RELs Dadri project to be delayed
Mumbai: Reliance Energy Ltd has said that its proposed 3,740-MW Dadri project in Uttar Pradesh will be commissioned by 2008-09.

The Rs10,000-crore project was to be commissioned by 2007-08 and was to receive gas from parent company Reliance Industries' KG gas fields. RIL had earlier said that its production schedule for the KG basin find had been delayed by a year to 2008. The company, however, indicated that REL might start the project earlier if it ties up gas supplies from another source.

"There has been keen interest indicated by multinational global producers of gas for the project and in the event that gas availability can be tied up from sources other than RIL, the project start-up could be potentially accelerated," a statement to the stock exchanges said.

REL had floated a global tender for gas supplies to the Dadri project.
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Reliance Energy: Resignations of two directors accepted
Mumbai: Reliance Energy Ltd has accepted the resignations of two of its directors - Amitabh Jhunjhunwala and Prof J. Ramachandran. The two were among six directors who had resigned from the REL board on November 25, in the wake of the ownership dispute in the Reliance group.

The other four directors have withdrawn their resignations, stating that the Reliance Industries (RIL) and REL boards have expressed full confidence in their professionalism.

The four directors are Satish Seth, Executive Vice-Chairman, J.P. Chalasani, Director (Business Development), K.H. Mankad, Director (Finance) and S.C. Gupta, Director (Operations). These four whole-time directors were nominees of RIL, which holds majority stake in REL.

Earlier, they had tendered their resignations, stating, "There was a growing perception that our professional conduct might be challenged, and in order to protect our self-respect and professionalism, we have tendered our resignations," a notice to the stock exchanges said.
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LG Pune plant begins GSM phone production
Pune: Consumer electronics and home appliances major LG Electronics is gearing up towards becoming the number two player in the fast growing market for GSM phones in the country.

The company's Ranjangaon plant, about 55 km from Pune, has started pilot production of two models of GSM phones this week and plans are being firmed up to close the calendar year with total sales of two million handsets, the company has said.

The company is also simultaneously working on pushing sales of its personal computers which is expected to jump from 40,000 units last year to 2,00,000 units this year.

With the domestic market for GSM phones growing at over thirty per cent every year, the company is manufacturing models locally instead of importing them so that it gets the advantage of reduced time to market the new models, apart from providing cheaper handsets for buyers.

The company is preparing to launch an imported entry-level camera phone which is slated to be the cheapest in the market at Rs7,000, by March this year. The company will start manufacturing more additional models within the next few months, he said.

The Ranjangaon plant, meanwhile, is also home to the company's R&D centre for GSM phones, which will have a 200-member team to develop software for its handsets. The team will work on local language SMS, games and other services. With the plant slated to be the manufacturing hub for markets in the SAARC countries, the R&D centre will also eventually work on country localization.

The company is planning to produce 20 million units of mobile phones by 2010 of which 50 per cent will go towards exports. The manufacturing facility will involve an investment of $60 million by then.

LG Electronics sold 5,00,000 GSM units last year and an additional 5 million units of CDMA phones.
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Kaizen's global award for Milton Plastics
Pune: The Kaizen Institute, Japan, has chosen Milton Plastics Ltd. for the first ever Kaizen award on the global level.

The award is being instituted this year and is applicable for companies situated outside Japan and those who follow the Kaizen policy to the maximum. Nagar Road Industries Chamber of Commerce & Agriculture (NRICCA) and the Kaizen Institute, Japan, organized the Kaizen Mela 2005 in the city jointly.

The award would be presented in the form of a certification from the Kaizen Institute.

Milton had started practicing Kaizen in 1997 and since then had been able to reduce throughput time remarkably by around 90 per cent. The throughput time in 1997 was 10 days, which has come down to one or even half a day, the company has said. Inventory levels had come down by around 60 per cent and for the current fiscal ending March 2005 the company is expecting a turnover of around Rs230 crore as against Rs200 crore last fiscal.
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Corporate Results
REL net up 155 per cent
Mumbai: Reliance Energy Ltd (REL) has reported a 155 per cent rise in net profit at Rs135 crore for the third quarter ending December 31, 2004 as against Rs53 crore in the corresponding period of previous fiscal.

The board, which met today, approved an interim dividend of Rs 1.10 per share, REL said in a release here.

Total income for the quarter under review was up by 26 per cent at Rs1,135 crore as against Rs90 crore in October-December 2003, the release added.

CCL Products Q3 net up
Hyderabad: CCL Products Ltd has posted a turnover of Rs 34.66 crore during the third quarter of the current fiscal against Rs 21.27 crore reported in the same period last year.

Net profit stood at Rs10.10 crore (Rs9.09 crore).

Bajaj Auto Q3 net up marginally
Mumbai: Bajaj Auto has posted a net profit growth of 1.1 per cent in the third quarter ending December. The company's Q3 net profit rose marginally to Rs182 crore from Rs180 crore in the third quarter of the previous year.

Bajaj Auto's income in the October-December period rose by 22.5 per cent to Rs1,606 crore from Rs1,310 crore in the corresponding period in 2003.

On the BSE, shares of Bajaj Auto went down by Rs62 or 5.7 per cent to close at Rs1,021.

Asian Paints Q3 net up 21 per cent
Mumbai: Asian Paints has said that its third quarter net profit has grown by 21 per cent.

The company's net profit in the December ending quarter touched Rs50.1 crore from Rs41.5 crore in Q3 of the previous year.

Asian Paints Q3 income grew by 32 per cent to Rs596 crore from Rs451 crore in the October-December period of 2003-04.

