Wipro eyes US$300mn revenue in GM deal
Bangalore: Wipro expects revenues of more than US$300mn (over Rs1,300 crore) from the five-year IT outsourcing contract signed with global auto giant General Motors (GM) on Thursday.

US auto major GM finalised its US$15bn mega outsourcing deal by signing up IT suppliers like EDS, Hewlett Packard, Capgemini, IBM, Compuware Covisint and Wipro to source systems integration services for its extended global enterprise over five years.

While EDS will retain the most business at GM, HP and Capgemini were expected to increase their existing business.
Sudip Banerjee, president, enterprise solutions, Wipro Technologies, said Wipro in partnership with EDS has won four RFPs (request for proposals) of the 43 floated by the automaker.

The lone RFP won by Wipro on its own relates to the development of middleware systems for GM and the company would also contribute to the development of GM's Onestar, a vehicle tracking system and a proprietary next-generation technology.

Wipro expects revenues from this deal to flow in from the second quarter of fiscal 2007, he said. The current deal largely covers areas of application, development and maintenance with some element of testing services.

Wipro is the only Indian company to have won this deal.
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IA launches 'unchecked fares' in 146 sectors
New Delhi: The state owned airline, Indian Airlines has launched `unchecked fares' that offer highly reduced fares for travel in economy class on 146 sectors.

The airline said that under the scheme a passenger can travel between Delhi and Kochi for Rs3,200 against the current lowest one-way fare of Rs8,035. Similarly, a passenger can travel between Delhi and Hyderabad for Rs2,300 against the existing lowest fare of Rs3,965, while the lowest one-way fare between Chennai-Delhi will be available at Rs3,200 against the current lowest fare of Rs5,065.

The `unchecked fares' will be offered on a limited number of seats and are valid till April 30.
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Tata Motors car sales up 15 pc in Jan.
New Delhi: Tata Motors has declared a 15 per cent growth in sale of passenger cars at 20,765 units. This is the company's highest ever sales in one month and was achieved due to galloping sales of hatchback 'Indica' which grew by 18.7 per cent at 12,640 units over the corresponding period last year .

Cumulative sales of passenger cars in the domestic market for the 10 months of this fiscal stood at 1,48,275 units, a growth of 3.7 per cent.

Commercial vehicles sales in January this year in the domestic market was up 25.3 per cent at 21,301 units against 17,003 vehicles sold in the same month last year. While medium and heavy commercial vehicles (M&HCV) sales stood at 13,086 units, LCV sales were 8,215 units.

Cumulative sales of commercial vehicles in the domestic market in the 10 months ending January 31, 2006, stood at 1,64,770 units.
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Lanco gets three hydelpower projects in Uttaranchal
Hyderabad: Lanco Green Power has bagged three hydropower projects in Uttaranchal, aggregating 53.4 MW. These projects are Rambara (24 MW), Gourikund (18.60 MW), and Phata Byung (10.80 MW), according to a company statement.
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Reliance hikes prices of select products
Mumbai: Reliance Industries has increased prices of some of its products including polyester and fibre intermediates. The company hiked the price of partially oriented yarn (POY) by Rs1.68 to Rs66.54 per kg from its month old price of Rs64.86.

Price of Polyester Stable Fibre (PSF) is increased to Rs66.30 per kg from earlier Rs65.30.

For fibre intermediate products, the new price of purified terephthalic Acid (PTA) is Rs45.10 per kg and mono ethylene glycol is priced at Rs45.90 per kg.

Polyethylene (PE) price has been increased to Rs58.58 per kg from Rs57.42, Polyvinyl Chloride price has been increased by Rs2 to Rs40.
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India Infoline in pact with Saraswat Bank
Mumbai: Financial services provider, India Infoline, has entered into a strategic alliance with Saraswat Bank to offer equity research, broking and portfolio management services to the bank's clients.

As per the alliance, India Infoline would extend its broking facilities to the online as well as offline customers of the bank via its broking brand, 5paisa.com, it informed the Stock Exchange.

The bank's customers in turn would get access to the company's research and online technology platform at no cost and would be offered the most competitive brokerage rates as well.

