Wipro inaugurates its Salt Lake development centre
Kolkata: Wipro has inaugurated its seventh software development centre at Salt Lake electronics complex in Kolkata. Speaking on the occasion, Azim Premji, chairman , Wipro, called West Bengal the fastest growing state in IT and information technology enabled services (ITeS) sectors in the country.

He said, "NASSCOM has rated the state as the fifth most important IT destination and West Bengal is presently contributing about 15 per cent of the total Indian business in the sector," and Wipro was ready to invest further and grow in the state.

The company has invested Rs200 crore in the centre, which had a current headcount of 1,000 that could be scaled up to 7,000. He disclosed that Wipro had sought 40 acres of land from the West Bengal government. to set up a second centre at Kolkata.

Wipro already has development centres in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Gurgaon, Mysore and Mumbai besides centres in the US, UK, Finland, Sweden, Germany and Japan.
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Infosys sole Indian firm in PwC-Financial Times list
Bangalore: Infosys Technologies is the only Indian IT company to be rated in the list of the 'world's most respected companies' 2004 survey conducted jointly by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)-Financial Times.

Infosys ranked 62 improving its rating from 85 in the 2002 survey. Among the top 100 companies that created the most value for its shareholders, Infosys was ranked 37, Reliance Industries Ltd, 45 and Wipro 51.

In this year's survey four Indians were rated for their business leadership abilities from among 1,000 CEOs from 25 countries. Infosys chief mentor NR Narayana Murthy, ranking 36, was ahead of Rupert Murdoch of News Corp, Sandy Weill of Citigroup and George Soros. Others from India included Reliance Industries' chairman Mukesh Ambani (42), Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata (46) and Wipro chairman Azim Premji (57).

The other Indian companies in the survey included Tata Group, which replaced RIL at number two, Hindustan Lever Ltd, Ranbaxy, ITC Ltd , Maruti Udyog, Hero Honda and HDFC Bank.

Awards are given in seven categories and Infosys received the distinction of being within the top hundred in all the seven categories.
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Daikin buys Siel Group stake in Daikin Shriram
Daikin, Japan's luxury air conditioner maker, has bought-out the 20 per cent stake in Daikin Shriram Ltd (DSL) from the Siddharth Shriram-controlled Siel Group. With the acquisition, estimated to cost around Rs8 crore, will make DSL a wholly owned subsidiary of Daikin Industries and will be renamed Daikin Airconditioning India Pvt Ltd.

Daikin regards India as a priority market and after the buy-out, it now plans to add to its product portfolio by launching new models from its parent's international portfolio. In FY 2003-04 Daikin recorded a turnover of Rs150 crore and commanded a 50 per cent market of the premium-end AC market.

The deal enables the Shriram Group to exit the airconditioning business, though the two companies expect to maintain their relationship through the Siddharth Shriram group company, Usha International, which will function as a dealer for Daikin's products," a release said.
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Bajaj Hindustan's crushing plant goes on stream
Mumbai: Bajaj Hindustan Ltd. (BHL) has commenced operations at its 132,000-lakh tonne annual capacity sugar crushing plant the largest refined sugar plant near Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. The plant has a daily crushing capacity of 7,000 tonnes (tcd).
The Rs155-crore plant commenced operations within seven-and-half months opposed to the industry norm of 18 months. Bajaj Hindustan's sugar capacity has now been increased to 5.20 lakh tonnes.

According to K N Bajaj, CEO, Bajaj Hindustan Ltd, The Kinauni plant is the first of a series of expansion projects initiated by BHL which will help us attain economies of scale in manufacturing and cost competitiveness. We shall strive to remain the lowest cost sugar manufacturer."

Besides the Kinauni plant, three other Greenfield expansion projects are under way in Muzaffarnagar and Bijnore districts of Western U.P. where land has been acquired and equipment ordered.

With similar capacities of 1.32 lakh tonnes annually each, an investment of Rs. 75 crores has already been made out of a total projected investment plan of Rs. 400 crores.

Financial closure has been attained and civil work at these sites will be completed by this month-end.

The three plants are slated for simultaneous commencement of operations on September 15, 2005. While these plants, including Kinauni, have an initial sugarcane crushing capacity of 7,000 tcd, the units have been designed to enable expansion up to 12,000 tcd each at a marginal incremental investment of Rs. 150 crores.
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Idea Cellular close to closing deal with STT, TM in three weeks
The long delayed deal between Idea Cellular and Singapore Technologies Telemedia (STT) and Telekom Malaysia International (TM) is likely to be sealed in the coming two to three weeks. The company is hoping to complete all the formalities by January 2005 and to go public by April-June 2005.

After the deal is signed, Tatas and Birlas, the two Indian shareholders, will jointly hold a 51 per cent stake, STT-TM will hold over 47 per cent and the remaining two per cent would be held by AIG. Currently, the stakeholding of Tatas is around 31 per cent and that of Birlas is around 33 per cent. AIG holds less than two per cent.

However, since both Tatas and Birlas are buying out AT&T's stake and also investing additional funds into the company, their stakes would be diluted. Once the deal is signed, the Tata stake would be around 25 per cent and that of the Birlas would be around 26 per cent.
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P&G launches Tide detergent bar
Already at price war on the detergent powder segment, Procter and Gamble (P&G) and Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL), have a new turf for their contest. P&G has entered the detergent bar segment. The New Tide Bar has been priced similar to Rin Supreme.

Currently, Rin Supreme's market share is 14 per cent while that of Rin Shakti is 6.7 per cent. P&G is targeting the Rin Supreme market share with its New Tide Bar. Earlier, P&G had to withdraw Ariel Bar from the segment as it did not do too well.
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