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PetroKazkhstan acquisition: ONGC-Mittal combine lose out to China's CNPC
Calgary: The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC), which had teamed up with the L.N. Mittal group (LNM), lost their bid to acquire the Canada-based PetroKazakhstan Inc with the Chinese oil company, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) finally acquiring PetroKazakhstan Inc for US$4.18bn.

PetroKazakhstan is a Canadian oil firm operating in Central Asia.

A statement from the Calgary-based PetroKazashstan said that the state-run Chinese oil firm has agreed to pay US$55 a share in cash, which is 21 per cent more than its closing share price on Friday.

ONGC had teamed up with the Mittal group to leverage the steel maker's dominant position. Out of the 14 countries Mittal Group has a business interest in, 6-7 have oil and gas opportunities. This was the first company which ONGC had bid for jointly with the world's largest steel producer.

PetroKazakhstan accounts for about 12 per cent of oil production in Kazakhstan and owns 500 million barrels of reserves, 150,000 barrels a day of crude output and a refinery in Kazakhstan.
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Bharti to invest US$1bn in current fiscal
Calcutta: Bharti Tele-Ventures (BTVL) will invest nearly US$1bn in the current financial year to expand its operations and network, BTVL joint managing director Rajan Bharti Mittal said at the 10GSM meet, which was hosted here to celebrate 10 years of GSM service in the country.

"We are already present in 2800 towns and plan to reach out to 2200 more, each with a population of over 5000, by March 2006," he said. "We will move into the next level of expansion in less populated areas after the current phase." He said sub-1000 handsets, which are expected to hit the market by next year-end and monthly expenditure of as low as Rs200 to stay connected will drive growth in the rural market.

While tele-density (connections per 1000) in urban areas is close to 10, it is as low as 1.74 in rural areas. Around 800 million Indians are outside cellular network coverage.

Bharti also plans to roll out its fixed and broadband services in Calcutta and the east in the next two months. The company now offers these services in 14 circles. On June 30, its fixed subscriber base was 934,503.

In June last year, Bharti merged its key corporate account functions of mobility and fixed line businesses with the broadband and data group — Bharti Infotel — to create a new strategic business unit (SBU) — Enterprise Business.

The merger was mainly aimed at facilitating corporate accounts to avail of the mobile services of Airtel, fixed line Touchtel services and Infotel broadband services through a single business entity.

Mittal said other initiatives of the company included expanding the Future Factory — incubation centres for mobile applications — along with partners like Intel, Ericsson and Siemens.
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Ford's new car being developed for Indian and Chinese markets
New Delhi: A Global Auto Insider newsletter has cited Ford Motor Corporation officials as saying that the company's new car, scheduled to make its global debut in India by December, is likely to be powered by a 1.6-litre petrol engine and a 1.4-litre diesel engine. The new car, code named B376, is being specially developed for the Indian and Chinese markets.

Ford India is on record saying that the new model will be a volume segment, excluding compact cars, player. Outside of compact cars, the largest in size as well as one of the fastest growing category is the A3 or mid-sized cars segment. In 2004-05, this segment grew at 28.2% and had a 21.7% share of the passenger car market.

Ford India has said that it will source petrol engines for the new vehicle from Hindustan Motor. While this will help Ford challenge Honda City's dominance, the 1.4 litre TDCi (turbo charged diesel common rail injection) engine will pit the new model against Hyundai Accent which has no competition in the CRDi segment. This engine is being developed with PSA Peugeot Citroen and Ford India is again on record saying that this will be imported from Europe.

Though the report says that the B376 will have more imported components than the Ikon and hence will be costlier, Ford India said that the new vehicle would have 75% local content.
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Nokia's global investors meet to focus on India
New Delhi: Finnish telcom major Nokia, is bringing investors, analysts, bankers and researchers from across the globe to India on August 25 for a "Focus on India" meeting.

This is the first time that the company will be holding such a meeting in India which will also see presentations from Nokia top management including networks business group head Simon Beresford-Wylie.

Nokia had recently held its board meeting in New Delhi in a bid to highlight the importance of India as a major telecom market.

The first-ever mobile call in the country was made using a Nokia phone on a Nokia-deployed cellular network.

