SC stays proceedings against Reliance Infocomm
New Delhi: The Supreme Court has stayed proceedings before the Delhi High Court on a petition filed by Reliance Infocomm. The telecom company has challenged BSNL's decision to impose a penalty of Rs182.7 crores for alleged rerouting of international calls as local ones.

The court also issued notices to Reliance Infocomm and other respondents on the petition challenging the High Court order stating that it will decide both the jurisdictional aspects and the merit of the petition together.

BSNL had contended that the issue pertaining to re-routing of calls fell within the jurisdiction of the telecom dispute tribunal TDSAT.

It had also argued the petition of Reliance should be transferred to the tribunal for adjudication. However, Reliance had said the High Court also had the jurisdiction to hear its petition challenging BSNL's decision to levy the penalty on it.
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ONGC and BDCL to explore business opportunities in Bangladesh
New Delhi: ONGC has signed an agreement with the Dhaka-based Bangladesh Development Corporation Ltd (BDCL) to help it explore upcoming business opportunities there and liaise with Bangladesh authorities, an official communiqué said.

ONGC has been pursuing various business opportunities in Bangladesh for the past few years. To cater to the upcoming business opportunities in Bangladesh, both upstream and downstream, ONGC plans to use the services of BDCL, the release said.

Consequent upon signing of the agreement, ONGC looks forward to increased opportunities in the entire hydrocarbon value chain for training, consultancy and services in upstream E&P (exploration and production) sector; exploration acreages; marketing of refined petro-products (as Bangladesh imports 75 per cent of its product requirement); and marketing of petrochemicals in future - in consonance with ONGC's strategic interest in future.
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Dr Reddy's and ICICI Venture ink $56 mn deal
Mumbai: Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd has formalised a $56-million (approximately Rs245 crore) agreement with ICICI Venture Funds Management for the development and commercialisation of generic drugs filed in the US in 2004-05 and 2005-06.

The "unique" deal has come as a booster for Dr Reddy's, as it helps mitigate the risks faced by the company in research initiatives and in patent-related litigation.

Officials said that the agreement was important for the company as it was in the process of building different businesses, looking at geographical expansion and acquisitions in the generic space.

As per the terms of the agreement, ICICI Venture will fund the development, registration and legal costs related to the commercialisation of abbreviated new drug applications (ANDAs) on a pre-determined basis. It covers most of the ANDAs to be filed in 2004-05 and 2005-06, the drug company said.

On commercialisation of these products, Dr Reddy's will pay ICICI Venture a royalty on net sales for a period of five years. Specific financial details were not divulged.

According to ICICI Venture officials under the terms of the agreement, ICICI Venture will fund $22.50 million in the first phase with an option to invest an additional $33.50 million in the second phase.

The deal covered over 30 products and the portfolio would be "a mix of patent challenges, difficult to formulate generics and vanilla generics," Dr. Reddy officials said.
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Unisys to double staff strength in India
Bangalore: Unisys Corporation plans to step up investments and increase its workforce in India to around 4,500 in three years, half of them to be employed through partners. The company, at present, has four partners in India - NIIT Technologies, Hexaware, Tata Infotech and Caritor.

The Unisys Chairman, Lawrence A. Weinbach, who is on his first visit to India, said the ramp-up in Indian employee base was mainly to meet the increasing client demands. Unisys, at present, has some 1,150 people in India of which about 1,000 are with partners.

"We expect to double the current employee base to around 2,000 by end-2005, which is expected to double again by 2008," he told a press conference.

The proposed hiring target implies an increase of about 50 per cent from the previous plans. Unisys had said last year that by 2009, it would employ some 2,000 people directly and 1,000 through partners.

Initially it had planned to invest about $180 million over five years. Based on the revised staffing projections however Unisys' initial investment will be exceeded over time, Killen said, declining to spell out the numbers.

Unisys recently set up a large development centre in Bangalore. Software development and maintenance, technical call centres and outsourcing were the key focus areas for the Bangalore centre.

Unisys has units in China and Malaysia for its Asian customers and serves global customers from the Philippines and India.
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Glenmark and Shasun in marketing tie up
Mumbai: For the first time two Indian drug competitors have come together to target the foreign markets, with Glenmark and Shasun now all set to market twelve products together in the US market.

Shasun will develop and license the products to Glenmark, which in turn will get regulatory approvals for the US market.

The generic market in the US presents huge opportunities for Indian pharma companies who say, they can realise better margins in the US. But the cost of entering the US market being high an increasing number of companies are forming partnerships to exploit this huge opportunity.
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Dabur to invest Rs40 crore in subsidiaries
New Delhi: Dabur India Ltd has said that it's board has approved fresh investments of about Rs40 crore across its major subsidiaries including Dabur Foods, Balsara Home Products and Dabur Nepal in order to meet their expansion and operational needs.

Dabur Foods Ltd, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Dabur India, would raise money by issuing additional one crore equity shares of Rs10 each at par to Dabur India to fund its expansion needs. With this, the company's equity capital would double from Rs10 crore to Rs20 crore.

The company proposes to acquire a fully operational beverage processing and packaging facility in Jaipur that would be used to process and pack its range of juices being sold in the country. The board has also approved infusion of additional capital of Rs27.66 crore in Balsara Home Products Ltd, by way of equity expansion.

In a bid to consolidate its international operations, Dabur India has also decided to increase its stake in Dabur Nepal Pvt Ltd, a joint venture between Dabur India and local Nepalese partner, to 97.5 per cent from 80 per cent.

The board also accepted the resignation of Dr Anand Burman, who is the executive Vice-Chairman and whole-time Director on the board of Dabur India, from an executive role. He will, however, continue as the non-executive Director and Vice-Chairman of Dabur India.
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