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Shree Cements to launch new brand
Kolkata: Shree Cements is launching new cement brand, 'Bangur Cement' which will target the premium segment, according to the company.

The new brand's cement will be produced at the 1.2 million tonne plant at Pali in Rajasthan. The production will start from December.

Shree Cement markets its product in northern India.
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HLL get's HC approval for transfer of tea units
Mumbai: Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) said it has received approval from the Bombay High Court for the demerger and transfer of its tea divisions in Assam and Tamil Nadu to Doom Dooma Tea Company and Tea Estates India respectively.
The court had passed an order dated November 23, approving this scheme of arrangement.

The merger will come into effect from 1 December 2005.
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ISG Novasoft in alliance with SAP India
Chennai: ISG Novasoft (ISGN), a global enterprise application management and outsource product development company, has allied with SAP India to leverage the capabilities of SAP netweaver, mySAP, ERP and Mysap business in its focus areas of manufacturing companies in large and mid markets.

With the alliance the company says it can intensify and strengthen its position in the above-mentioned industry segments, a company release said.

The CEO of ISGN, Krishna Srinivasan, said the partnership would further enhance ISGN's unique positioning in the industry as a service provider with deep domain expertise.
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M&M Nov. auto sales down
Mumbai: Mahindra & Mahindra said sales at its auto division fell one percent in November to 12,199 units, from 12,293 units a year earlier.

Domestic auto sales, including utility vehicles, light commercial vehicles and three-wheelers, fell 2 per cent to 11,800 units from 12,055 units a year earlier.Exports rose 68 percent to 399 units from 238 units.

Mahindra sold 8,929 utility vehicles in India in November, of which the popular Scorpio model accounted for 1,980 units.

Mahindra, also India's top tractor maker, sold 7,103 tractors in November, up 19 per cent from 5,955 units sold a year earlier.
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Mitsubishi-HM to launch Cedia in '06
Mumbai: Mitsubishi Motors plans to launch the Cedia sedan and Montero, the sports utility vehicle (SUV), in the first quarter of the next year in partnership with Hindustan Motors.

The Cedia will be assembled in India, while the Montero will be brought in through the completely built up route.

Mitsubishi recently launched a new variant of its existing model 'Pajero.'
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Coromandel Fertilisers-Mitsui mull JV
New Delhi: Murugappa Group company, Coromandel Fertilisers, is in talks with Japanese firm Mitsui & Co to set up a joint venture company for ammonia production.

According to A Vellayan chairman of the Coronamdel Fertliser, "We are trying to set up a 0.5 million tonne capacity plant through a joint venture with Mitsui."

Mitsui and CFL would have equal stakes in the proposed JV. The company expects to get a "complete picture on the new venture" in the next six months.

CFL had so far been importing the chemical from Mitsui and even though it doesn't face a shortage in ammonia supply at present the company wants to lessen its dependence on Mitsui.

CFL' recently entered into a tripartite joint venture with Gujarat State Fertiliser Corporation and Tunisian fertiliser company, Groupe Chimique Tunisien to set up a manufacturing unit for phosophoric acid in Tunisia.

CFL and its Indian partner GSFC will have 15 per cent stake each while the Tunisian company GCT will hold 70 per cent stake in the Tunisian JV.
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Now e-marketing of coal
Kolkata: Coal India has tied up with MSTC and Metaljunction.com for e-marketing of coal through the portals. Coal companies would be able to announce the quality, quantity and rates on the portals they choose, and consumers would be able to make their bids on the floor price fixed by them.

Consumers would have to register with either of the two portals after which they would be given a password. The Indian Institute of Management Calcutta has been selected as process validators for e-marketing.

Coal India officials said it wants to route at least 10 per cent of the total production through the e-marketing channel so that coal could be made freely available to non-core customers in a transparent manner.

Coal India plans to produce 343 million tonne of coal this year, as against 323 million tonne in the last financial year.
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Wipro opens remote tech. management center
Bangalore: India's third largest software services company Wipro has opened a global network command centre in Bangalore, and is eyeing a fast-growing export market worth up to $66bn in remote computer management.

