TCS to develop software for Sequenom
Mumbai: Tata Consultancy Services has signed a pact with US based Nasdaq-listed company Sequenom, which provides genetic analysis products to develop its software solutions. TCS officials described it as a multi-million dollar deal but did not specify the exact size of the contract. TCS' advanced technology centre is based in Hyderabad and houses the life sciences R&D division.

The project indicates the acceptance of TCS in the life sciences and pharmaceuticals sectors, said S. Ramadorai, TCS CEO and managing director. The Sequenom project would be completed over 12 months. All developments under the agreement will utilise modern development practices and conform to the relevant US Food and Drug Administration regulatory standards, said a company statement.

The software to be developed will provide components that provide access to public and private life sciences databases, integration of bio-informatics and computational biology tools within the framework and enable design and execution of workflows.

TCS officials said Sequenom will not have proprietary right over the database. TCS's software package, Bio-Suite, would be integrated within the framework.
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Hero Honda hikes prices
New Delhi: Two wheeler maker Hero Honda has hiked the prices of its motorcycles marginally by Rs500 to Rs2,000.

The company said it took the decision to compensate for the increased inflationary costs in raw materials such as steel, aluminium, rubber, etc. The company said the hike will impact its operating margins.

The new price revisions will come to effect from August 1.

The company has increased the price of Hero Honda CD Dawn by Rs1,000. Prices of Hero Honda Splendor +, Hero Honda Passion Plus and Hero Honda Achiever have been increased by Rs750.

The price of Hero Honda Super Splendor has been increased by Rs500 while the premium model Karizma will be dearer by Rs2,000. There is no change in prices of Hero Honda CD Deluxe, Glamour and Pleasure.
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UB Group moves to AP: to set up winery, grain spirit units
Hyderabad: The UB Group Spirits Division plans will set up new units in Andhra Pradesh to make wine and liquor from `grain spirit'. It has already applied for the necessary license from the State Government.

The winery would see an investment of Rs20-25 crore. In the grain-based spirits, the company is planning to launch `Royal Mist', a deluxe whisky soon, along with firming up plans for investments. The location of the winery is yet to be decided.

UB has garnered 45 per cent of the entire Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) market in Andhra Pradesh last year with a turnover of Rs150 crore. The UB Group has Golconda Ruby and Bosca wines. It had a winery, consequent to the acquisition of Shaw Wallace Co, but shifted it out a few years ago. The Company has two plants at Malkajgiri and Nacharam in AP, is also planning to expand capacities to meet the growing demand from AP State, the biggest liquor market in the country now.
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Aurobindo's combination drug gets US FDA nod
Hyderabad: Aurobindo Pharma has received a tentative approval for its new drug application (NDA) for fixed drug combination product containing lamivudine 150 mg + 2idovudine 300 mg tablets co-packaged with abacavir 300 mg tablets (NDA) used in the treatment of HIV-1 infection. The three drugs are now available in one single pack. The company said this fixed drug combination pack comprises two-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors and a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor and is used in HIV treatment.

The company said this is the first NDA generic approval in the world for a three-drug combination pack. The company said it is vertically integrated in the active pharmaceutical ingredients and formulation for this product.
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Man Ind board approves plan to de-merge aluminium division
Mumbai: The Board of Directors of Man Industries (India) has approved a proposal to de-merge its aluminium division, in order to enhance shareholders value. The proposed scheme of de-merger envisages a share exchange ratio of one equity share of the face value of Rs10 each of the resulting company for every eight equity shares of face value Rs10 each held in Man Industries. R.C. Mansukhani, chairman of the company said the de-merger of the aluminium division would lead to better and specialised management of this division by a single entity.

The company has reported a 44 per cent jump in its net profit for the first quarter of this fiscal to touch Rs10.43 crore, as against Rs7.24 crore in the corresponding quarter of the last fiscal. During the quarter, its total sales touched Rs208.30 crore (Rs120.80 crore), marking an increase of 72 per cent.
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Bharti told to route all STD calls via BSNL
New Delhi: Telecom tribunal TDSAT has rejected basic Bharti Telnet's petition and directed that long distance (STD) call traffic of Bharti would be carried by BSNL from the point of origin.

Bharti had contended it was entitled to carry long distance call traffic on its own up to the point where its network was available. This would have resulted in huge savings to the company on payment of interconnection charges to BSNL.

Bharti Telnet, a sister concern of telecom major Airtel, has licence to provide basic telephone services in Madhya Pradesh and Haryana.

As per the licence agreement, state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) was to provide national and intercircle links to the customers of Bharti Telnet.

Through their interconnection agreement, Bharti was also connecting calls made by its subscribers to the BSNL's network on revenue share basis.

Later a dispute arose over the terms and condition of the agreement. Bharti claimed as per the agreement it was entitled to carry all calls made by its subscribers to the far-end points on its network before transferring it to BSNL.
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Usha Martin to invest Rs1200-cr over next four years
Kolkata: Usha Martin one the largest steel wire makers in the world, will invest Rs1,200 crore over the next four years. The investment would go towards the company's capital expenditure to enhance steel capacity expansion to one million tonne as well as value added product capacity enhancements.

The company has obtained shareholders' approval for raising up to $75 million by way of public issue, private placement, preferential allotment basis, along with an option to the lead manager to acquire up to an additional 20% equity shares or GDRs or FCCBs or ADRs.