"India is already amongst the top five telecom markets in the world and is set to reach the third position in the next few years. This exponential growth will require large-scale investments. Keeping this in mind, Nokia decided to host its investor event in India. The event will showcase India as an investment destination and provide the global investor community an opportunity to interact with senior representatives of Indian telecom industry," said Simon Beresford-Wylie, EVP & GM, Nokia Networks.

"This year also marks a decade of mobile telephony in India, a decade in which Nokia has been a proud partner and key enabler of the local industry. The Nokia investor event commemorates this milestone and reinforces our long-standing commitment to the local market to drive growth," said a press release.
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Dubai 2005 to feature 'Brand India'
Abu Dhabi: A 'Brand India' pavilion will be mounted at Dubai 2005, the ninth international aerospace exhibition to be held in November. This will be the country's first appearance at the air show.

'Brand India' is being co-ordinated by the Society of Indian Aerospace Technologies and Industries (SIATI) and has been officially rolled out in Bangalore, according to a statement from the organisers of the air show.

"We have successfully presented the case for `Brand India' and the Dubai air show at an industry gathering in Bangalore and the feedback has been highly encouraging, with SIATI expecting to expand its initial pavilion space request by around 20 per cent," Clive Richardson, Chief Executive, Aerospace Division, Fairs & Exhibitions (F&E), which organises the Dubai air show, said.

`Brand India' is among the 13 national or industry pavilions committed for Dubai 2005, which to date has confirmed exhibitors from 42 countries. SIATI has 17 confirmed participants for its `Brand India' pavilion, including the Indian Space Research Organisation and the National Aerospace Laboratories.

Other specialist participants include Tata Advanced Materials Ltd, Amphenol Interconnect (I) Pvt Ltd, Avdel (India) Pvt Ltd, Avon Oxygen, Bangalore Electroplating System Pvt Ltd and Cades Digitech Pvt Ltd. Globe Hi-Fabs, Mayurakshi Equipments Pvt Ltd, Mak Controls & Systems Pvt Ltd, Polynex, Saras Technologies, Systems Controls, Sanghvi Aerospace (P) Ltd, Triveni Hi-tech Pvt Ltd and Titan Industries will also be participating.

Dubai 2005 will be held at the Airport Expo Dubai during November 20-24. With almost three months to go before the show, SIATI is hopeful of further expanding the `Brand India' group.

Dubai 2005 is organised by F&E in collaboration with the Department of Civil Aviation, Government of Dubai and the UAE Armed Forces. The inaugural Middle East Business Aviation (MEBA) conference will be held along with the air show.
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TV Today launches Tez — a 24 hrs Hindi news channel
New Delhi: TV Today has launched its third news channel, Tez, five years after Aaj Tak hit the airwaves. Tez will be a 24-hour Hindi news channel.

Tez will target the viewer who does not find enough time to focus on long news broadcasts or unnecessary analysis.

Aroon Purie, chairman and managing director, TV Today, said, "We are launching Tez that caters to the evolving readership needs of the modern society." G. Krishnan, CEO of the company, added, "The step of launching the third news channel further strengthens our commitment to every stakeholder. The channel will increase the news pie."
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HCL top desktop PC company in India
New Delhi: HCL Infosystems, on Monday, said it has been rated as the top desktop PC company by IDC India's Quarterly PC market tracker report.

In comparison with the second quarter of 2004 to second quarter of 2005, HCL's market share increased from 12.4 per cent to 13.8 per cent, a growth of 1.4 per cent in the overall desktop market, which include commercial and home segment.

In this period, HCL sold 1,30,600 units, a company release said here.
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Microsoft to train 20,000 teachers in Tamil Nadu
Chennai: Microsoft India and the Tamil Nadu government on Monday signed an MoU, under which the former will help set up an 'information technology academy' in the city to provide comprehensive training programme to nearly 20,000 teachers in the state for a period of five years.

While the government would provide the building, the software major would set up a world class facility equipped with a state-of-the-art IT lab encompassing hardware, software, curriculum and staff for education delivery and administration free of cost, an official release said on Monday.

Under the project, 'Partners in Learning Programme', teachers would receive computer training in batches of 40 over the next five years.

Each batch would get 12 days of residential training. Microsoft would also assist the state government in designing the curriculum, providing courseware for students and in assessment.

Apart from this, teachers in batches of 20, would be trained in five district institutes of educational training across the state by Microsoft.

In the five-year MoU period, the training is expected to benefit around 20,000 teachers and indirectly reach over 10 lakh students in the state.
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