Dr. Reddys in pact with Merck
Mumbai: Dr Reddys Laboratories has entered into an agreement with the US-based Merck to distribute and sell generic versions of Proscar and Zocor.

Dr Reddy's would distribute and sell generic versions of Proscar and Zocor, upon the expiry of Merck's patents covered by these products, provided there is a 180-day exclusivity after the patents expiration for either product, it informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.
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DoT to fine telecom co.'s for not fulfilling roll out conditions
New Delhi: The Department of Telecom has decided to impose a Rs406-crore fine on seven telecom operators for not fulfilling the roll-out obligations as per the universal access service licence (UASL) agreement.

The operators met Dayanidhi Maran, Communications and IT minister in January to seek more time to fulfill the rollout obligation. Hence DoT has not yet issued the letters to the operators as the decision is awaiting approval from the concerned minister.

The operators in the DoT's list of defaulters include Reliance Infocomm, Tata Teleservices, Hutchison Essar and Bharti Cellular.

According to the license conditions, operators are required to cover 10 per cent of each district headquarters in the country at the end of the first year. Once the rollout obligation is met with, the operators are required to get a certificate from the Telecom Engineering Centre (TEC), the technical wing of the DoT.

The major offenders are Reliance Infocomm and Tata Teleservices who are being asked to cough up Rs147 crore and Rs140 crore respectively. Operators whose names do not figure in the list of defaulters include BSNL, MTNL and Idea Cellular.
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Jubilant bags manufacturing contracts worth US$40mn
New Delhi: Specialty chemicals company, Jubilant Organosys has obtained annual contracts worth US$40mn from well-known pharmaceutical and agro-chemical companies for custom manufacturing of intermediates and fine chemicals for 2006.

The company will also execute half yearly, quarterly and monthly contracts and spot sales. Jubilant has also signed annual contracts worth US$28mn for 2007.

Shyam S. Bhartia, chairman and managing director of the company and Hari S. Bhartia, co-chairman and managing director of Jubilant said: "The long-term contracts signed by the company signify the growing confidence of the large pharmaceuticals and agrochemical companies in our capability to partner them."
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McLeod Russel acquires entire share capital of Doom Dooma
Kolkata: Mcleod Russel India has acquired the entire share capital of Doom Dooma Tea Co, recently taken over from Hindustan Lever. The acquisition makes Doom Dooma a 100 per cent subsidiary of the company.

McLeod Russel plans to have Doom Dooma operate as a separate entity. However, a different strategy may be considered for adoption later this year.

For the nine months ended December 2005, the company posted gross sales of Rs254.65 crore (up from Rs244.65 crore recorded for the corresponding period last year) and a net profit of Rs31.75 crore (Rs20.66 crore).

Williamson Tea Assam a sister concern of Doom Dooma has reported gross sales of Rs141.27 crore for the nine-month period ending December 2005 (against Rs158.53 crore last year) and a net profit of Rs36.3 crore (Rs33.47 crore).
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Dalmia Cement to raise up to Rs.700-cr for expansion plans
Chennai: Dalmia Cement (Bharat) is issuing securities to raise up to Rs700 crore to fund its proposed expansion. The company is looking at various options, including preferential allotment of shares, foreign currency convertible bonds or global depository shares, to raise the money.

The company had decided to expand its cement and sugar businesses as both the sectors were performing well. Dalmia Cement has 3.5-million-tonne cement capacity in Tamil Nadu and another 2.5 million tonnes through a group company in Orissa.

In the medium term, the company hopes to have a cement capacity of 10 million tonnes.

Dalmia Cement is also expanding its sugar crushing capacity in Uttar Pradesh by 15,000 tonnes a day, which would take its total crushing capacity to 22,500 tonnes and a sugar production capacity of 2 lakh tonnes. The company would set up an 80 KL distillery to produce ethanol.
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TCS merges three subsidiaries with itself
Mumbai: Tata Consultancy Services has merged three of its subsidiaries including Airline Financial Services, TCS Business Transformation Solutions and Aviation Software Development Consultancy, with itself, a company release said.

The scheme of amalgamation of the three companies with TCS has been approved by the relevant high courts and all formalities have been completed, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange. The merger will be considered effective from April 1, 2005, it said.
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Ford India reports 124 pc increase in sales over Jan. last year
Chennai: Ford India has reason to cheer as the company sold 5,173 vehicles in January 2006, a 124 per cent increase over the 2,307 units it sold in January last year.

