TUI contract for Wipro
Bangalore: Wipro Technologies, the global IT services division of Wipro Ltd, has announced that it has signed a five year multi-million dollar contract with TUI, UK for infrastructure support and management.

TUI, UK is part of TUI AG, the largest travel company in Europe, with over 3,700 travel agencies, 100 aircraft and 285 hotels with over 157,000 beds in 25 countries.

As part of the deal Wipro's remote infrastructure practice will be providing desktop support for around 10,000 desktops, 300 servers, L1/L2 helpdesk, monitoring and messaging services across 800 locations in UK for TUI UK, said a company press release.
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Same Deutz-Fahr to invest Rs.60 crore in Indian operations
Chennai: The Same Deutz-Fahr group, Europe-based tractor and industrial diesel engine manufacturer, plans to invest Rs60 crore over the next three years to expand its Indian operations.

The group's wholly owned subsidiary, Same Deutz-Fahr India (P) Ltd, will introduce four new tractors in the next one year and also get into the manufacture of higher horsepower diesel engines. At present, it sells four tractor models and two versions of engines in the domestic market. The parent group will also increase its purchase of components from India.

Same Deutz-Fahr India manufactures tractors and diesel engines at its plant at Ranipet, in Tamil Nadu which has a capacity to produce 10,000 tractors and 15,000 diesel engines.

With the proposed investment, its capacity will go up to 15,000 tractors and 50,000 diesel engines. The group would use the Indian operations to tap emerging and growing markets in West Asia and other parts of Asia. The Indian company would be used to produce tractors and diesel engines, of proven quality and with the latest technology, for markets that are also price sensitive.

The group has so far invested Rs120 crore in the Indian operations and the proposed investment over the next three years would come in as equity.
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Essar Steel to raise $500 m to fund acquisitions
Mumbai: Essar Steel Ltd is raising $500 million through an issue of convertible instrument overseas to fund the acquisition of 51 per cent equity in Hygrade Pellets Ltd and to pick up 100 per cent equity in Steel Corporation of Gujarat Ltd. Both acquisitions would be from Stemcor, UK. The Essar Steel board of directors have intimated the stock exchanges.

The Vizag-based Hygrade Pellets currently operates a 4 million tpa iron pellet plant and is expanding its capacity to 7million tpa. It is also setting up a 267-km-long slurry pipeline to carry iron ore from Bailadila to Vizag. Meanwhile, the Hazira-based Steel Corporation of Gujarat Ltd has partially commissioned its 1.2 million tpa cold rolling and galvanising plant.

The convertible instruments up to an amount of $375 million are being issued to Prime Holdings Ltd, Mauritius (existing promoters) and up to $125 million to Asia Steel Holdings Ltd, Mauritius (non-promoter).
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Fresh show-cause notice to Reliance InfoComm from DoT
New Delhi: The Department of Telecom has sent a fresh show-cause notice to Reliance Infocomm, asking why a penalty of Rs150 crore should not be imposed on it for routing international long-distance calls as local calls. This is the third notice sent by DoT to the company on the issue.

The company has been asked to respond to the notice within a week. The new notice followed Reliance Infocomm's assertion that the DoT's earlier notice of November 24 was unjustified. Reliance had replied that it had not violated any licence condition and the penalty was being imposed unfairly since the ILD calls in question were being routed through a service called Home Country Direct service, which is recognised both by the DoT and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

The company has said that the nature of call routing in this service is such that the caller line identification (CLI) would show it as a local number despite it being an ILD call.
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CADD Centre plans foray into China
Kolkata: CADD Centre India Pvt. Ltd, a Chennai-headquartered CAD technology training company, is firming up plans to establish a presence in China next year.

To begin with, the company will have its training outlets in Shanghai and four other cities in that country. The company, which already has a presence in Bangladesh, Malaysia and Sri Lanka, is also looking at opportunities in other geographies such as Indonesia.

The company was yet to decide whether the foray into China would be through the franchisee route. The investment in China would be of the order of $5-10 million over the next five years. In India, the company has a total of 98 training centres. Of this, only three centres are owned by the company while the rest are franchisee outlets.
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Flextronics buys Deccanet in all cash deal
Bangalore: Deccanet Designs Ltd has been acquired by Flextronics for an undisclosed amount in an all cash deal. The Bangalore-headquartered Deccanet, a telecommunication focussed design company, provides software and hardware design services, products and intellectual property in core areas of telecom and test automation. It expects to close this fiscal at Rs30-35 crore in revenues, according to a senior company official.

Deccanet would eventually be integrated into Flextronics to become the design house for telecom software and hardware products.

While Deccanet has 300 people on board currently, plans are afoot to expand the team significantly since the acquisition would provide it with a wider canvas to foray into the global market. The acquisition ties in with Flextronics' aim to make India its design hub. Earlier this year, the company had announced the acquisition of a 55 per cent stake in Hughes Software and complete acquisition of the US-headquartered Emuzed, a mobile multimedia technology solutions firm that has R&D centres in Chennai and Bangalore.
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Royal Classic to strengthen supply chain
Bangalore: Royal Classic group, major supplier of fabrics and garments to leading international brands such as Wal-Mart, has made fresh investment of more than Rs70 crore to strengthen its supply chain straddling both backward and forward integration, which includes setting up company-owned retail outlets.

It expects to achieve a turnover of Rs235 crore during the current fiscal, which comprises both fabric and garments sales to both domestic and international markets. It has projected its turnover to touch Rs300 crore by next year.

Royal Classic would also be building its brand - Royal Polo - across the country in phases, while focusing on the southern region. It markets its garments aimed at mid-price segment of Rs500 to Rs900.
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MTV to launch ethnic channels in US
Chennai: MTV has announced three new customised MTV channels specifically designed to serve ethnic populations in the US. These channels will feature the best music and shows from MTV's international channels and original programming, promos and packaging created in the US, to become the pop culture destination for their respective audiences.

MTV Desi, serving audiences with roots in the Indian sub-continent living in the US, will be the first channel to launch. It will be followed by MTV China and MTV Korea in 2005, with additional channels to follow. These new MTV channels will cater to the needs of Americans with an affiliation to a home country or culture that is not catered to by American mainstream media, says a release in PR newswire.

MTV also announced that Nusrat Durrani will be named to the post of General Manager/SVP MTV World and will oversee these new offerings.
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