Immelt: GE hopes to resolve Dabhol impasse
New Delhi: The world's biggest company, General Electric's CEO Jeff Immelt has had a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram by way of resolving the tangle surrounding the Dabhol power project.

"We hope to resolve the issues around Dabhol. The situation has not been great for GE. We want to work constructively and flexibly to resolve it in a positive way," Immelt told reporters. Immelt said he is extremely bullish on India and said that GE will now be entering its third phase of expansion in the country, expecting an 8 per cent annual growth.

GE has been in India since 1902, when it installed the country's first hydropower plant. Today, GE's annual revenue in India is about $800 million.

Immelt is keen that the global giant invests in both the Indian bourses, as well as markets in consumer finance, power and infrastructure.

"This is the time in India. We will be looking at acquisitions in both financial services and industrial side as well as localisation of technology and manufacturing capability. We will take a real focus on customers with the government as a partner. We've got to be as bold on the market side as we have been on the cost side," says Immelt.

Among the many investments on GE's agenda, Immelt announced a mega tie-up with the $250 million MediCity promoted by heart surgeon Dr Naresh Trehan, a medical city modelled over the Cleveland City in Ohio.
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RAPP 5 and 6 transmission project cleared
New Delhi: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved the transmission system for RAPP - 5 and 6. The Power Grid Corporation will establish the transmission project at an estimated cost of Rs499.45 crore.

The total cost is estimated at Rs22.38 crore, Finance Minister P Chidambaram told reporters after the CCEA meeting.

The approved lines are 198 km long RAPP-Kankroli 400 kv double circuit and 62 km long RAPP-Kota 400 kv single circuit transmission line. The transmission system is likely to be completed within 33 months.

The transmission project would facilitate evacuation of power from the atomic power plant and dispersal to the states of Jammu & Kashmir, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal and Delhi.
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Alchemist acquires majority stake in Valiant Healthcare
New Delhi: Alchemist Ltd, formerly Toubro Infotech and Industries Ltd, has bought 60 per cent stake in Valiant Healthcare Ltd (VHL) for a consideration of Rs4.5 crore as part of its growth strategy to focus on its healthcare and agri-businesses.

VHL operates in the sector of branded formulations and currently has 41 branded products being marketed throughout India. It has achieved a turnover of Rs20 crore in 2003-04.

Alchemist proposes to change the subsidiary's name to Alchemist Lifesciences Ltd.
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Coromandel plans JV project in Tunisia
Chennai: Coromandel Fertilisers Ltd, a constituent of the Rs6,250 crore Murugappa Group, has said that it has received its board's approval to carry out feasibility studies for a joint venture project in Tunisia.

The company will carry out feasibility studies for a joint venture project in Tunisia along with M/s Groupe Chimique Tunisien (GCT) and Compagnie des Phosphates de Gafsa (CPG) for the manufacture of phosphoric acid.
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Pantaloon to invest Rs100 crore in IT infrastructure
Mumbai: Retail major Pantaloon Retail (India) Limited will invest Rs100 crore in information technology over the next three years as part of its plans to revamp the IT infrastructure of the group. It has entered into a partnership with business software solutions provider SAP for the purpose.

Company officials said that to support growth and maintain the company's competitive edge, a robust and futuristic IT infrastructure has been planned for the next three years with investments of over Rs100 crore.

As per the roadmap, SAP will implement its mySAP Business suite, SAP Advanced Planning Tool for Merchandise Planning and SAP Apparel & Footwear Solutions which would be implemented across the organisation.
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L&T opts out of its dairy plant JV
Mumbai: Larsen & Toubro has decided to sell its 50 per cent stake in dairy plant manufacturing joint venture, L&T Niro, to its partner Niro A/S of Denmark for an undisclosed amount.

This is in line with L&T's desire to focus on core sectors with large opportunities for growth, and the company decided to exit the business when it got a proposal from its joint venture partner, a company press release has said. The joint venture dates back to 1992.

The divestment is part of the company's strategy to focus on larger businesses with high growth opportunities.
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Maruti: Rs440 crore invested in Swift project
Bangalore: Maruti Suzuki has said that the company and its vendors had invested a total of over Rs440 crore in the development of its new car, Swift. According to the company's marketing director, Kinji Saito, while Maruti had invested around Rs250 crore in the project its vendors had invested around Rs190 crore.

Saito said even though Swift has over 8,000 bookings even before its launch, Maruti has not set a sales target. In Japan, Swift, which was launched in November 2004, sold over 30,000 cars in six months and around 5,000 in the first month of its launch.
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Apple demonstrates video production suite
Mumbai: Apple has demonstrated the application and working of its Final Cut Studio, a HD video production suite that was launched in April.

The Final Cut Studio consists of four individual products - Final Cut Pro 5, Motion 2, Soundtrack Pro and DVD Studio PRO, which are available as separate entities as well.

According to Apple Computer, editors can cut from up to 128 sources with simultaneous real-time playback of up to 16 angles at a time.

Motion 2 enables Final Cut Pro editors to add motion graphics to their products. Soundtrack Pro allows users to instantly re-order, bypass and change any effect or process. DVD Studio Pro 5 lets users burn their HD projects to high definition DVD's based on the latest HD DVD specification.

Final Cut Studio is priced at Rs71,360, and registered users of previous versions can get an upgrade for Rs39,800.
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Tata Tele targets 10 mn customer base for the fiscal
Kolkata: Tata Teleservices Ltd hopes to have a nationwide customer base of around 10 million by the end of the current fiscal. This is expected to help the company generate revenues of between Rs4,000 crore and Rs5,000 crore, according to company officials.

Currently, the company's countrywide customer base stands at over four million.

As for the company's plans for the Eastern region, officials said that an investment of Rs600 crore had been earmarked for the region, which comprises the telecom circles of Kolkata, West Bengal, Orissa, Jharkhand and Bihar. By the end of the current fiscal, the company hopes to have a customer base of one million in the Eastern region.

Company officials said that Tata Telservices had surpassed the one-lakh customer-mark in Kolkata within 100 days of the commercial launch of services there.

The average revenue per user - pre-paid and post-paid combined - has been pegged in the Rs 420-450 band. A break-even on earnings before interest, tax and amortization on operations is expected in the current fiscal.
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Sify launches new Web site
Chennai: SIFY Ltd, an Internet, network and e-commerce services provider, has launched its broadband content Web site www.SifyMax.in which is also available on www.SifyMax.com.

SifyMax.in gives Internet users access to a range of music, news, audio and video entertainment content. This includes 10 radio channels with 24X7 music,such as Bollywood hits, Indipop and pop, says a company press release.
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Gartner report: India may gain from China-Japan spat
Mumbai: IT research firm Gartner has advised enterprises to develop contingency plans for reducing dependency on products and services from northeast Asia in anticipation of unstable relations between China and Japan for the foreseeable future.

"More than 95 per cent of the largest 2,000 companies in the world have extensive interests, investments and employees in China and Japan," said Dion Wiggins, Vice-President and Research Director of Gartner. the report said. "Most large global companies will have to adjust their strategies and plans if the China-Japan situation remains volatile. For many companies, it is no longer `business as usual' in northeast Asia," he added.

According to the report if tensions between the two countries were to escalate, the impact may spread to Hong Kong and Korea. In this extreme scenario, Japanese technology firms may reduce their commitment to the Chinese market with many ultimately withdrawing completely, and India would become Japan's new base for low-cost manufacturing said the report.

China surpassed the US as Japan's largest trading partner in 2004, with trade between China and Japan increasing more than 30 per cent to $213 billion.
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