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Dr Reddy's 'Save the Foot' initiative
New Delhi: Dr.Reddy's on Tuesday launched a national initiative to prevent loss of limbs. Under the campaign, 'Save The Foot', the company would hold over 1,000 camps across the country in the next six months in order to prevent amputations of limbs.

Apart from creating awareness about the problem the company is also offering free Plermin treatment for needy patients. Plermin is a recombinant human platelet derived growth factor (rhPDGF), marketed by the company and comes in the form of gel for topical application on a wound.

Plermin is the first and the only growth factor approved by US FDA according to the company.
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Honda Siel to increase production
Panaji: Honda Siel Cars India is set to increase production from 30,000 to 50,000 units a year, as the expansion of its Greater Noida plant nears completion.

The increase in production will cater to the demand for the newly launched new City ZX model, launched almost simultaneously in India as in other Asian countries.

Honda Siel's Noida factory is set up on 180 acres of land, of which 30 per cent has been utilised.
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Ford 'Fiesta' base model at Rs.5.59 lakh
New Delhi: Ford India has announced the prices of its new sedan 'Fiesta'. The base version of the Fiesta 1.4 litre variant price has been priced at Rs5.59 lakh while the other two petrol variants - 1.6 litre ZXi model and the 1.6 litre SXi would be priced at Rs6.29 lakh and at Rs6.89 lakh respectively.

The 1.4 litre rail diesel variant of the Fiesta is available for Rs6.99 lakh.
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Jaiprakash Associates to invest Rs.900 crore in capacity expansion
New Delhi: Flagship company of the Jaypee Group, Jaiprakash Associates, has begun a Rs900 crore cement manufacturing expansion project that would see its total capacity going up to 10 million tonnes from the current seven million tonnes.

The company is setting up a three million tonnes plant in Himachal Pradesh with an investment of Rs900 crore. The plant is likely to be completed by 2007.

The group would use a part of the Rs430 crore proceeds from the recent Foreign Currency Convertible Bond (FCCB) issue and a Rs500 crore loan from ICICI Bank and other banks for funding the expansion.

The group is also eyeing acquisitions in the cement sector.
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Fortis: DDA's prior consent not required in EHIRC purchase
New Delhi: Ranbaxy group company says Fortis Healthcare's acquisition of Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre (EHIRC) from Escorts does not require prior consent of the Delhi Development Authority.

Fortis Healthcare chairman Harpal Singh said the Fortis Institute was converted from a charitable to a non-charitable trust as per law and its subsequent conversion to a company also fulfilled legal requirements.

According to Singh legal opinion confirms that there was no transfer of lease hold rights and in neither case was there a transfer of allotted land but only statutory vesting of land by operation of law and hence did not require the prior consent of DDA.

The company has said that Fortis has acquired 90 per cent stake in EHIRC and the transaction is complete.
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Maharashtra asks Infosys to expand operations in Pune
New Delhi: Vilasrao Deshmukh chief Minister, Maharashtra has issued an invitation to Infosys chairman and chief mentor N R Narayana Murthy to expand his company's operations in Pune and other cities in the state.

Deshmukh said Infosys would get all help, including land acquisition from the Government of Maharashtra, for expanding its base in the state. He said the issue would come up for discussion at a meeting with Narayana Murthy in Mumbai soon.

Infosys already has a software development complex spread over 100 acres at the IT Park at Hinjewadi on the outskirts of Pune, which is also home to infotech giant Wipro's development centre.
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Satyam ties up with Miebach Logistics
Hyderabad: Satyam Computers Services and consultant firm Miebach Logistics Group have tied up to offer a one-stop-shop supply chain solutions covering strategy, process, engineering and technology to customers in Asia- Pacific across industry sectors.

The companies will address the logistics requirements in various industry verticals including retail and CPG, manufacturing, automotive and logistics services providers.
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BSNL likely to receive Rs.700 crore licence fee reimbursement in FY-06
New Delhi: Telecom PSU BSNL may receive Rs700 crore as licence fee and spectrum charges reimbursement this year. This will be less than what the company received last year.

Last fiscal BSNL received Rs1, 765.68 crore as reimbursement, paid by the government to compensate for its loss-making operations like rural telephony.

