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Nasscom refutes reports on labour issues in BPOs
New Delhi: Nasscom along with industry leaders on Monday refuted a study on labour issues in BPOs by VV Giri Institute of Labour which comes under the Ministry of Labour, saying it was 'irked' and 'abhorred' at the findings. The study compared work conditions in BPOs with 19th century prisons of Roman slave ships.

Kiran Karnik, President of Nasscom said: "I am pained and surprised that nobody talked to us before going public with the findings. I have worked with the institute and am sure that work conditions in Indian BPOs are far superior to that of the institute."

On the issue of the call from Left parties to form a union in the IT and BPO industry, Karnik said: "BPO and IT employees can form a union if they wish to. But I don't see any apparent need for it. A BPO worker will rather see himself as a CEO rather than as a union leader."
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RCL private equity picks up 14.9 per cent stake in KEL
Pune/Mumbai: Reliance Capital Private Equity, a division of Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Capital Ltd (RCL), has picked up 14.9 per cent stake in Kinetic Engineering Ltd (KEL) for Rs12.7 crore.

With this, the shareholding of the promoters' family in KEL will go down to 45.7 per cent from 49.5 per cent at present. "The investment by Reliance Capital will be used towards building our overall business. Our order on hand is around Rs100 crore for the next 12 months. We are looking at increasing it to Rs1,000 crore per year in the next five years," said Sulajja Firodia Motwani, joint managing director, KEL.

Meanwhile, RCL posted a total income of Rs247 crore, against Rs140 crore in the corresponding previous period, an increase of 76 per cent. Cash profit for the period was Rs200 crore, against Rs60 crore in the corresponding previous period, an increase of 233 per cent. The company posted a net profit of Rs187 crore against Rs46 crore in the corresponding previous period, an increase of 306 per cent.
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Tata Motors' car sales cross 1 million
Mumbai: Tata Motors has said that the company has crossed the one million sales mark, including exports, in passenger cars since it rolled out the first passenger vehicle, Tata Sierra, in 1991.

"On 21 October, the company crossed the one-million sales mark, that includes exports," Tata Motors said.

Starting with the Tata Sierra and the Tata Estate in 1991-92, the company launched utility vehicle Sumo in 1994, hatchback Indica, the country's first fully indigenous car, and SUV Safari in 1998, mid-size Indigo in 2002 and its estate version Indigo Marina in 2004.

"Of the one million cars sold in the last 14 years, about 936,000 cars have been sold in India and over 64,000 in various countries abroad. Of them, over half a million were Indica, over 3,00,000 Sumo, close to 1,00,000 Indigo and about 40,000 Safari," the company said.
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Tata Elxsi ready to transform broadcast industry in India
Mumbai: Tata Elxsi, the group company of the US$17.6bn Tata Group, with expertise in system design, development and integration, will soon introduce state-of-the-art technologies like Thomson's Pro-AV line Turbo intelligent digital disk recorder and SGT products for transmission, media and traffic management, to transform the broadcast and entertainment industry in India.

"Tata's are aiming big in the broadcast market as this segment is going to grow at 70 to 80 per cent in the next few years. Although we have not addressed the various work flows in the broadcast market, we are aiming to be a one-stop solutions provider to the industry and have joined hands with world leaders like Thomson, Weather Central and SGT in bringing cutting edge broadcast technology to India," said M.M. Prasad, GM and head, Tata Elxsi, on the sidelines of Broadcast India, 2005 in Mumbai.
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Ericsson to set up R&D centre at Chennai
Mumbai: Swedish telecom equipment giant Ericsson plans to build a research and development centre in Chennai. Ericsson will also set up a global services delivery centre in Gurgaon near New Delhi, which will include an systems integration and a regional network operating centre.

The company already out-sources some of its research requirements to Indian software services firms, including Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro.

The company says it will invest several hundreds of millions of dollars per year in expanding its manufacturing and research and development capabilities, as well as human capital, as the market is very dynamic and growing very quickly.

Ericsson has a telecom equipment manufacturing plant in Kukas in Rajasthan, where it has invested US$50mn to upgrade the facilities to include making mobile switching centres and base station controllers.

Ericsson has ruled out setting up a Sony-Ericsson handset manufacturing plant.
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Carborundum Universal Q2 profit up by 61 per cent
New Delhi: Carborundum Universal has reported a net profit of Rs13.49 crore for the second quarter of 2005-06 a growth of 61 per cent against Rs8.40 crore for the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

The company's sales also registered a growth of 21 per cent to touch Rs106 crore in the second quarter from Rs87 crore in the year-ago period.

