L&T secures Rs481.6-cr water supply project
Mumbai: Engineering and construction organisation Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has obtained a Rs481.6-crore turnkey order from the Rajasthan Urban Infrastructure Development Project for setting up a water supply system for the Asian Development Bank aided Bisalpur Water Supply Project.

The project will be executed by L&T's ECC Division.

The project aims to reduce the city of Jaipur's dependence on ground water resources by catering to the city's increasing water demand. Once this project is completed, Jaipur will have 360 million per day (MLD) of treated water and its adjoining rural areas by 40 MLD. The project is expected to be completed in 30 months. Design, supply, laying, jointing, testing and commissioning of 106-km long mild steel pipelines and a 400-MLD capacity water treatment plant as well as providing pumping machinery, electrical, instrumentation and automation works also fall under the scope of this project.
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BHEL gets order from Essar Steel
New Delhi: Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) has received a Rs113 crore order to construct a captive power plant at Essar Steel's plant in Gujarat. According to BHEL it would set up a 110.6 MW Gas Turbine Generator Set to enhance the capacity of the present captive power plant at Essar Steel's Hazira plant.

The project is slated for completion in 14 months. The company, would design, manufacture, supply, install, test and commission the new Gas Turbine generator, it said, adding that the Set would be manufactured at BHEL's Hyderabad plant.
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Punj Lloyd gets order from RIDCOR
New Delhi: Punj Lloyd the engineering and construction firm has received a Rs302-crore project from the Road Infrastructure Development Company of Rajasthan (RIDCOR) a joint initiative between the Rajasthan Government and IL&FS Ltd.

The order pertains to the improvement and maintenance of the Lalsot to Kota road section in the State. The project involves widening of the 195-km stretch of existing road to two lanes with a width of 10.5 metres. The work is expected to be completed within 21 months and the maintenance would be completed in another 60 months, the company said in a statement. With this project, Punj Lloyd has four highways projects in Rajasthan.

The company has also bagged a Rs117-crore order from Singapore-based Helios Terminal Corporation Pte Ltd, for procurement and construction of storage tanks and other works for the Bulk Liquid Storage and Blending Facility at Jurong Island, Singapore.
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Reliance Capital shifts regd office to Mumbai
Mumbai: Reliance Capital has informed BSE that the board of directors of the company at the annual general meeting held on June 9 approved the proposal to shift the registered office of the company from Gujarat to Maharashtra. Anil Ambani has also been re-appointed as director of the company retiring by rotation. Udayan Bose and C.P. Jain were appointed as directors of the company and V.R. Mohan company secretary and manager of the company. Shares of Reliance Capital fell by Rs19.55 to Rs380.95 on the BSE.
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Essilor India ventures into rural India
Chennai: Essilor India has set foot into rural India in line with its long-term business objectives and corporate social responsibility plans. The company is testing the vision of residents of 600 villages and dispensing spectacles at subsidised rates through a van equipped with testing equipment and an edger to cut the lens as per the prescription at a pilot project in Karnataka. The company has tied up with the Chennai-based Sankara Netralaya for this project.

V. Jayant, managing director, Essilor India said the programme would be extended to other States if it proved sustainable. After cataract, uncorrected refractive error is the biggest cause for blindness in India, he said, adding that this was a problem that could be solved easily. The programme is on in Chikmaglur, Hassan, Mandya, Tumkur, Kolar and Chamarajanagar districts in Karnataka. Essilor India has a 5-year plan for this initiative.
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NTC achieves turnaround with Rs1,014-cr net
New Delhi: The chronically sick and unviable National Textile Corporation (NTC) has finally turned around with the holding company for the first time recording a net profit of Rs1,014 crore (provisional) for the financial year 2005-06.

The chairman-cum-managing director of NTC, K. Ramachandran Pillai said, this was possible due to the self-financed revival scheme out of the sale of its own lands and mobilising money from the markets through bonds which the corporation is paying it back with interest.