The company feels there is tremendous growth in the segment as better telecom bandwidth and tools enabled Indians to fix computers in distant customer sites at low costs.

Set up at a cumulative investment of over Rs22.5 crore in new generation technology and tool sets, the command center will provide Wipro customers a technology agnostic, secure managed services environment.

G K Prasanna, senior vice president, infrastructure services business Wipro said, "The center's advanced features like 'password vault' providing one time access to restrict password sharing, 'sick-system only access' that ensures that systems that do not have problems cannot be touched, multi-location service delivery for robust risk mitigation and 'business impact reporting' that enables clients to see the live business impact of IT services on a 24x7 basis make the command center among the most robust and secure remote managed services platforms in the world today."

In a recent poll conducted by Wipro with Everest Group's Outsourcing Center, potential outsourcers identified security challenges, particularly unauthorized distribution of passwords, un-monitored access to and tampering of critical applications as the biggest challenge.

An overwhelming 39 per cent of the respondents said that lack of a real-time view of operations and limited visibility into the business impact was a big concern. 16 per cent of the respondents cited vendor inability to support multiple tools and technologies as a deterrent. The new offering from Wipro has unique solutions to each of these problems.

While the market, in terms of spending, is estimated at US$55-66bn, services out of India are worth about US$1.0bn, Wipro officials said. Wipro's own exports from the service were worth $95 million in the year to March 2005. It competes with companies such as IBM in the segment.

Wipro has 165 global customers in the segment and command centres in four Indian cities, from where engineers troubleshoot network and equipment problems for customers across the world.
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Maruti Nov. sales up 11 per cent
Mumbai: Maruti Udyog's November car sales rose 11 per cent to 47,391 units in India and overseas, compared with 42,842 units in November last year.

The company's sales have risen for the sixth consecutive month with rising exports of the Swift hatchback. Maruti said domestic sales of cars such as the Alto, Versa, Esteem and the Baleno increased 6 per cent to 43,568 units.
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Broadcom looks at acquisitions in India
Bangalore: US-based wired and wireless broadband communications semiconductors company Broadcom Corporation said Indian companies were on its "radar screen" for possible acquisition.

Broadcom's president and CEO Scott A McGregor said, "Indian companies are on our radar screen for possible acquisition." The company has set up its Research and Development facility here and plans to expand its presence in India. McGregor said the company was looking out for "good companies," to acquire. He said, "Historically, we acquire one or two companies in a quarter (globally). We are in an exceptional shape to acquire companies".

Henry Samueli, Broadcom's co-founder, chief technical officer and chairman of the board, said Broadcom had grown "dramatically" in India and the Indian team was an important contributor to its total portfolio of more than 1,000 patents.
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Hero to set up two-wheeler tyre unit
New Delhi: The Hero Group is planning to set up its own tyre manufacturing unit in Haryana.

Company officials said the company had always planned to set up its own unit but when Chabbria-promoted Falcon Tyres came up for sale, it made a bid considering it was one of their biggest original equipment suppliers.

However, when the Jumbo Group clubbed the bid with the two loss-making units of Dunlop at Kolkata, Hero lost interest.

Hero Honda accounts for more than 40 per cent of Falcon's sales and once the group sets up its own tyre plant, it will affect Falcon considerably.
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ONGC to raise oil output by 8 per cent in 2006
New Delhi: State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp on Thursday said 95 per cent of its Rs14,354 crore investment next fiscal will go into domestic oil exploration and that it would raise oil output by 8 per cent in 2006.

Mani Shankar Aiyar, Petroleum Minister had earlier criticised ONGC and its boss Subir Raha for "diverting riches reaped from high oil prices" into non-core business like petrochemicals and power thereby affecting the domestic production and India's energy security.