The company also reported a 46 per cent growth in operating profit and 19 per cent sales for the six months ended of September 30.
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RIL grabs 7.7 per cent share in diesel market
Mumbai: Reliance Industries (RIL) has overtaken petroleum-marketing company IBP in September sales. The company is also making inroads into direct sales of diesel to bulk consumers like industries and state transport undertakings.

In the six-month period from April to September, RIL overtook Mumbai-based oil PSU Hindustan Petroleum in direct sales of diesel, capturing 7.7 percent of the market.

Latest sales figures for the industry for April-September '05 show that Reliance's market share in diesel retail sales has grown to 9.6 percent of the industry.
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Lupin enters into deal with GSK Philippines
Mumbai: Lupin has entered into an agreement with GSK Philippines whereby it will manufacture and supply the four & two drug FDCs to GSK Philippines for marketing in Philippines.

The FDC combinations of TB drugs are based on WHO's dosing guidelines.

Philippines is amongst the top ten countries in the world, among 22 countries worldwide, with high-burden tuberculosis incidence. According to the World Health Organization's Tuberculosis Control, Report 2004, there were more than 251,000 cases in the Philippines in 2002, with an estimated incidence rate of 320 per 100,000 people.

This arrangement leverages the intellectual property and technology of the company in the area of TB medication, with the strong distribution and marketing infrastructure of GSK in the Philippines.
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Reliance Infocomm creates broadband network to facilitate live telecast
Mumbai: Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Infocomm has created DENG (Digital Electronic News Gathering) a broadband network to facilitate live telecast from across 85 cities. This will reduce the dependence and investment of television channels on outside broadcasting (OB) vans.

The network allows TV channels to connect to 85 cities through Reliance Infocomm network live, without having to depend on OB vans.

Reliance Infocomm had launched its DENG project during the last general elections on an experimental basis to facilitate TV news feeds from different locations to the studios.

Many news channels have started using the service.
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Citigroup, HSBC may fund Posco operations in India
Calcutta: The Citigroup and HSBC have shown interest in funding Posco's proposed steel project.

Korean steel giant Posco will invest a whopping Rs50,000 crore in developing a 12-million-tonne (mt) steel plant, mining facility, port and allied infrastructure in Orissa.
The first phase of the plant - a 3-mt slab-making facility - is to be commissioned by 2010.

The company is yet to shape up the financial model for the project, which is likely to be funded through a debt-equity ratio of 3:2. The estimated cost of the first phase of the project is about US$3bn.

Posco has ruled out the possibility of listing its wholly-owned Indian subsidiary in the Indian markets.

Posco is the fifth largest steel maker in the world and is listed on the New York and London stock exchanges. Its shares will also soon be traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Moreover, the company has a strong cash flow over US$4bn to support its expansion plan.
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Reliance Cap Q2 net up by 527 per cent
Mumbai: Reliance Capital has posted a 527 per cent jump in net profit at Rs157.4 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2005 as compared to Rs25.07 crore in the year-ago period.

Total income increased 160 per cent to Rs181.28 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2005 from Rs69.71 crore in the same period last fiscal, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The group has posted a consolidated net profit (including associates) of Rs162.75 crore.

Total income of the group is Rs246.17 crore for the second quarter of current fiscal.
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Gujarat NRE Coke to invest in Australian firm
Mumbai: Gujarat NRE Coke is planning to acquire a stake of about 20 percent in Rey Resources (RRL), a Sydney-based company. The investment will give Gujarat NRE Coke exploration access to about 4000 sq kms in Western Australia where preliminary studies have already identified a 15 metre thick coal seam.

The wholly owned subsidiaries of Rey Resources are also scouting for copper and gold in South America, which will add to the NRE basket of resources.

The investment by Gujarat NRE Coke gives it the first right of refusal on any agency agreement for India in respect of any mine product produced in the future by Rey Resources or any of its three wholly-owned subsidiaries in Australia, Chile and Peru.
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Dabur Q2 net up 48 per cent - to issue 1:1 bonus
Mumbai: Dabur India has registered 48.54 percent growth in consolidated net profit at Rs64.41crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2005 as against Rs43.36 crore registered in the quarter ended September 30, 2004.

Dabur India in release to the BSE said its total income increased 26.31 percent to Rs471.31 crore in Q2 2006 as compared to Rs373.11 crore in Q2, 2005.

The board has also approved issue of bonus shares in the ratio of 1:1 i.e one bonus share for every share held.
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