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Global oil major BP and HPCL sign JV agreement for Bhatinda refinery
New Delhi: In what marks a significant development for the petroleum sector, UK oil major BP Plc on Thursday signed a 50-50 joint venture agreement with Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) to examine opportunities in refining and marketing of petroleum products.

The JV will invest in HPCL's 9 million tonne per annum Bhatinda refinery in Punjab, due to go onstream in 2009, although BP's stake in the Rs12,000-crore project is yet to be decided after negotiations between the two players.

''India is one of the fastest-growing energy markets in the world and we have been evaluating a range of potential areas where BP might become involved,'' said Lord John Browne, group CEO at BP. ''There is no decision on a stake in Bhatinda, but it will be a significant one.'' The venture would also develop joint marketing activity, including the establishment of a retail service station network, in preparation for the refinery coming on stream.

Browne said the company was looking at ''long, broad and deep'' association with India and said that it would like to use the HPCL brand name to enter into fuel retailing.
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IA to launch low cost carrier
New Delhi: By way of response to the stiff competition from emerging carriers, Indian Airlines has decided to launch a new low cost carrier service. The service may be launched with five Airbus A319s, originally being leased to replace Alliance Air planes.

Very likely, the first batch of A319s will not go to Alliance Air though the ageing Boeing 737s will be put out of use as scheduled in March 2006 and converted to freighters.

The model is being worked on the logic that low cost options have better survival chance if operated under the umbrella of a larger airline. Just like Delta Connection, Silk Air and other such models, IA is toying with the idea to give a basket of options in the domestic sector while the principal airline looks at servicing trunk routes and reaching out to more international destinations.

The first of the five A319s are expected in November and by March, the entire delivery will be complete. Currently, Alliance Air has 11 Boeing 737s of which five are operational.
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Cipla develops generic version of drug for Avian flu
Mumbai: Even as more countries report incidents of Avian flu, the Mumbai-based drug maker Cipla has said that it will be ready with generic versions of Roche's anti-influenza drug Tamiflu by the end of the year.

Cipla officials have said that the company has developed the generic version of the drug, but will honour the drugs patent in countries where it is valid.

Tamiflu is an anti-viral drug used to treat bird-flu and Cipla's announcement comes as governments stockpile the drug fearing an epidemic. Swiss drugmaker Roche is under pressure to step up supplies of Tamiflu, as fears of a shortage of the drug fanned across countries.

The last time around Cipla stirred up global markets was in 2001, when it offered its anti-AIDS drugs for African patients.
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NTPC seeks consultants for investments in natural gas value chain
New Delhi: NTPC Ltd has invited expressions of interest from consulting firms to advise the firm in making investments across the entire natural gas value chain, including gas exploration and setting up liquefaction terminals.

The country's largest power generating company has invited EOIs from internationally reputed consulting companies for `advisory services' to enable the utility to pick up equity stakes in the upstream LNG chain in India and abroad to ensure the long-term availability and price competitiveness of gas or LNG.

NTPC has an installed capacity of 23,749 MW and contributes more than 27 per cent of the country's power generation. The power utility plans to become a 66,000-MW plus company by 2017.

It operates seven gas-based combined cycle power plants having a total capacity of 3,955 MW in addition to 13 coal-based power plants in the country.
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Tata Tele outsources IT infrastructure to TCS
Mumbai: Tata Teleservices has announced a strategic outsourcing of its entire IT infrastructure management to Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in a deal estimated at over US$250mn over five years.

TCS will manage the IT infrastructure of Tata Teleservices (TTSL) and Tata Teleservices, Maharashtra.

Tata Teleservices operates in 20 circles i.e. Andhra Pradesh, Chennai, Gujarat, Karnataka, New Delhi, Maharashtra, Mumbai, Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Bihar, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh (E), Uttar Pradesh (W), Kolkata, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal. The company has a customer base of over 5.2 million.

The scope of the engagement includes management of all IT-related activities including implementation, application development and maintenance as well as change management across the enterprise. In addition, management of data centres, information security management, training end-users on new applications, disaster recovery and business continuity will also be the responsibility of TCS as a part of the strategic engagement.