ONGC, which invested Rs4,041 crore in domestic E&P in 2001-02 (the year prior to Raha taking over as chairman and managing director of the company), is investing Rs12,251 crore in oil and gas hunt in the current fiscal. Its diversification plan will cost Rs485 crore in 2005-06.
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Lupin gets USFDA nod for Cephalexin capsules
Mumbai: Lupin said it has received approval from the USFDA approval for its Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) for multiple strengths of antibiotic Cephalexin capsules.

The approval is for Cephalexin capsules of 250 mg and 500 mg. This is the company's eighth ANDA approval by the USFDA and the third in this financial year.

Earlier this year, the company had received approvals from the USFDA for Lisinopril tablets and Cephalexin for oral suspension.

Cephalexin is indicated for the treatment of respiratory tract infections, skin and skin structure infections, bone infections and genitourinary tract infections according to the company.
The US market for Cephalexin Capsules is estimated at US$80mn
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Air India, Indian Airlines not to be merged
New Delhi: The civil aviation minister, Praful Patel said on Thursday that there is no proposal to merge Air India and Indian Airlines into a single company.

He said the two premier carriers were operating in a highly competitive market and were constantly endeavoring to improve their services and remain competitive in the market.

He said the two airlines were also in the process of acquiring aircraft to revamp their fleet.
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LMW resorts to Press Note 1
New Delhi: Lakshmi Machine Works (LMW) has taken recourse to the provisions of Press Note 1 to prevent the direct entry of Switzerland-based Rieter.

Swiss company Rieter has said planned to invest $20 million in India over the next three years to set up textile machinery manufacturing facility in India.

LMW, which obtained technology from Rieter in 1963 in return for which the latter had picked up 13 percent equity in LMW. Even though the technology agreement ended in 1999, Rieter continues to hold a stake in LMW.

Press Note 1, an amended version of Press Note 18, restricts foreign companies with more than 3 per cent equity in a venture in India to get a no-objection certificate (NoC) from its partner for setting up another venture in the same line of business.

The application of Rieter is now before the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), which has asked it to get an NoC from LMW.
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LG to set up plant in Haryana
Chandigarh: LG Electronics is planning to set up a big plant in Haryana, according to an announcement made by Bae Jae Hoon, vice president of LG Electronics, during a meeting with chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda who is on a visit to Seoul.

LG would definitely consider and survey Haryana at the earliest possible opportunity, considering the locational advantages that Haryana has.
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Govt. approves Nokia's SEZ proposal
New Delhi: The finance ministry has given its nod to Finnish telecom major Nokia for setting up a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu for manufacturing telecom equipment and mobile handsets.

Government officials say that the necessary approvals and benefits for Nokia's SEZ has been given after the company agreed to acquire additional land which was the minimum required by law for it to be declared an SEZ.

Sources said Nokia had even begun to consider alternative locations like China if the notification was not issued soon.

When contacted, Nokia India spokesperson, however, said that the company's plans were on track. India is an important market for Nokia and there are no changes to Nokia's commitment to the Indian market. The company said that it was confident that it would be able to work with the Government of India to ensure smooth progress of the Chennai project.

Nokia had earlier announced over Rs650 crore of investment in the country to set up a manufacturing base.
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Geodesic Information buys entire stake in Hong Kong co.
Mumbai: Geodesic Information Systems has decided to acquire a 100 per cent stake in Engage Solutions (ESL), a Hong Kong based company specialising in providing services and products for the financial services Industry.

The board of directors of the company has approved earlier to acquire strategic stake or take over various technology companies that possess innovative ideas.
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Exmar-IOC-Varun Shipping to win Petronet LNG tender
New Delhi: The consortium of Exmar-Indian Oil Corp-Varun Shipping may get the contract for building a third liquefied natural gas (LNG) ship for Petronet LNG. Petronet is India's largest LNG importer.

The company recently invited bids for time chartering a 156,000 cubic meters LNG carrier. Company officials said that the consortium led by Exmar of Belgium is the lowest bidder.

The company already has two 138,000 cubic meters capacity ships from consortium of Mitsui OSK Line-Shipping Corp of India-NYK Line ferrying 5 million tonne per annum of LNG from Qatar to its receipt terminal at Dahej in Gujarat.
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