Customers would also be able to trade in equities, derivatives as well as commodities through any mode namely Internet, telephone or physically at any of the company's branches using only one account.
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Deepak Fertiliser's retail company to lease space
Mumbai: Deepak Fertilisers & Petrochemicals Corporation said its speciality-retailing project, Ishanya, would lease out about 20 per cent of its space to global brands.

An agreement to this effect has been signed with Home Solutions on January 06, Deepak Fertiliser informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Ishanya had earlier leased out 50 per cent of its leasable space five months before its scheduled opening, he added.

Home Town, Welspun, Nitco, E Zone, Collection I, Ace (a US-based brand being brought to India by Pidilite Industries), Goodlass Nerolac, Welspun, Fab India, Armstrong and Bose are some of the brands that have already signed up with Ishanya.
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Riddhi Siddhi gets Rs.6-cr order from Heinz
Mumbai: Riddhi Siddhi Gluco Biols has bagged an Rs6 crore order from Heinz India and has completed the expansion and modernisation of its plants in seven months. The company invested Rs30 crore in the modernisation of its plant.

After the expansion the company will increase the overall maize crushing capacity to 73 per cent at 2,85,000 MT per annum from the current 1,65,000 MT per annum and the capacity of starch and allied products to 1,92,000 tpa from 1,25,000 tpa.

The benefits of the increased capacity will fully accrue in 2006-07 the company has said. The capital expenditure for the modernisation and expansion was funded through internal accruals, partly from preferential allotment and term loan.

The benefits of this expansion will help Riddhi Siddhi consolidate its market leadership.
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KLG Systel may get rural electrification contract
New Delhi: KLG Systel said it is likely to get a Rs91 crore contract for rural electrification projects in Rajasthan as it made the lowest bid of Rs91 crore for rural electricity infrastructure and household electrification under the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana.

Under this project, KLG will electrify 95,000 households in about 3,000 villages in Jaipur and Tonk districts of the state.
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Dr. Reddy's in joint development pact with UK co.
Mumbai: Dr Reddy's Laboratories said it has entered into an agreement with the UK-based Argenta Discovery for the joint development and commercialisation of a new approach for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Under the terms of the agreement, the company and Argenta will collaborate to identify clinical candidates from a certain class of Dr Reddy's compounds for use as potential treatments for COPD, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Both the parties will jointly develop the selected candidates from the pre-clinical stage up to proof-of-concept (Phase IIa) and on completion of the trials, the companies might either license-out the candidates for further development and commercialisation to a larger pharmaceutical company or continue the further co-development and commercialisation themselves, the company said.
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BHEL makes solar plant in Sunderbans operational
New Delhi: Bharat Heavy Electricals has commissioned a 110-kWp standalone solar photovoltaic power plant at Kayla Para in Sagar Island in the Sunderbans area of West Bengal, This is the second solar project to be commissioned by BHEL against a contract for five such plants by West Bengal Renewable Energy Development Agency. The other three plants would also be commissioned by June 2006, a BHEL release said.

The Kayla Pala plant is equipped with a 150-watt photovoltaic modules and the power generated by it would be distributed to households through transmission lines, the release said.
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Nortel, Huawei Tech enter into JV
New Delhi: Nortel and Huawei Technologies have entered into a joint venture to develop ultra broadband access solutions for global markets.

The two companies have also entered into a supply agreement that allows Nortel to immediately begin engaging customers with Huawei's current broadband access portfolio. The new company will combine Huawei's market leading broadband access solutions with Nortel's voice and broadband networking technologies to create a new product portfolio, it said.
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Quintegra Solutions sets up Malaysian arm
Chennai: Software solutions firm Quintegra Solutions has set up a subsidiary in Malaysia with an investment of about 500,000 Malaysian ringitt. The firm plans to develop the Malaysian facility, Quintegra Solutions (M) Sdn.Bhd, to serve as its regional development as well as customer relationship management centre, a company release said.

The Malaysian subsidiary would employ more than 100 people in the current year in the facility. This would be Quintegra's third development centre apart from Chennai and Bangalore.

"Malaysia would become the hub for our managed services initiative and the disaster recovery site for our India development centres," Quintegra chief operating officer, Vivek Vaid, said.

