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U.S. consortium receives Govt. of India interest for wafer fabrication plant
Bangalore: A consortium of Indian equipment companies in the U.S. has expressed interest in putting up a wafer fabrication plant in India, with the Indian government agreeing to the proposal in principle.

Expected to cost US$3-4bn, this would be the first such project in India, according to Dayanidhi Maran, federal minister for communications and information technology.

"We have asked them (the consortium) to come out with a detailed project structure and the Centre had agreed to partake in the investment on joint venture equity basis," the minister has said. "The project is being developed with a futuristic vision as chips can be manufactured in 45, 40 and 35 nanometer size. We have a similar plant in Hyderabad, but it was a low-end plant where the chips are 250 nanometers," he said.

Speculation about an India-based fabrication plants has risen in the last few months, with one being planned in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh by a South Korean entrepreneur and another in Kochi, Kerala by an Indian businessman.
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IOC-OIL combine to bid in the second round for Libyan O&G blocks
New Delhi: The Indian Oil Corporation Ltd-Oil India Ltd combine are taking part in the second round of bidding for oil and gas blocks in Libya. The bids for the second round were expected to open soon, officials said.

Libya has offered over 20 blocks in the second round of bidding under the Exploration and Production Sharing Agreement.

IOC-OIL has already been awarded an onshore block (block-86), in the highly prospective Sirte basin in the first round of bidding.

This is also the first ever-joint foray in oil and gas exploration overseas for the OIL-IOC combine. OIL is the operator of the block.
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Tata Tea to buy US specialty brand Good Earth
Mumbai: India's Tata Tea Ltd. is close to acquiring US specialty tea brand Good Earth in a deal worth less than US$100mn, according to a media report.

Good Earth, which sells herbal, fruit-flavoured, medicinal and traditional teas, through Tetley, a UK tea brand, which Tata Tea bought for $432 million in 2000.

The acquisition is expected to help Tata Tea consolidate its position in the specialty tea segment as global consumption of specialty teas is growing at a faster clip compared to traditional black tea.

According to reports Tata Tea also has plans to buy yet another US specialty tea brand for about US$100mn.

Company officials were not immediately available for comment.
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TCS sees huge growth for software orders
Tokyo: Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, India's top software services exporter, has said that orders were increasing as customers outsourced more of their office tasks. Girija Pande, Asia Pacific director for Tata Consultancy Services, also said fast growth in domestic wages, which has undermined profit margins and threatened the industry's rapid expansion, would begin to moderate in the coming year.

Pande was speaking at the Reuters Asia Technology and Telecoms Summit. According to a Reuter report, Girija said, "The global order pipeline is healthy and increasing." Companies such as General Electric Co are turning more frequently to TCS for software services to cut costs and increase efficiency. Demand for such services is also surging in Asia.

"Asia had been a slow taker of IT services. Only now companies are going into using IT as a competitive tool to increase productivity, so you see substantial restructuring that is going on in various sectors," Pande said at the summit, held at the Reuters office in Tokyo.

Growth has been robust in the banking, telecoms and manufacturing sectors, he said.

"In telecoms, subscriber growth is going through the roof in Asia, and this requires large-scale billing systems which didn't exist earlier, while the implementation of 3G (third-generation mobile technology) solutions is also going alongside."

Its Asia-Pacific business accounts for 6 per cent of TCS's revenue and has about 2,000 employees. Both revenue and staff numbers grew by about 50 per cent in the last financial year.
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MTNL to expand CDMA and GSM network in Delhi and NCR this year
New Delhi: Public sector telecom major, MTNL plans to expand its GSM-based subscriber network in Delhi and NCR by adding four lakh new connections during the fiscal.

The company also plans to add four lakh CDMA-based mobile lines in Delhi and the national capital region (NCR) during this financial year, MTNL officials said at a press conference here.

The PSU, which provides telecom services in Delhi and Mumbai, has a total subscriber base of 5.47 lakh in GSM and 1.5 lakh in CDMA-based services.

MTNL is also expanding in the WLL mobile segment by adding 1.5 lakh new connections this fiscal to its existing subscriber base of 1.17 lakh.
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GE Shipping de-merger finalised
Mumbai: The Great Eastern Shipping Company Ltd (GE Shipping) has demerged its offshore business by offering one fully-paid share of Rs10 each in the new entity, Great Offshore Ltd, for every five shares held in GE Shipping.

