Bharti-IBM in $100mn outsourcing deal
New Delhi: Bharti Airtel has entered into a $100-million deal with global IT major IBM to set up content and applications delivery platform for its 25 million subscribers.

The platform will enable Bharti to bring all its value added services and applications such as ring tones, hello tunes and interactive features under one umbrella apart from developing a suit of new offerings.

IBM will develop, manage and operate the services delivery platform (SDP) for Bharti. The new deal is in addition to the $750 million outsourcing contract given to IBM in 2004 for managing Bharti's IT needs including billing and customer management systems.
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GE Shipping board calls off de-merger proposal
Mumbai: The Board of Directors of Great Eastern Shipping Co have called off the proposal to de-merge its offshore business into a separate entity Great Offshore Ltd as the stipulated time of six months had elapsed for wrapping up the de-merger process from the date of the Bombay High Court order approving the scheme.

This has also brought the curtain down on all speculations of family division and spat between the Sheth brothers. Sources close to the company say that another reason for the proposal to be called off could be an improvement in relations between the brothers.

The de-merger process got delayed as the company was not able to get approvals from various contracting counter parties. Oil and Natural Gas Commission was also initially reluctant to give its approval in negotiating with a new entity on the ground that its contract was with GE Shipping. When ONGC finally gave its conditional approval there was not much time left with GE Shipping to wrap up the de-merger process within the stipulated deadline.
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Saint-Gobain lines up Rs175-cr expansion plans
Hyderabad: Saint-Gobain Glass India (SGGI), a subsidiary of the French major Saint-Gobain France, is planning its second phase of scaling up capacities in its automotive glass division to tap the emerging opportunities in the Indian automobile space.

The company said it has already over invested in infrastructure and has created a capacity of 0.5 million windshields and 1 million sets of door glasses with an investment of Rs170 crore between 2003 and `05. The company has also developed local sources for key inputs such as raw materials and also over invested on inward and outward logistics by bringing in knowledge from the existing facilities across the globe.
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Godrej to invest Rs100-cr in refrigerator unit
Kolkata: Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing Co's appliances division has firmed up plans to invest Rs100 crore in a refrigerator manufacturing facility at Sherwal near Pune. The plant will have a capacity to manufacture five lakh refrigerators every year.

The company's refrigerators' sales have gone up considerably after the introduction of ZOP technology refrigerators in April this year. Consequently, the sales had gone up by 27 per cent in the first quarter of the current fiscal over April-June 2005.
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Bharat Forge moving forward to achieve $1bn global revenue
Coimbatore: Bharat Forge (BFL) is on course to achieve its objective of registering global revenue of $1 billion by the financial year 2008.

The company is confident that as it reaches forging capacity of 2.40 lakh tones per annum (tpa), its profit growth would outpace revenue growth. It has also identified non-automotive business as a future growth driver.

The company's capacity expansion programme has entered the last phase of execution and the entire forging capacity expansion would be completed by September and the crankshaft machining capacity increase would be completed by December. The effective capacity would be fully available for starting trial production by the third quarter of the financial year 2007.

BFL said that during 2004-05 financial year, the company had forging capacity of 1.20 lakh tpa and this would double to 2.40 lakh tpa by the end of the current financial year.

The full benefit of the increase in capacity would be felt during 2007-08. The company says it's `on track' with its initial objective of achieving global revenue of $1 billion by the financial year 2008. In the first quarter of this year, the company's combined revenue was over Rs10 billion (about $220 million).
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SAP India, IIMB sign agreement for e-governance tools
Bangalore: SAP India and the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore have signed an MoU to work together in areas of public sector and e-governance. As part of the MoU, SAP would support IIMB's Centre for Enterprise Resource Planning, whilst IIMB's faculty would collaborate with SAP in the creation, sharing and dissemination of knowledge on e-governance.

IIMB is actively working towards creating a platform for cost effective implementation of e-governance, which could usher in competitiveness and good governance. E-governance had a wide scope in streamlining the administration of the Governments.