According to a release from the company, the recently launched Ford Fiesta is driving its growth. The company has received over 9,000 bookings till date. Over 6,250 units of the Fiesta have been delivered to dealers across the country from the last week of December 2005, when the company started sending out the cars from its plant at Maraimalai Nagar, south of Chennai.

Arvind Mathew, managing director and president, Ford India, said the company was well positioned in the high growth mid-size segment.
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DLF Universal enters into JV with British firm
New Delhi: DLF Universal, the real estate company, has entered into a joint venture with UK-based Laing O'Rourke for setting up infrastructure projects. The new entity would take off with an initial investment of Rs500 crore.

DLF vice chairman, Rajiv Singh said, "We have formed a 50:50 JV company, DLF Laing O'Rourke, which will make an initial investment of close to Rs500 crore to be further enhanced over several months."

Both the partners are expected to contribute Rs250 crore each towards the initial corpus, he added. The JV will initially execute on-going large projects of DLF across the country, and later would bid for infrastructure projects in the field of express highways, airports and power plants.

Besides, the JV would also set up dedicated funds for infrastructure projects with a corpus of US$1.5bn.

Provisions would also be there for international agencies and institutional investors to pump money in the fund, besides contribution from the JV. The JV also plans to aggressively bid for modernisation of airport in the country.
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Hindalco hikes aluminium prices by Rs.6,000 per tonne
New Delhi: One of the country's biggest aluminium smelter, Hindalco has raised the prices of the metal by Rs6,000 or 5.3 per cent per tonne.

A company spokesperson said, the fluctuation on the London Metal Exchange (LME), had led the company to make the move. Recently state-run aluminium giant Nalco had also raised prices of the metal by Rs5,000 a tonne.
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Mahavir Spinning to become Vardhman Textiles
Ludhiana: Among the country's largest textile groups, Vardhman Group, is changing its name from Mahavir Spinning Mills to Vardhman Textiles in the coming financial year.

Company officials said the company is now an integrated textile facility while the name signifies only one part of its operations.

The Ludhiana based Vardhman group is investing Rs1,600 crore for setting up a new plant in Madhya Pradesh and expanding its production capacity in its existing plant in Baddi (Himachal Pradesh) over the next two years.

The company will also invest Rs1,200-1,300 crore in setting up a manufacturing facility in Madhya Pradesh with a capacity of 2 lakh spindles while remaining portion of investments would be done in Baddi for setting up additional 50,000 spindles for the purpose of capacity expansion.
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Hero Honda Jan sales up 8 pc
New Delhi: Market leader, Hero Honda on Wednesday reported an 8.3 per cent rise in sales in January 2006, including exports, at 2,49,450 units against 2,30,280 units in the same month last year.

The company said sales in the domestic market saw a similar growth, rising 8.1 per cent to 2,42,974 units last month against 2,24,593 units in January 2005.

Sales in the domestic market in the 10 months ending January 31, 2006, grew 13.2 per cent to 23,984,53 units against 21,171,33 units in the same period last fiscal. Exports in the April '05-Janyary '06 period were up 61.3 per cent at 79,291 units against 49,128 units in the same period last fiscal.
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Maruti Jan sales up 3.2 pc
New Delhi: Maruti Udyog (MUL) has reported 3.2 per cent rise in total sales of 50,109 units in January, 2006 as against 48,544 units in same month last year.

Sales in the domestic markets in January 2006 increased 7.1 per cent to 48,526 units against 45,300 units in the corresponding period in 2005, a company release said.

However, exports of the company declined 51.2 per cent at 1583 units as compared to 3244 units.

The sales of the A1 segment car Maruti 800 also decreased 14.2 per cent at 8,262 units in first month of 2006 versus 9,625 units in same month last year.

While the sales of the A2 segment cars such as Alto, WagonR, Zen and Swift grew 21.2 per cent to 31,539 units for the month as compared to 26,016 units in January 2005.
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Bajaj Auto reports 28 pc higher two-wheeler sales in Jan.
Mumbai: Bajaj Auto Ltd has reported a 28 per cent increase in total two-wheeler sales in January at 1,81,758 units, as against 1,42,294 units in the same month a year ago.

The company's motorcycle sales, was up 32 per cent at 1,73,835 units in January as against 1,32,028 units in the same month last year, a company release said.

Sales of three-wheelers increased 34 per cent during January at 22,019 units as against 16,415 units in the same month a year ago. Total two and three wheeler sales during the reporting month, including exports, increased 28 per cent to 2,03,777 units as compared to 1,58,709 units in January 2005.
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Fedders Lloyd plans merger of PSL Engineering with itself
Mumbai: Leading player in the commercial air-conditioner and refrigeration segment, Fedders Lloyd Corporation has said that it planned to merge PSL Engineering, engaged in heavy engineering works, with itself.