BSNL proposes to add 24.7 million direct exchange lines (DELs), out of which 14 lakh DELs would be provided in rural areas during 2005-06.
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3COM launches 'secure software'
Bangalore: 3COM has launched TippingPoint X505 that makes businesses more secure and efficient by extending IPS (Intrusion Prevention System) with Firewall, VPN, bandwidth management, web content filtering and additional security features according to the company.

TippingPoint X505 is the first integrated security platform built upon IPS technology, combining stateful inspection firewall, IPSec VPN, bandwidth management, Web contend filtering and dynamic routing senior company officials said.

The TippingPoint X505 is poised to replace at least three different boxes on any internal network: including an IDS, a VLAN-capable switch, and a firewall.
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Philips sees immense potential for growth in India
Bangalore: Royal Philips Electronics sees immense potential for growth for itself from its India operations according to Gerard Kleisterlee, CEO of the company.

He said India was a small but growing part of its Asian revenues and foresees that the country would account for one third of the company's total revenues by 2008.

The company is taking local challenges as the starting point for developing products and the resulting solutions will have the potential to reach millions of people in India and across the world, he added.

Philips India with a turnover of Rs3,000 crore is growing at 17-18 per cent per annum and expects to cross the Rs5,000-crore turnover mark by 2008.
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Leela group to invest Rs.500 crore in Kerala
Kochi: The Leela proup is planning to invest Rs500 crore in Kerala in IT infrastructure development, textiles and hotels.

The group would invest about Rs180 crore to provide IT infrastructure in Kochi. It has already put up a building in which Outsource Partners International, a BPO company occupies 1,37,000 sq feet space. The group has also earmarked 11.1 lakh square feet of IT space in Kerala.

Leela is also planning to invest in hotel projects in Kochi and Kumarakkom and is also planning to expand its existing textile facilities at Thiruvananthapuram.
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PowerGrid to invite bids from private companies for transmission projects
New Delhi: PSU Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCIL) is inviting bids from private sector companies for executing power transmission projects worth Rs2,500 crore in Western India before November-end.

These projects are a subject of dispute between PGCIL and Reliance Energy, with the latter approaching the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) to seek a licence to set up the transmission lines on its own. CERC had, subsequently, turned down Reliance Energy's petition. "We are all set to invite bids from private sector players for the western region projects. Bids are likely to be invited in a week," the official said. This will be the first time the company will invite bids for the execution of transmission projects.

PGCIL will invite single stage bids for projects covering a transmission network in Gujarat and Maharashtra through the 100 per cent private participation route. The projects are scheduled for completion by 2009. Only firms having experience in the infrastructure sector will be allowed to participate in the bidding process, PGCIL officials said. As per the CERC order, Reliance will be allowed to participate in this process.

The transmission projects in Gujarat and south Maharashtra form part of a larger scheme that also includes beefing up transmission infrastructure in Madhya Pradesh. PGCIL will execute the remaining stages of the project, including the Madhya Pradesh projects on its own.
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Mahindra British Telecom to acquire Axes Tech
Bangalore: Mahindra British Telecom (MBT), the joint venture company formed by Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) and British Telecom, will soon acquire Texas-based Axes Technologies, a global telecom solutions provider. According to sources, the size of the deal is likely to be US$40-50mn.

Axes Technologies in operation since 1990, offers solutions to telecom equipment vendors, carriers and service providers. The company has offshore development centres in Bangalore and Chennai with a combined headcount of close to 700 people.

The privately-held Axes Technologies offers services such as embedded and application software development, testing, hardware system design, product support, maintenance, network integration and traffic engineering of next-generation network among others.

Both the companies have common clients like Alcatel among others and the acquisition is expected to enhance the scale of operations for MBT in Bangalore and also provide an entry in Chennai.

MBT reported 36 per cent increase in net profit to Rs71.2 crore for the half-year ended September 2005, while revenues grew about 4 per cent to Rs503.2 crore for the same period over corresponding previous year.

MBT serves telecom equipment manufacturers, service providers, software vendors and systems integrators and its global customers include Alcatel, Alltel, BT, Convergys, Ericsson, Marconi, O2 and Vodafone among others.
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