CSE report on colas trashed by government panel
New Delhi: The Expert panel set up by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to investigate claims of pesticides in colas made by the Centre of Science and Environment's has disagreed with the latter's findings and questioned the credibility of the CSE's laboratory, expressing doubts over its methodology of sampling and testing.

Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Anbumani Ramadoss told the Lok Sabha that a total of 213 samples had been lifted from 14 states and despatched for testing and according to reports received from the state of Gujarat, 28 samples have been analysed, and none of these samples showed presence of any of the pesticides.

The minister said there was a need for the sampling of sugar from different geographical regions to assess pesticide residue levels, and pre-empt the possibility of pesticides coming in through sugar — one of the constituents of soft drinks, apart from water.

Hence it goes without saying that the committee report has given a clean chit to the cola companies.

CSE director Sunita Narain, in turn has accused the health minister of collusion with the cola companies and went on to say that the expert committee's report was a verbatim copy of UK-based Central Science Laboratory's (CSL) report.

In response to the Expert Committee's report and the developments in Parliament today, a PepsiCo spokesperson said, "This will go a long way in reassuring consumers about the quality and safety of our products."
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Sanyo looks at local manufacture of refrigerators
Bangalore: Sanyo is considering getting its refrigerators manufactured locally in order to proceed with its plan of producing its range of direct cool refrigerators in India. At present the company imports appliances from its plants in Thailand and Vietnam.

Sanyo also plans to introduce a range of consumer electronics products, home appliances and digital imaging products from its global stable in India.

According to company officials, the company would look at volume sales through these appliances, while its colour TVs, to be marketed by Sanyo-BPL, will be positioned as a premium brand in India.

The BPL brand of CTVs, also to be marketed by Sanyo-BPL, is expected to drive the volume business.

Last year BPL had offloaded 50 pc of its stake to Sanyo for its colour television business for which it got $80 million (approximately Rs322 crore). BPL has transferred its two CTV manufacturing units, besides sales and distribution, to the venture.

BPL-Sanyo says it has achieved a market share of 4 per cent in the CTV segment and hopes to touch 7 per cent during the upcoming festival season.
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Qualcomm in efforts to lower cost of handsets
Mumbai: CDMA technology developer Qualcomm is working towards rolling out a chipset that would soon be available for commercial use and would be priced lower. This is part of Qualcomm's efforts to provide ultra low cost handsets across the emerging markets like Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRIC) among others. The new chipset would not have certain features that are not required for entry-level users, like colour display support and other high-end capabilities. However, it will support polyphonic ringtones and data operations that are normally supported by entry-level phones.

Qualcomm would also roll out its QSC, another single chipset, for mobile phones by the end of the year. Normal cell phones have four chipsets that performs various functions, and reducing the number of these chipsets helps in saving of silicon and, in turn, reduction of prices.

However, the company said the launch of the chipsets will depend on telecom manufacturers, as Qualcomm is a chip-designer and not a manufacturer.

This would be a single chipset, like the Qualcomm Single Chip (QSC) and would help OEMs in reducing the cost per handset due to the reduction in numbers of the chipsets. This would enable in cutting down the size of the handset, in turn, resulting in huge manufacturing costs.

Qualcomm Inc has begun negotiations with Indian companies to transfer licence for manufacturing handsets in the country.
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HLL seeks placement for food division employees in Bangalore
Bangalore: HLL is trying to find placements for its foods division employees in Bangalore and is talking to various recruiting companies for this. This initiative has come after the company announced its intention to relocate the foods division to Mumbai. HLL will offer outplacement services to employees who are unable to move to the new location. Recruitment industry sources in Bangalore said that out of the nearly 300 employees currently working at Brookefields, Bangalore, about one hundred are likely to seek help in outplacement. Company officials said most of the senior employees have moved out, leaving the officer and clerical grade employees with an option to move to Mumbai or seek outplacement. The company intends to complete the process by the year-end, the sources added.

Early this month, HLL had announced its intention to relocate the Bangalore workforce to Mumbai. Even at Mumbai, the consolidation process is on and all employees are expected to move to a new corporate office in 18 months, according to the sources.
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Tata Motors to roll out small car from WB plant in 2008
Kolkata: Tata Motors is not said to be looking at any alternative site for its Rs 1 lakh car, which would roll out on schedule from the proposed plant at Singur in West Bengal's Hooghly district by 2008. The company says it is satisfied with the response of the West Bengal government.

Tata Motors plans to outsource 80 per cent of auto components from Tier-I vendors who would be accommodated on 300 acres land adjoining the proposed plant. The company would require 1,000 acres for the entire project.
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IFC plans to invest $500mn in India
New Delhi: The International Finance Corporation (IFC), which is the financing arm of the World Bank is likely to invest $500 million in India this fiscal. Last fiscal (July 2005-June 2006), IFC's exposure was over $400 million, which will appreciate by 25 per cent to about $500 million this fiscal, said IFC South Asia portfolio manager, Colin J Warren.

He said last year IFC's exposure to South Asia was about $506 million of which over $400 million was invested in India. He said the key sectors where investments look attractive are pharma, infrastructure, auto component, IT and Biotech.

he said biotechnology and pharmaceuticals were potential major growth sectors in India's economy. To support these sectors, IFC has invested in APIDC biology Fund, which will make equity and equity related investment in early-stages life science business, he said.
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Goodyear India targets sales of Rs1,000crore this fiscal
New Delhi: Goodyear India is targeting to achieve a turnover of Rs1,000-crore plus this fiscal on the back of new retail forays and healthy sales, which are expected to rise by 17-18 per cent. The company had a turnover of about Rs900 crore in 2005-06.

The company is doubling its capacity at its Aurangabad plant with an investment of Rs 80 crore and also plans to set up 300 'shop-in-shop' multi-brand outlets across the country. Apart from passenger car tyres, commercial vehicles tyres are a major contributor to its revenue. Other tyre companies commanding Rs1,000-crore sales include MRF, Apollo, JK Industries and Ceat, although most of them are way ahead of the Rs1,000 crore sales figure.
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Sterlite to sell power transmission line biz
Mumbai: Sterlite Industries India has informed the BSE that the company is divesting its power transmission line (PTL) division on a going concern basis to Sterlite Optical Technologies Ltd (SOTL). SOTL will assume all assets and associated liabilities of the PTL division for a net consideration of Rs148.51 crore. With the divestment of this non-core business, Sterlite will continue to focus on being a primary metal producer.
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