The NTC has also closed as many as 65 mills under the Industrial Disputes Act with the help of a modified voluntary retirement scheme. As many as 52,762 employees exited the organisation during the last two years till June 1, 2006. The revival scheme is also self-financing the amount that has been mobilised from the market would be repaid by sale of assets of the closed mills and the surplus assets of the running mills. The company has also sold assets worth Rs3,000 crore. It paid Rs1,808.24 crore for the modified voluntary retirement scheme compensation and fulfilled its obligations to pay interest on these bonds amounting to Rs450 crore, in addition to paying Rs248.69 crore as one-time settlement to banks and financial institutions. It has also disbursed Rs184.19 crore by way of settlement of all its (overdue) PF/ESI and other statutory dues he added.

NTC expects to begin repayment of bond money, which it had mobilised for the retirement scheme from January 2007 as it has provisioned sufficient resources for the same. The NTC has also been able to successfully garner Rs2,020 crore from the sale of five of its mills in Mumbai after a long drawn out legal battle.
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Nasscom holds special Product Forum
Pune: The think-tank body of Nasscom the Special Product Forum is holding a seminar at Pune on June 13 called, 'Prospering in the New Product Ecosystem: Strategies to become a successful product company.' The Forum will focus on the future for companies looking to tap the product business of the industry.

Nasscom's special product forum has been set up in order to provide impetus to the product segment by encouraging companies to venture into product space, and aims to catalyse and address various issues and concerns of companies operating or wanting to tap this segment.

The Nasscom President, Kiran Karnik, will inaugurate the session, which will see i-flex Solutions CEO, India Operations and CFO, Deepak Ghasias, giving an overview of the product landscape in India before the seminar talks about the emerging market for products, the importance of marketing strategy for Indian companies venturing into this space. The list of speakers also includes Ram Narayanan, strategic business advisor, Microsoft; Persistent Systems CMD, Anand Deshpande; and the Compulink CEO, Vishwas Mahajan.
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HZL slashes zinc prices by Rs9,300
Mumbai: Hindustan Zinc has slashed prices of high-grade primary zinc products by Rs9,300 a tonne to Rs1, 86,000 in line with softening global metal prices, a company official said. The company had last cut prices June 3. Prices of other zinc products have also been cut by Rs9,300 a tonne, the official said. Lead prices have been cut by Rs400 a tonne to Rs60,700 a tonne.

On Monday the three-month zinc contract on the London Metal Exchange quoted at $3,280 a tonne in early trade compared with the previous close of $3,320.

The metal, used as an anti-corrosive agent, touched a record high of $3,970 a tonne on May 11. Hindustan Zinc shares closed at Rs507 on the Bombay Stock Exchange, down 1.8 per cent from Friday. (CMW).
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Nokia, Ericsson and others bid for BSNL`s mega tender
New Delhi: Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola, Siemens and ZTE, have put in bids for Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd's tender for 45.5 million GSM lines. Nortel and Huawei dropped out of the bidding.

"The committee has five BSNL officials and two telecom experts. The evaluation and allotment of the tender is expected to be over in 2-3 months," Sinha said.
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Jessop net up 100 pc
Kolkata: Ruia Group controlled engineering firm Jessop & Co, has more than doubled its net profit in a year, since its disinvestment in August 2003.

Net profit rose to Rs9.98 crore in 2005-06 against Rs4.82 crore in 2004-05. Turnover stood at Rs78.76 crore compared with last year's Rs77.95 crore. The board of directors has recommended a dividend of 8 per cent.

P K Ruia, chairman of Jessop, said better cost control and effective outsourcing pushed up profits.

The company now has an order book position of Rs130 crore.

Jessop was nationalised after Independence but suffered heavy losses in the 1990s, and was transferred to the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) in 1995.
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Godrej Foods to buy Nutrine for Rs270-crore
Mumbai: Godrej Foods and a private equity fund IL&FS are set to acquire privately-owned Nutrine Confectionery for Rs270 crore ($59 million) according to reports in the media. Godrej Foods was spun off Godrej Industries Ltd a few years ago. This is said to be the largest single brand acquisition in the Indian consumer goods space.

IL&FS has contributed about Rs90 crore toward the acquisition.

The deal marks a complete exit from the sugar boiled confectionery business for Nutrine. Earlier Parry's Confectionery, Cadbury and Nestle expressed interest in acquiring Nurtrine while UK-based private equity fund Actis had also bid for the company.
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