On the BSE, shares of Asian Paints rose by Rs3.3 to close at Rs322.

Hughes Software Q3 net up 18 per cent
Mumbai: Hughes Software's third quarter net profit grew to Rs27.7 crore from Rs23.4 crore in the October-December period in the previous year.

Hughes Software's income in Q3 of the current fiscal rose by 27.8 per cent to Rs124 crore from Rs97 crore in the October-December quarter in 2003-04.

On the BSE, Hughes Software fell by Rs18.3 to close at Rs516.60.

Indo-Rama Synthetics Q3 net down 70 per cent
Mumbai: Indo-Rama Synthetics has registered a huge fall of 70 per cent in its third quarter net profit at Rs21.4 crore from Rs71.7 crore in the third quarter of 2003-04.

The company's third quarter income has risen by 11.21 per cent to Rs456 crore in the December ending quarter from Rs410 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.

On the BSE, Indo Rama Synthetics fell by Rs3.85 to close at Rs63.40.

Zen Tech net up
Hyderabad: Zen Technologies Ltd., has recorded total income of Rs3.39 crore with profit after tax of Rs0.93 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2004 as against total income of Rs1.10 crore and a net profit of Rs1.44 lakh during the corresponding quarter last year.

BEML to pay 15 per cent interim
Bangalore: Bharat Earth Movers Ltd has declared 15 per cent interim dividend for 2004-05. Its Chairman and Managing Director, V.R.S. Natarajan, has presented a cheque for Rs3.37 crore to the Defence Minister in New Delhi, a release said.

The dividend is the first since the inception of the company and is against the 61 per cent shareholding of the Centre in the company. BEML said it expected to close the current fiscal with a record turnover of around Rs2,000 crore and profit of Rs100 crore.

Teledata to pay 5 per cent interim
Chennai: Teledata Informatics Ltd has declared an interim dividend of 5 per cent on equity shares of Rs10 each and the record date for the purpose of payment of dividend has been fixed as February 10.

IPCL to declare results
Mumbai: A day after Reliance Energy reported a 155 per cent rise in its net profit for the third quarter, another Reliance-owned company, IPCL will declare its third quarter financial results today.

The company had earned a net profit of Rs138 crore in the previous quarter.
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Scicom partners with Aker Kvaerner Geo for data centre
New Delhi: Scicom Infotech has tied up with Norway-based Aker Kvaerner Geo to set up an Exploration and Production (E&P) Data Management Centre in Noida. The centre will cater to companies such as Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, which are involved in exploration of oil and petroleum.

This will be first of its kind in India in an offshore setting. At present, owing to the sensitivity of the E&P data, the function is managed by oil companies, internally. The MoU signed between Scicom and Aker Kvaerner will give these companies an option to outsource a part of their requirements. The centre, which will cater to the needs of oil companies globally, will have about 100 employees in the next two years. The two partners will jointly invest about $1 million to set up the centre.

Scicom is already in talks with ONGC and Hindustan Petroleum for offering the data management service.
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Matrix Labs acquires manufacturing facility from Sigma
Hyderabad: Matrix Laboratories Ltd (MLL), the Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical major, has acquired the finished dosage forms manufacturing facility of the Mumbai-based Sigma Laboratories Ltd (SLL).

Located near Nashik, about 150 km from Mumbai, the facility is fully operational and has the capacity to manufacture 600 million tablets, 150 million capsules, 25 million ampoules and 10 million vials per annum on single shift basis and also offers scope for further expansion, MLL has announced in a press release.

The Nashik facility of Sigma Labs was commissioned a couple of years ago and the facility has already received approvals from regulatory agencies such as Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) of UK, Medicines Control Council (MCC) of South Africa and Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) of Australia, apart from WHO certification.

Matrix Labs announced that the newly acquired facility would be upgraded further to make it approvable by the US FDA and the European EDQM in due course of time.
Back to News Review index page   Bharti to expand broadband and fixed line services in UP
New Delhi: Bharti Tele-Ventures has announced an investment of Rs150 crore in Uttar Pradesh for expanding its broadband and fixed line services. The company said that it would extend the services to Punjab, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Kerala.

In Uttar Pradesh, the broadband services under the Airtel brand will be rolled out in 15 towns by March 2006. The company has launched 12 tariff packages ranging from Rs245 per month to Rs5,495 per month. Bharti currently offers broadband services in six States, including Delhi, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, which account for 15 per cent of the company's revenue.

The rollout in Noida will be followed by Ghaziabad, Meerut, Agra and Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh.
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Safilo launches winter eyewear collection
New Delhi: Luxury eyewear company Safilo has announced the launch of its `latest from Italy' winter eyewear collection of super-premium designer brands.

Safilo India is a subsidiary of the Safilo Group based in Italy.
Based in Navi Mumbai, Safilo India markets a number of international brands, including Gucci, Dior, Polo Ralph Lauren, Diesel, Valentino, Burberry, Boucheron, Emporio Armani, Giorgio Armani, Max Mara, Pierre Cardin and Yves Saint Laurent.
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Flight information service from BPL Mobile
Kochi: BPL Mobile, in association with Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL), has announced the launch of Flight Info-707, the flight information service for its post-paid and prepaid subscribers in the State.

The company is the first operator in the State to offer this service and subscribers would have access to the latest flight details by just dialling or messaging to 707 to get online flight status, flight schedules and flight availability of all domestic and international flights from CIAL.

The company's subscribers can avail themselves of this service through voice and through SMS. The services are charged at Rs5 per minute/SMS.
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