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Dr. Reddy's Lab. buys Roche unit
Hyderabad: Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd (DRL) has announced that it has decided to acquire Roche's Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) business including the state-of-the-art manufacturing unit in Cuernavaca, Mexico.

The company has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the API business along with Roche's employees and business supply contracts for a consideration of US$59mn. The company said on Tuesday that the process is expected to be completed by the end of next month.

While DRL would benefit from improved EPS levels, the full financial impact on account of the acquisition would be realised from the year 2006-07, the company added.

Commenting on the acquisition, CEO GV Prasad stated: "With the acquisition of Roche's API business at Mexico, the company will emerge as a leading player in custom pharmaceutical services (CPS) business and position itself as a partner of choice for innovator companies across the globe with service offering spanning entire value chain of pharmaceutical services."
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BSNL profit crosses Rs.10,000 crore in 2004-05
New Delhi: State owned telecom corporation Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) on Tuesday said it has registered profits of over Rs10,000 crore in 2004-05, with revenues jumping about six per cent to cross Rs36,000 crore.

The company also said that it would invite bids for the largest-ever GSM tender of 60 million lines next month, in line with its expansion plans for mobile services.

"The 60 million GSM tender is going to come out next month. The details are being worked out. There will be a provision for local manufacturing in the tender," the BSNL chairman and managing director, A.K. Sinha, said after presenting a dividend cheque of Rs975 crore to the Union minister for communications and IT, Dayanidhi Maran.

The company had paid the Government Rs200 crore as interim dividend, taking the total dividend to Rs1,175 crore.
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GSM subscriber growth in Oct. highest since inception
New Delhi: The GSM subscriber base rose by 2.11 million subscribers in October, which is the highest increase in terms of absolute numbers ever since mobile services were introduced.

The GSM base had risen by 1.95 million in September, lower than August's addition of 2.04 million users.

Delhi is the leading cellular market with maximum subscriber numbers. The capital has 4.84 million cell users (9.13% of the total base), while Mumbai has 4.71 million (8.89% of the market).

Bharti remains the top GSM service provider with 14.74 million users and 27.82% of the market share. BSNL is a close second with 12.51 million GSM users and 23.61% market share.

CDMA and fixed telephony numbers are yet to come for October.

The total number of phone users stood at 112.49 million at the end of September, with 65.05 million mobile and 47.44 million fixed line subscribers, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
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Bharti Telesoft in Deloitte Fast 50
Bangalore: Deloitte Technology has ranked Bharti Telesoft, supplier of value-added services to wireline and wireless carriers, as one of India's Fast 50 technology companies.

"Our cutting-edge technology and innovation in the telecom space in providing market leading wireless value-added services have enabled us to achieve the position of one of India's fastest growing technology companies," said Sanjiv Mittal, CEO, Bharti Telesoft.

Bharti Telesoft offers applications on messaging, call management, roaming, prepaid, customer care and billing, and content to telecom operators.
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RPG Life Sciences get US patent for Risperidone production process
Mumbai: RPG Life Sciences Ltd has got a US patent for its novel process of producing Risperidone, a pharmaceutical ingredient used in anti-psychotic medicines.

RPG Life Sciences already has similar patents for Risperidone in the UK, Germany, France, Switzerland and other European markets, the company has informed the BSE.

Risperidone is an atypical antipsychotic medication used to treat symptoms of schizophrenia. The medication decreases the abnormal excitement in the brain.

The global market for the formulations of Risperidone is estimated to be over US$2bn. The company already sells Risperidone in Spain, India and other developing countries.

It expects to enter other regulated markets when the patent on the product expires.

The product patent expires in Europe in early-2007 and in the US in late 2007 or early 2008, a company official said.
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Thapar Group in JV agreement with Option Care for BPO foray
New Delhi: The Thapar Group, has entered into a 70:30 joint venture with US-based healthcare service provider Option Care Inc, to enter the BPO business.

In a statement, Gautam Thapar, chairman, Salient Business Solutions said, "As a group we have been considering a foray into areas within the services sector that would provide us a global perspective to our operations as well as help leverage the substantial brand equity that we have developed during the last seven decades."

The US-based company has said that it was looking to partner with an established Indian company with strong brand equity to attract quality talent.

Option Care is the first customer for Salient Business Solutions that will involve specialised BPO solutions in the healthcare segment. The company plans to expand into other services such as finance and accounting and HR led services and horizontal services such as vendor management, procurement, sales management and data warehousing solutions.

Option Care Inc provides a full range of healthcare services to patients outside the hospital setting, working with 300 organisations representing more than 75 million Americans.
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iGATE targeting Japanese market
Bangalore: IGate Global Solutions has said that it was aggressively targeting the Japanese market with its integrated technology and operations (iTOPS) model and would be hiring over 100 IT professionals in that country over the next twelve months.

iGATE has signed up some new clients in Japan, including a global conglomerate, a leading automotive OEM manufacturer and a major insurance firm, the company said in a press release.
iGATE employs over 100 people in Japan and has over 10 Japanese customers spanning insurance, securities and manufacturing sectors.

Phaneesh Murthy, CEO, iGATE, said: "With our iTOPS model, we have ensured that a customer doesn't have to worry about outsourcing bits and pieces. We believe that with our global delivery model, strong localised operations and local business domain, we are well positioned to further strengthen our presence in Japan."

iGATE has a global employee strength of over 4,000 people. The company plans to commence work shortly on Phase III of its campus at Bangalore at an investment of Rs25 crore.
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Khaitan Electricals to diversify into lamp manufacture
Kolkata: Fan manufacturer Khaitan Electricals Ltd are diversifying their business and will step into lamp manufacture. The company intends to invest Rs20 crore over the next ten months.

Speaking to reporters company vice chairman and managing director Sunil K Khaitan said they would set up a new factory at Kala Amb in Himachal Pradesh which would be funded from internal accruals.

The company has also introduced a whole range of electrical solutions like domestic wires and cables, miniature circuit breakers, isolators and distribution boards, he said.

Khaitan said the main objective behind the diversification was to provide a complete bouquet of products in electrical solutions for the Indian household. At present, the company is manufacturing compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) at its existing factory at Paonta Sahib in Himachal Pradesh.

Khaitan said that the company's market share in the CFL segment was six per cent, adding that it was expected to go up to 10 per cent by March 2006.
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BEML pays Rs.19.12 crore dividend
Bangalore: Bharat Earth Movers Ltd (BEML) on Tuesday paid a dividend of Rs19.12 crore to the Government. With this the company has paid a final dividend of 85 per cent for 2004-05. This was in addition to the interim dividend of 15 per cent paid by the company during January.

The dividend warrant amounting to Rs19,12,50,000 was presented to the defence minister, Pranab Mukerjee, by the BEML chairman and managing director, V.R.S. Natarajan, in New Delhi.
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