Usha Martin aims to become the largest wire rope company over the next couple of years. It has also tied up backward linkages. Its iron ore mine is operational and the company would begin coal mining commence by the end of this year.
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Infy gets into training: to invest Rs1,200 cr
Bangalore: Infosys Technologies plans to spend Rs1200 crore by June 2007 in setting up training facilities at its Global Education Centre (GEC) and Infosys Leadership Institute (ILI) in Mysore.

Upon completion of the infrastructure and training facility, the GEC and ILI will be in a position to train 40,000 people every year.

While the GEC aims to educate Infoscions on technological and managerial skills with the rationale of creating cohesive multicultural teams, the ILI helps the company respond to specific challenges of building the next generation of leaders within Infosys.

Upon completion of the work, the GEC and ILI will have 6 million sq.ft of space for education making the company the largest investor in Indian history in education. Apart from the investment on the facility, the company will spend $5,000 on each candidate for training.

The GEC runs a 16-week centralised residential foundation programme to impart generic and stream specific training in various technology areas along with soft skills to fresh engineering graduates, who have joined Infosys.
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Reliance Communications Q1 net up at Rs513-cr
Mumbai: Reliance Communications (RCL) has registered a consolidated net profit of Rs513 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2006 (Q1FY07) against a net loss of Rs250 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2005 (Q1FY06).

The net revenue for Q1FY07 stood at Rs3,250 crore when compared with Rs2,283 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2005.

Since the company is a pre-operative stage as at June 30, 2005, profit and loss account was not prepared for that period. Hence, the figures relating to the quarter and six months ended June 30, 2006 are not comparable, the release said.
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IOC Q1 net profit at Rs1,781-cr; to foray into retailing
Mumbai: Indian Oil Corporation has reported a net profit of Rs1,780.52 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2006 against a net loss of Rs57.93 crore in Q1FY06. Its total income increased to Rs49,003.64 crore from Rs 38,835.24 crore in Q1FY06.

Indian Oil Corporation is planning a major foray into the non-fuel retail business, hoping to cash in on the country's growing organised retail market.

The venture will seek to exploit the company's extensive network and presence across India.

The foray is yet to be approved by the company's board; and it is likely that a special purpose vehicle may be set up for the purpose.

The retail venture will be different from the existing "Convenio" range of small retail vends located in some of the 12,000-odd Indian Oil filling stations.

It is likely that Indian Oil may tie up with a major retail chain, and open co-branded petrol pump-cum-retail plazas.

The company is also planning to set up petrol pumps at multiplexes and hyper-markets to improve its auto fuel sales.

Details of these retail outlets will be finalised jointly with mall developers, and the board's approval will be sought separately for specific cases.
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Birla Nuvo to start operations in Mexico
Mumbai: Aditya Birla Nuvo is now planning to enter the Mexican market after setting up operations in China, Thailand and Egypt in the carbon black business. The Aditya Birla group company is planning to set up a 50,000-tonne per annum (tpa) plant in Mexico.

Officials said this would be a greenfield facility and would developed in two phases.

The carbon black business contributed Rs175.13 crore to the company's turnover in the first quarter of the current financial year against Rs122.26 crore for the corresponding period last year. The group, through a joint venture, produces 1,50,000 tpa furnace-grade carbon black in Thailand. Similarly, it manufactures 20,000 tpa and 12,000 tpa in Egypt and China, respectively.

Carbon black is primarily used in rubber goods such as tyres and tubes for automobiles, flaps and conveyor belts. It is also used in the ink, pigment and plastic industries.

Adity Birla Nuvo is also exploring possibilities to set up a greenfield carbon black project of 60,000 tpa in western India.

Though the company has not identified the location for the proposed project it would start with a minimum capacity of 60,000 tpa. The company is also pursuing environmental clearance for a 55,000-tpa brownfield expansion in India.
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Suzlon plans capacity expansion
Mumbai: Wind energy company, Suzlon Energy Ltd (SEL) plans to expand its capacity from the present 1,500 MW to 4,200 MW. The expansion to cost Rs1500 crore would be completed by next June and would be funded entirely through internal accruals and debt, in addition to the USD 90 million already invested in its China and the US facilities.

SEL will also be setting up an innovation centre in Denmark, which will focus on concepts beyond design and development-related R&D such as materials technology, logistics costs and management areas and technology innovations for its turbines.

The company is sitting on Rs500 crore left over from its IPO and the remaining Rs1,000 crore will be raised through debt. The company has obtained its Board's approval to raise up to Rs5,000 crore through various options such as GDRs, ADRs and FCCBs. SEL also plans to expand the capacity of its gearbox manufacturing in Belgium from the present 3,300 MW to 4,500 MW by end this fiscal, the investment for which will be firmed up soon. Tanti said SEL's two manufacturing facilities in the US and China, at investments of USD 30 million and USD 60 million respectively, will be operational by September.
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Low-fare airline IndiGo to launch operations on Aug 4
New Delhi: Low-cost domestic carrier IndiGo, would begin commercial operations later this week and aimed to fly nearly half-a-million passengers over the next five months.

IndiGo became European aircraft-maker Airbus's largest Indian customer in June 2005 when it placed firm orders for 100 Airbus A320 jets, worth about $6 billion at list prices.

The first plane was delivered on Friday, and officials said the first flight would take off on Aug 4.

The privately-held airline will add a new A320-232 every month this year, and then another nine aircraft next year. Its 100th plane is expected to be delivered in 2016.
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