The SAP CEO and chairman of executive board, Henning Kagermann, said the world IT business was estimated at $1,000 billion, of which the share of the governments was 25 per cent but still remained largely untapped. "The MoU was not a business proposition, but a tie-up to solve the constraints being faced by the Governments and PSUs which would lead to better service to citizens," he said.

The major focus of the tie-up is to create a flexible platform to disseminate knowledge in education system. Many governments in Asia, including Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and some North Asian countries, had successfully adopted the SAP e-governance platforms.
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Fosters to exit Vietnam, India
Mumbai: Foster's Group, the largest alcoholic drinks company in Australia, plans to sell its brewing businesses in India and Vietnam in deals worth US$225 million, marking its exit from brewing in Asia.

The sale follows its exit this year from its China brewery and the sale of its brand in Europe, with the total value of all the transactions exceeding A$1 billion ($758 million), as it overhauls its under-performing international beer division. According to Foster's the sale of the businesses in China, India and Vietnam would generate net proceeds of more than A$300 million and eliminate loss-making operations.

The company would sell its brewery, local brands and the Foster's brand for $120 million in India to SABMiller Plc, which also holds the licensing rights for the brand in the United States and is expanding in India.

In Vietnam, Foster's will sell its two breweries, local brands and licence out the Foster's brand to Singapore-based Asia Pacific Breweries Ltd. for $105 million.
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Top Indian IT cos outpace MNCs
Bangalore: According to a report titled, "IT Services Paradigm Shift Drives Continued Indian Provider Success," written by Stephanie Moore, vice- president, Forrester Research, top tier Indian IT services firms have outpaced their global counterparts on revenue and profit growth parameters.

The report analysing the performance of Indian It companies indicates that Tier I Indian vendors have continued to thrive while global firms are losing ground, especially in the application services market. The report refutes a pending slowdown among Indian providers and firmly believes the offshore trend to continue.

The report says that while most legacy service providers worldwide like IBM, Accenture, Unisys and Keane among others have posted minimal to negative growth in the recent past, companies like Infosys, TCS and Wipro have all reported outstanding revenue and profit growth for their latest quarters, she added.

It further states that Indian firms will continue to grow — not just because they are a lower-cost option — because they have caused a `fundamental' and `structural' change in the service provider-client relationship.
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Reliance to launch three new fibres
New Delhi: The $19.9 billion Reliance Industries, the world's largest manufacturer of polyester yarns and fibres, will introduce three fibres in the next 15 months.

These fibres will be specially developed for the Indian market by its Patalganga-based research centre. RIL had launched the Recron fibre over a year back.

The new fibre range will include an anti-bacterial fibre, a fire retardant fibre and one with high hygroscopic capacity. The company has already begun commercial trials for these products.

The anti-bacterial fibre would find extensive use in inner wear garments, surgical gowns and drapes, operation theatre sheets, wound dressings, bed sheets, towels, baby wipes, diapers and feminine hygiene products.

The fire retardant fibre, also being test marketed, has an additive being introduced at the molecule stage itself that would see the yarn retain its fire retardant properties throughout its life unlike conventional yarn that has a fire retardant chemical sprayed on it that reduces in efficacy with each wash.

The polyester yarn developed with high hygroscopic properties will, for the first time, introduce polyester yarn for the towelling industry, which otherwise conventionally sources either cotton or spunlace yarn. This yarn will also have application in sportswear for its ability to remain dry despite perspiration.
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Ram Info gets e-gov deal
Hyderabad: Ram Informatics Ltd has informed the Bombay Stock Exchange that the company has entered into a contract with the Uttar Pradesh Government for "eSuvidha," an e-Governance project for Lucknow city. The company will jointly execute the project with CMS Computers. The contract has been signed with the Uttar Pradesh Government for execution by the consortium of CMS Computers Ltd and the company. The project is to be implemented as a BOOT (build, own, operate and transfer) financial model for a period of 5 years.
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