrew.
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E.I.D.
Parry gets into branded sugar
Chennai:
The south based E I.D. Parry has launched Parry's Pure
Refined Sugar that is sugar in a branded form. The company
said it was looking at branding and value addition of
sugar, which has till now been looked at as a commodity.
The
company is looking at a wide range of value-added products
in sugar such as refined sugar, breakfast sugar, icing
sugar, castor sugar, and sugar cubes.
The
company will get into many of these types. It is in
technical collaboration with a clutch of market leaders
internationally, and can source the technology from
them.
The
company says Parry's Refined Sugar is 99.9 per cent pure,
free flowing and free of impurities and sediments. It
will be available in pouch packs of Rs23.50 a kg and in
PET bottles at Rs29.
It
will be available in cubes and stick packs also. The
launch in Chennai will be followed up with its entry
into major towns in the South.
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DaimlerChrysler
on growth path in few years
Pune:
Daimler Chrysler India will celebrate its tenth year in
India next week and what is better it will record profitability
for the fifth consecutive year following a turnaround
in 2000.
According
to Michael Huber, CEO, Daimler Chrysler, not many believed
that the company could survive to do business in a market
known to be highly cost-conscious and conservative in
its spending habits. Henry Weingarten, chairman of the
company said this would continue to remain a challenge
for the company.
Weingarten
said Daimler was still a fledgling company in India
but is profitable, stable and healthy and the next few
years would see the company on a growth path."
DaimlerChrysler
India will close 2004 with sales of an estimated 1,800
units and a profit of Rs45 crore on a turnover of over
Rs500 crore.
Daimler
Chryslers Indian operation is developing into
a significant sourcing base for components for the car
manufacturer's global operations, with the company now
having 25 joint ventures for manufacture and export
of auto components to various DaimlerChrysler plants
in Germany.
Component
exports out of the company have risen significantly
from six million euros 1998 to 80 million euros this
year and is expected to touch 100 million euros in 2006.
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Biocon
to acquire stake in US firm
New
Delhi: Biotech firm Biocon has tied up with US firm
Vaccinex Inc to discover and develop therapeutic antibody
products for cancer, inflammation and autoimmune diseases.
As
part of the collaboration, Biocon will make an equity
investment in Vaccinex and both the companies would
jointly work to identify at least four therapeutic antibody
products, Biocon told the BSE today.
The
partnership would provide biotechnology solutions worldwide.
The collaboration combines Vaccinex's capabilities to
discover antibodies using its technology and expertise
in clinical research and manufacturing.
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Google
launches tool for scholarly research
California: Google Inc launched a new service.
http://scholar.google.com,
draws upon newly developed algorithms to list the academic
research that appears to be most relevant to a search
request.
Google
is not planning to levy any charges for the service
nor use the feature to deliver text-based ads - the
primary source of its profits.
The
company says it has benefited a lot from scholarly research,
so this is one way we are giving back to the scholarly
community.
The
scholarly search effort continues Google's effort to
probe into content available online and offline. Last
month, Google expanded a programme that invites publishers
to scan books into the search engine's index, enabling
people to peek at the contents online before deciding
whether to buy a copy.
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Maran
forecasts huge investments in telecom
New
Delhi: Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran said he
expects investments of the order of nearly 1,600 billion
rupees ($35.57 billion) from telecom firms to invest
on expanding networks in the next two to three years.
He
said such a large investment needed to be supplemented
through foreign direct investment.
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TCS
awarded US$3 million contract
Mumbai: In a notice to the BSE, Tata Consultancy
Services (TCS), a leading global IT services organization,
said it has been awarded a US$3 million contract by the
Philippine Dealing System Holdings Corp. (PDS) through
its subsidiary the Philippine Depository & Trust Corp.
(PDTC), to implement a Depository, Registry, Clearing
& Settlement System for the equities and fixed income
securities market in the Philippines.
Under
the terms of the contract, TCS will implement its eClearSettleTM
software - a comprehensive solution for depositories,
clearing organizations, transfer agents and central banks.
PDS is Philippine's electronic platform for trading, clearing,
depository, registry and custody of fixed income securities.
Recently, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (Central Bank
of Philippines) initiated a series of market reforms of
which PDTC, together with the other projects under the
PDS Group, will play active roles.
TCS'
eClearSettleTM is a comprehensive solution for financial
markets encompassing clearing and settlement for equity,
debt and derivatives markets as well as depository and
registrar services.
Regional
director for TCS Asia Pacific Girija Pande said: "This
landmark deal in the Philippines is part of our growth
plan in the Asia Pacific region. The Philippine Depository
& Trust Corp is a national mission-critical infrastructure.
With eClearSettleTM we are confident of delivering the
efficiencies needed to take the fixed income markets
in the Philippines to the next level."
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