The board of directors of the company has approved the merger subject to the requisite approvals and formalities, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.
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Microsoft to go rural - to set up 50,000 IT kiosks
New Delhi: Software giant Microsoft Corporation India has announced a new rural initiative named ''Saksham'' (self-reliant), to set up 50,000 IT kiosks in the next three years in villages. The kiosks will provide a wide range of information and services related to health, education, communication an d agriculture in villages.

The company says its larger aim is to reach more than 50 per cent of the rural population within three years. The initiative would provide local entrepreneurs a chance to set up and manage kiosks on a self-sustaining basis for providing content and services to the rural populace.

Microsoft has tied up with three non-government agencies - Drishti, Jaikisan and n-Logue - to roll out these kiosks and is also in talks with lending institutions such as State Bank of India to provide funding to local entrepreneurs, Microsoft India managing director Neelam Dhawan said.

Microsoft will also provide technical support and training to the local youth, who would manage these kiosks.
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Govt. in favour of BSNL, MTNL merger
Kolkata: The Government favours the merger of telecom PSUs, BSNL and MTNL, and is working out the modalities based on the suggestions submitted to it by an expert committee.

Though the Government is in favour of a merger, the exact modalities for effecting it would take some time because of the complexities involved according to government officials. The unions of both the entities are, reportedly, not opposed to the merger either.

Officials said something concrete would take shape by early 2006-07 fiscal.

Since MTNL is a listed entity, while BSNL is wholly owned by the Government, there are many issues required to be addressed before taking a call on the merger process.
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HCL Tech. in alliance with Synchron
Mumbai: HCL Technologies has entered into an alliance with Ahmedabad-based Synchron Research Services, leading contract research organisation, for jointly providing solutions in clinical trails and data management on drugs and devices.

According to the terms of the alliance HCL Technologies would provide software consulting, infrastructure management and BPO services in clinical trials and clinical data management run by Synchron across the globe.

Synchron offers clinical trial and data management services to domestic and international pharmaceutical and bio-pharmaceutical companies.
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Assam Company posts Rs.11.57-cr net
Kolkata: Assam Company has registered a jump in net profit at Rs11.57 crore during the year ended December 31, 2005, against Rs2.45 crore recorded in the previous year. The gross revenue for the company went up by 12 per cent to Rs131.14 crore from Rs112.64 crore reported in 2004.

The gross revenue for the quarter ended December 31, 2005 increased by 12 per cent to Rs49.24 crore, as against Rs43.70 crore posted during the same period in previous fiscal. The net profit during the quarter was Rs2.62 crore.

The EPS of the company for the year ended December 2005 stood at Re 0.52 consequent upon a stock split, effected from November 9, 2005.

Assam Company has approved raising the FII holding to 49 per cent. It has also applied to the National Stock Exchange for listing of its shares.
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Pentamedia posts 8 pc rise in net profit
Chennai: Pentamedia Graphics which is into entertainment graphics has posted a net profit of Rs1.55 crore in the third quarter ended December 31, 2005, an increase of 8 per cent compared from the year-ago period.

The company's total income for the quarter stood at Rs26.34 crore, a company release said. Pentamedia's CD/CBT division got major orders in the last quarter. The division is in the final stages of discussion with vendors for setting up a DVD9/DVD10 replication unit.

The company has also launched 'Maya Mall', a shopping complex at a Theme park during the quarter under review.
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Gangotri Textiles to float IPO
Coimbatore: Gangotri Textiles Gangotri has filed the draft red herring prospectus with SEBI for its proposed public issue of equity shares of Rs55 crore under the book building process.

In its latest results the company has reported a 45 percent increase in net profit at Rs6.85 crore, against Rs4.71 crore declared last year. The profit stood Rs19.49 crore for the first nine months of the fiscal as against Rs14.92 crore during the same period in 2004-05.

The company registered a lower turnover at Rs111.20 crore from Rs139.86 crore last year due to a sharp drop both in yarn and cotton prices.

The company, manufacturers and exporters of quality ring and open-end spun yarn, and Tibre brand men's wear, has worked with 92 per cent capacity utilization.
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Ashok Leyland receives Rs 2.3 bn order from army
Mumbai: Ashok Leyland India's second-biggest bus and truck maker, has finalised a Rs2.3-billion order from the Indian army to supply products and spares.

After the news shares in Ashok Leyland rose 5 percent to Rs32.10.
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