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Tata Power to invest up to US$3.3bn in coal plants
Mumbai: India's Tata Power Company Ltd plans to invest Rs100-150 billion (US$2.2-3.3bn) in mainly coal-fired power projects over the next five years, company officials have said.

Tata Power is India's oldest power utility and has an overall capacity of 2,300 megawatts.

Spiraling prices of fuels have forced Tata Power to rethink its fuel strategy, and it has now decided to set up more projects based on coal, which is cheaper, to offer power at more competitive prices.

Tata Power plans to set up at least four coal power projects in the next five years, three in Jharkhand and one in the Konkan region in the western state of Maharashtra.

India is the world's third-largest coal producer, after China and the United States.
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TCS picks up Australian software maker for US$26mn
New Delhi: Tata Consultancy Services, India's biggest software maker, said Thursday that it had bought Financial Network Services, an Australian producer of banking software, for US$26mn in its first major overseas acquisition.

The purchase will strengthen Tata Consultancy's "portfolio of banking and financial services products," the company said in a statement.

The acquisition will help Tata Consultancy expand its own range of banking software offerings, win more customers and compete with rival products, like I-Flex Solutions' Flexcube and Infosys Technologies' Finacle, that help banks complete transactions.

Financial Network Services' software is used in more than 115 banks in 35 countries, including State Bank of India.

The expanded portfolio has the potential to fetch Tata Consultancy more contracts.

"Financial Network Services, Tata Consultancy's first major international acquisition, is of great value," the Tata chief executive, S. Ramadorai, said in the statement. "It enhances our range of solutions for the banking industry besides giving us a number of new global banking customers in Asia, Europe and South Africa."
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Tata Steel to set up pellet plant
Calcutta: Tata Steel will set up a pellet plant in Jharkhand/Orissa to cater to its domestic operations and the proposed Bangladesh plant. Officials said the pellet plant would be set up close to the mines.

The company is yet to finalise the capacity or investment required for the plant, though it is expected to be over 10-12 million tonnes (mt).

Bangladesh has abundant natural gas to fire the plant, but it lacks iron ore. To feed the 2.4-mt plant there, the company needs to export ore from India. However, Orissa and Jharkhand are against export of iron ore. The pellet plant is a possible step in the direction of resolving this dilemma.

Officials said that due diligence was on for acquisitions in Southeast Asia, and the acquisition would be done through NatSteel, Singapore, which is now a 100 per cent subsidiary of Tata Steel.
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Darashaw buys 51 per cent stake in Tata Share Registry
Mumbai: Darashaw Holdings, one of the oldest broking and investment banking house, has acquired 51 per cent stake in Tata Share Registry Ltd (TSRL). TSRL is into share registry and has human resource business process outsourcing (BPO) operations.

TSRL will be metamorphosing into TSR Darashaw Ltd, which will be a total solution repository. The entity will fully explore the BPO/KPO space with emphasis in financial services and HR domains.

Along with strengthening its presence in the BPO vertical of share registry, the acquisition will add greater value for payroll.
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Tata Holset to double manufacturing capacity in 2-3 years
Mumbai: Tata Holset Limited will invest US$5-7mn over the next three years at it's Dewas unit in order to double its manufacturing capacity to four lakh units per annum, from its current two lakh units.

The company, which is a joint venture between Tata group and Holset ltd, would also be increasing its headcount from 160 to 250 by 2006-07, officials said.

The company, which manufactures turbochargers and supplies to Indian and Overseas Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMS) is also looking at increasing its overseas and domestic markets. Exports for the company currently stand at 20 per cent of its turnover and it would like to double that to 40 per cent over the next two to three years, officials said.
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DD to telecast Sri Lanka, S. Africa series
New Delhi: Doordarshan will telecast live action in the one-day international matches (ODI) when Sri Lanka and South Africa tour India in the forthcoming weeks.

The decision to award the telecast rights to DD was taken by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) at its Marketing Committee meeting.

The matches will be produced by TWI. All India Radio will also broadcast the matches live on its network.

Prasar Bharati will pay Rs7.5 crore per match to BCCI as the rights fee.
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FedEx to scale up operations in India
New Delhi: FedEx Corp is increasing the number of cargo flights and capacity to and from India.

The company will add five flights to and from Delhi taking the total to 16. The company will also increase its cargo capacity to and from India to 2,100 tonnes a week by adding 900 tonnes a week. The logistics company also aims to connect 4,348 cities and towns across the country.

FedEx is in the process of hiring 184 fulltime employees, which will bring its total workforce in India to 425.