TCS will deploy an IT framework offering TTSL the flexibility to introduce the latest in voice, data and content-based services to its customers.
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Tata Motors launch new Indica variants
New Delhi: The country's second largest passenger car company, Tata Motors, has unveiled the new Indica V2 Turbo with a price tag (ex-showroom, Delhi) of Rs4.10 lakh for the DLG variant and Rs4.31 lakh for DLX. The latest launch takes the number of diesel variants of the Indica to seven.

Senior vice president (passenger cars) Rajiv Dube said the latest launch makes the Indica the most comprehensive hatchback model in the country, with the largest number of variants.

The company has managed to sell 3,354 units of the Indigo in September 2005, which includes the sales of the station wagon Indigo Marina. With the recent launch of the Indigo SX, the company hopes to recover lost ground during the rest of this fiscal.

He also said sales of Safari Dicor, which was launched in the first week of August this year, has far exceeded the expectations.
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September sales for passenger vehicles cross 100,000 mark
New Delhi: Domestic passenger vehicle sales crossed the one-lakh units a month mark for the first time in September. Sales rose 9.17% as volumes surged on traditional festival season demand, hefty discounts and corporate purchases. Companies buying vehicles before the end of the first half of the financial year enjoy depreciation benefits for the full year.

According to data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers on Friday, sales of passenger cars rose 9.8% in September to 77,411 units compared to last September. Utility vehicles, which account for 16% of the passenger vehicles market, grew 7% in September to 16,676 units. Multi-purpose vehicles (Omni) grew 4% to 6,022.

Surprisingly, seven out of the 11 car-makers reported a dip in sales last month and growth was mainly spurred by the performance of Maruti Udyog and Hyundai Motor. While Hyundai's sales grew 22% to 14,283 units, Maruti Udyog volumes grew 16% to 40,047 cars.

These two companies account for 68% of all cars sold in India. The other player who has a double digit marketshare, Tata Motors, reported almost flat sales at 13,074 units.

Growth, however, was mainly restricted to the compact car segment, which grew 21.6% and accounts for 75% of all cars sold.
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Tata Indicom launches unique pre-paid scheme
New Delhi: CDMA-based mobile service provider Tata Indicom has introduced a pre-paid scheme that will allow incoming calls for two years even if users exhaust their cash limit.

The connection ships with one of the four handsets under Tata Indicom's 'non-stop mobile' for Rs 2,500 paid upfront. It provides free roaming and a choice of per-second or per-minute charging schemes.

Company officials said the scheme will be valid through November, and available in 1,500 cities.

Tata Indicom was the last mobile operator to bag a national licence in January. It has two million subscribers and is targeting 10 million by March 2006. Tata has a 10 per cent market share.
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Corporate Results: BEL, Tata Infotech

BEL pays 112% dividend
Bharat Electronics Ltd has paid its highest-ever dividend of 112 per cent for fiscal 2004-05.

The chairman and managing director, Y. Gopala Rao, presented the dividend cheque of Rs43.69 crore to the defence minister in New Delhi on Thursday. This was the final dividend of 72 per cent payable to the Centre for 2004-05, a release said. The 40 per cent interim dividend of Rs24.27 crore was paid in December 2004.

Tata Infotech Q2 net rises 52 per cent
Tata Infotech has reported a 52 per cent rise in net profit for the second quarter ended September 30, 2005. The net profit for the quarter stood at Rs27.77 crore against Rs18.3 crore in the corresponding previous period.

Income from operations grew by 14 per cent to Rs214.79 crore, from Rs188.62 crore. The operating profit amounted to Rs29.43 crore, up from Rs23.33 crore.

The company attributed this to the growth in all its segments — systems integration , manufacturing and educational services.

For the first half of this fiscal, the net profit rose 60 per cent to Rs50.47 crore from Rs31.5 crore reported in the previous first half.

Revenues grew by 16 per cent to Rs419.61 crore (Rs362.57 crore).
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