The Malaysian subsidiary has been accorded multi-media super corridor (MSC) status by Multimedia Development Corporation Sdn.Bhd., a Malaysian government body promoting IT initiatives in Malaysia.

The status would help Quintegra enjoy the benefits offered by the Malaysian Government. The Company is planning to partner with local firms and to create a near-shore development centre in Malaysia catering to the growing APAC region.
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AMP Sanmar renamed as Reliance Life
New Delhi: Reliance Capital controlled by Anil Ambani has received regulatory approval to change the name of AMP Sanmar Life Insurance to Reliance Life Insurance.

Reliance Capital had acquired the entire equity capital of AMP of Australia and Chennai-based Sanmar Group in AMP Sanmar Life Insurance for Rs100 crore in September last year to make a direct entry into life insurance with a readymade customer base.

While giving permission to Reliance Life to carry on life insurance in India, IRDA said that RLICL will have to honour its commitments to the policyholders of AMP Sanmar on the same terms and conditions subject to which they were issued.
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VLS Q3 net profit doubles at Rs.5.94-cr
New Delhi: VLS Finance, a non banking finance company, has reported a doubling of its net profit to Rs5.94 crore for the third quarter of this fiscal against Rs1.98 crore during the same period last year.

The company generated total income of Rs615 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2005, an increase of 50 per cent to Rs410 crore in the third quarter of 2004-05.

The income from operations grew to Rs622 crore against Rs410 crore over the period. Revenue from investments stood at Rs7 crore during September-December, 2005 against Rs0.50 crore during the third quarter of the year-ago period, company said in a statement here.
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Hexaware Q4 net up 41 pc
Mumbai: Hexaware Technologies has posted 41.70 per cent rise in profit after tax of Rs30.05 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2005 as compared to Rs21.30 crore for the same quarter in 2004-05.

Total income increased 26.38 per cent to Rs106.59 crore for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2005 from Rs84.34 crore in the year-ago period, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The Board of Directors has proposed a 30 per cent (Re 0.60 per share) final dividend on equity shares of Rs2 each subject to approval of the shareholders at the ensuing Annual General Meeting.
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Nokia ordered to pay service tax for consultancy work abroad
New Delhi: Nokia India suffered a legal setback when a tax appellate tribunal ordered it to pay service tax on consultancy services offered by it to the parent company's clients.

Rejecting Nokia's appeal, the customs, excise, sales tax appellate tribunal held that services provided by the company to clients abroad were technical assistance and consultative in nature and not merely maintenance and repair services and hence the income from these services were taxable.

The issue came to light on February 2, 2001 when officials of anti-evasion branch of the central excise commissionerate visited its registered office at Radisson complex, New Delhi. During their enquiry they found that company was providing services in 'consulting engineering' for the telecommunication division of its parent company.

Later, the excise department calculated the estimated business of the company for the period between July 1997 and December 2000 and ordered it to pay a service tax of Rs7.03 crore.

It also imposed a penalty of Rs17 crore under various sections of Finance Act for suppression and concealment of tax liabilities.
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Clarins to set up outlets in every Indian city
Mumbai: Paris-based skincare and cosmetics player Clarins plans to expand its presence in India by having outlets in each city within the next one year.

Currently the company has two outlets of Clarins in Mumbai and Bangalore and our aim is to have outlets in each Indian city in the next one year said Clarins head of Indian operations Hemansu Kotecha said.

Clarins has been operating in India for the last five years and has a presence in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata.
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Reliance questions AAI chief's role in bidding
New Delhi: Reliance airport developers has challenged the entire bidding process in the Delhi High Court, and wrote a protest letter last evening to each member of the empowered group of ministers (EGoM) on airport modernisation highlighting the conflict of interest of AAI chief K Ramalingam and civil aviation ministry joint secretary Sanjay Narayan, who had participated in the bidding procedure.

In its letter, Reliance, which lost the Delhi airport to GMR despite being the highest financial bidder, alleged that the two officials had played an active role at excluding the company and favouring the rival, informed sources said.

Reliance said the two officials were also on the board of Hyderabad international airport, which is a joint venture between GMR and AAI but did not disclose this at any time, either in public or at the decision making body, EGoM.
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