The company is increasing the number of retail outlets to 74 in 54 cities from the present 36 in 11 cities and has increased its trucking network by connecting 11 key exporting areas, including Jaipur, Agra, Ludhiana, Pune, Nasik, Hyderabad, Coimbatore and Tirupur.
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ICICI Ventures buys 10 percent stake in Scandent
Bangalore: ICICI Ventures is acquiring a 10 percent stake in Scandent Solutions for about Rs271 crore.
Scandent, which is merging with Cambridge Solutions to create a Rs1,200 crore software and BPO services entity, has also got an additional infusion of close to Rs23 crore from its parent Scandent Group in Mauritius.

The infused fund would be used primarily to wipe out the US$19mn debt of Scandent Solutions and then prepare a chest to fund acquisitions.

Scandent has issued convertible debentures and warrants aggregating up to Rs270 crore to funds managed or advised by ICICI Venture Funds Management Company, and 10.25 lakh equity shares aggregating up to Rs22.6 crore to Scandent Group, Mauritius.

Scandent is also putting up a new facility in Bangalore to house 3,000 developers which will be ready by April 2006.
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Wipro gets 100 acres of land in AP
Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh State Government has signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Wipro allotting it 100 acres at Gopannapally on the city outskirts and seven acres of land in Visakhapatnam for expansion.

Wipro now operates in Hyderabad from Madhapur and Manikonda.
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SA to start direct flights to Hyderabad from Oct.30
Hyderabad: Singapore Airlines is launching direct flights to Hyderabad from October 30.

The airline will fly to Hyderabad four times a week -- Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, and the city will now become the eighth destination city in India after Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Mumbai and New Delhi.

With this SA will operate 46 non-stop weekly flights to India.
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Satyam Computer Q2 net up 32.80 per cent
Hyderabad: Satyam Computer Services has reported a net profit of Rs251 crore for the second quarter ended September 2005 against Rs189 crore achieved in the same quarter last financial year.

The revenue for the quarter has also increased to Rs1,148 crore from Rs872 crore shown in the previous year period.

Satyam says it benefited from orders to install and customize SAP AG and Oracle Corp.'s business software, an area where it leads rivals Infosys Technologies and Wipro.

Analysts said the business grew more than 13 per cent from the preceding quarter, accounting for more than 39 per cent of revenue. The market for implementing business-management software is expected to grow more than 40 per cent on an average in the next three years.

The company said its profits grew on the back of orders from European companies.
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KPIT Cummins Q2 net up 19.21 per cent
Mumbai: Global IT consulting firm KPIT Cummins Infosystems has posted a 19.21 per cent increase in net profit for the second quarter ended September 30, 2005, at Rs7.62 crore as compared to Rs 6.39 crore in the first quarter of the same fiscal.

Revenues during the fiscal increased to Rs77.68 crore as compared to Rs69.96 crore in the first quarter of FY-06.

The company says it is confident of reaching its mission of achieving US$100mn in revenues by FY-07.
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Zee Tele Q2 net down 38.50 per cent at Rs.42.50 crore
Mumbai: Zee Telefilms has registered a 38.50 per cent decline in its net profit for the second quarter ended September 30, 2005 at Rs42.50 crore as compared to Rs69.10 crore in the corresponding quarter previous fiscal.

Operating revenues during the quarter were up by 8.60 per cent to Rs335.90 crore as compared to Rs309.20 crore last year.

Operating income during the quarter decreased 43.20 per cent to Rs58.50 crore as compared to Rs103 crore in the same period last year, it added.
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IDBI Q2 net up at Rs.131.84 crore
Mumbai: Industrial Development Bank of India Ltd (IDBI) has posted a net profit of Rs131.84 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2005.

Total income for the quarter stood at Rs1,568.17 crore, IDBI informed the BSE.

The bank said the results are not comparable with previous quarters as they pertain to the bank as the merged entity incorporating operations of erstwhile IDBI Bank.
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Novopan to set up new facility in Uttaranchal
Mumbai: Novopan Industries is planning to set up a pre-laminated particle board facility in Uttaranchal.

Novopan has disinvested the shares in its US subsidiary, GVK America Inc, and received the sale proceeds of Rs7.50 crore against the book value of Rs7.65 crore.

According to the company the loss of Rs15 lakh has been separately reflected in the operating results of second quarter ended September 30, 2005.
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Opto Circuits to acquire European firm for Rs60 crore
Mumbai: Opto Circuits, which makes diodes and transistors, plans to acquire a European company which makes stents used for critical medical care for Rs60 crore.

Opto shares were up more than 5 per cent at Rs207 in a firm Mumbai market.
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Dell opens another global development centre in Hyderabad
Hyderabad: Dell Inc, the US$53bn information technology major, has opened its global development centre (GDC) in Hyderabad, the second in India.

Dell has found that its GDCs have made important contributions to many of the company's mission-critical systems, from e-business and manufacturing to inventory management and supply chain.

After opening a center Bangalore, Dell opened a second customer contact centre in Hyderabad in March 2003. Dell's third customer contact centre was launched in Chandigarh.
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