Subsequently, the shares held in GE Shipping will stand re-organised to four shares of Rs10 each for every five shares currently held, a notice to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Ltd said. In other words, a shareholder having 100 shares of GE Shipping before the demerger will be replaced by 20 shares of Great Offshore and 80 shares of GE Shipping.

The demerger share entitlement ratio approved by the board is on the basis of the recommendations of two leading firms of chartered accountants and independent valuers, namely, Deloitte Haskins & Sells and Kalyaniwalla & Mistry.

The GE Shipping stock at the BSE on Thursday opened at Rs 220 and touched an intra-day low of Rs 209 to close at Rs 211, registering a 1.45% decline over Wednesday's close. Both companies will have a no-competition clause for a period of one year, GE Shipping managing director Vijay Sheth said.

Upon the demerger becoming effective, the paid-up share capital of Great Offshore Ltd will be Rs 38.07 crore, and that of GE Shipping will be Rs152.27 crore, against the existing Rs190.34 crore. The net worth of Great Offshore Ltd as on April 01, 2005 would stand at Rs446.12 crore and that of the company will stand re-organised at Rs1,741 crore, against the existing Rs2,187.12 crore.

After the demerger, GE Shipping will have a capital employed of Rs3,595 crore including a debt of Rs1,850 crore and a net worth of Rs1,745 crore. On the other hand, the new entity Great Offshore will have a capital employed of Rs673 crore constituting a debt of Rs227 crore and a net worth of Rs447 crore.

Vijay Sheth will be the managing director of the new entity -- Great Offshore Ltd -- while Bharat Sheth will continue to be the deputy chairman and managing director of GE Shipping.
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O&M tops ACNielsen ORG-Marg agency Equity Index
Mumbai: Ogilvy and Mather (O&M) has secured the top position in the ACNielsen ORG-Marg AgencyTrack Agency Equity Index. The survey studies the advertising agencies' brand equity. Second in line was Lowe India, which was followed by JWT.

McCann Erickson stood fourth followed by Mudra Communications, Grey Worldwide, Leo Burnett, Bates India, Saatchi & Saatchi and FCB Ulka.

In its sixth and most recent round, the ACNielsen ORG-Marg AgencyTrack Agency Equity Index surveyed more than 300 advertising buyers covering key decision making levels and different industries. The ranking is derived from three key measures:

1. Respondents' favorite agency
2. Whether they would recommend the agency to others
3. Their willingness to pay a premium for the agency's services.

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IA's Fortune Safari offer
Chennai: The Indian Airlines have come out with their ' Fortune Safari' scheme, under which passengers who have travelled four times in a specified month will be eligible to participate and stand a chance to win 25 prizes including the first prize of a Tata Safari Dicor LX, every month. At the end of the three-month scheme there will be a draw for a mega prize in which the prizewinner will get a Tata Safari Dicor VX car.

Likewise, passengers who have flown twice in a specified month can participate in 'Fortune Safari 2' , which offers 15 prizes every month and a mega prize of two 12 coupon executive class super saver tickets at the end of three months.

Lucky draws will be held at the end of each month.

Passengers are required to fill an entry form and put it into drop boxes, both of which are available at IA offices in the city and at the airport, along with their original boarding cards four days after the month is over.

The Monsoon Super Saver ticket consisting of 12 coupons is available for an all inclusive price of Rs 48,500 in economy class and Rs 72,500 in executive class. The ticket will be valid for travel till 31 March, 2006 irrespective of the date of its issuance.
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Alfa brand enters the soft luggage segment
Mumbai: Blow Plast Ltd, the Rs270-crore marketing arm of V.I.P. Industries Ltd, has announced the entry of its Alfa brand into the highly competitive soft luggage segment. Alfa soft luggage comes in three variants - `Jet Strolley & Totes', `Club Strolley & Totes' and `Express Totes'.

C.S. Srinivas, Brand Manager, Alfa, said, "These products fulfil a long-standing need of the value-for-money traveller who had to make do with either hard luggage or poor quality soft luggage. More products and ranges are on the anvil."

According to officials, Alfa will be a Rs100-crore brand in three years and Soft luggage should account for over 50 per cent of Alfa's sales by then.
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