Cairn Energy says Mangala output may be delayed by a year
New Delhi: Cairn Energy, the Scotland based independent oil exploration group, has said that the start of production from its main oilfield in the Rajasthan region of India has been delayed by up to a year. Kevin Hart, Cairn's finance director, said the delay had been caused by a shortage of skilled labour and services.

Cairn had been due to start pumping oil from the Mangala field, the biggest in the Rajasthan region, in late 2008 but this has now been put back to 2009. Mangala contains about 3.6 billion barrels of oil, of which Cairn expects to recover at least one billion.

News of the production delay came even as the group announced that the £3bn flotation of its Indian operations on the Mumbai stock exchange would take place in December. The group is planning to float between 25 and 50 per cent of the newly created Cairn India. It is also likely to raise new capital for its Indian operations as part of the IPO. A draft prospectus will be published this month, followed by an indicative price range in October and a final pricing in November.

Sir Bill Gammell, the chief executive and founder of Cairn, will chair the Mumbai-listed group. It has also announced the name of three non-executive directors: Naresh Chandra, a former Indian ambassdor to the US; Aman Mehta, the former chief executive of HSBC's Asia Pacific division; and Omkar Goswami, former chief economist of the Confederation of Indian Industry.

Cairn is also investigating the possibility of partnering the Indian government in building the pipeline.
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MTNL, BSNL to lay hi-speed cables globally together
New Delhi: Communication and IT minister Dayanidhi Maran has said that the country's two telecom players MTNL and BSNL have joined hands to lay high speed submarine cable systems that will connect India to South-East Asia and West Asia and eventually to US and Europe. The connections would eventually speed up international long distance communications and also help bring down tariffs.

Maran also urged telecom companies to reduce the landing costs for the calls in the West Asian region which has a sizeable Indian population.

"The present submarine cable system is not very encouraging from Indian point of view, as there are only four Indian bandwidth providers namely VSNL, Bharti, BSNL and Reliance, while there are 33 in London, 32 in the US, 32 in Germany, 24 in France and 14 in South Korea," Maran said while formally inaugurating the Falcon Submarine cable system (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Anil Ambani owned Reliance Communications Ltd).

The 2.56 terabit Falcon submarine cable system for high speed communications will connect 11 countries with India on its entire length of 11,859 Km route from Mumbai to Egypt. The cable communication system is part of the Anil Ambani owned FLAG telecom's global network, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Reliance Communications Ltd. It is the world's largest private submarine cable system spanning four continents and connecting over 35 countries.
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GCMMF dairies to adopt Brand Amul
Vadodara: A common Amul milk brand is set to come into effect throughout the state of Gujarat from October 1. As per a decision by the board of directors of the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) they have agreed to adopt a common brand name for selling milk in the state from October 1 onwards. This will see the local dairy brand names for milk being phased out gradually.

The 12-member dairies of GCMMF, barring Kaira Dairy based in Anand, have been selling milk or milk products under their respective local brand names so far, while the marketing of milk and milk products is done by GCMMF. Moves were afoot to adopt the common brand name of Amul for milk, which has wider acceptance and reach.

With a common brand name, a common price for the consumers will also come into effect across the state.
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Maruti targets sale of 1 million cars by 2010
New Delhi: With investments of Rs6,000 crore (Rs60 billion), new model launches and an expansion of manufacturing and sales set-up in the pipeline, Maruti Udyog Ltd has said that it is targeting the sale of one million cars by 2010.

"Your company is aiming at sales of one million cars per year in 2010. Investment in new facilities and in research and development are both part of the strategy to achieve the ambitious sales goal," Maruti chairman S Nakanishi told shareholders at the company's 25th AGM in New Delhi.

The company, which plans to launch "a series of new models" to attain the target, will introduce five new cars in the domestic market in as many years.

"This will be over and above face-lifts of any existing models and launch of new variants," Nakanishi said, adding that the company will also expand its network of sales outlets and service workshops.

"Besides increasing the number of outlets, your company will also revamp the quality of infrastructure and service at these outlets," he said.
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Vestas to exit Indian JV with stake sale to partner
New Delhi: Danish energy giant, Vestas Wind Systems, has decided to sell its 49% stake in Indian JV Vestas RRB India to the company's MD, Rakesh Bakshi. The move is part of a strategic repositioning by the world's largest windmill manufacturer in the Indian market.

With the sale Vestas RRB India would now become a wholly-owned Indian company.

The Denmark-based firm said in a statement that it would continue to focus on wind turbines with a capacity of 750 KW and above in the Indian market through its wholly-owned subsidiary NEG Micon India. Vestas would however continue to assist Vestas RRB to indigenise components like blades and control systems for wind turbine models.

It would also continue its technological cooperation with Vestas RRB India.
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Citigroup in fray for United Western Bank
New Delhi: Global banking major, Citibank, has confirmed that it too has submitted an Expression of Interest (EoI) to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), with respect to `rehabilitating' United Western Bank.

At present, Citibank has 39 branches in 27 cities pan-India and if the RBI approves Citibank's bid, its network will immediately catapult beyond the 250-mark.

Meanwhile the struggling United Western Bank (UWB) informed the Bombay Stock Exchange on Tuesday that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) nominees, M. Radhakrishnan and S. K. Gogia, had been appointed as additional directors on its board, effective from September 2. UWB's Director K. H. Navandhar has resigned from its board.

The board of UWB, meanwhile, has also submitted a reconstruction scheme to the RBI.

As a part of the scheme, the bank said, it has committed to bring in funds immediately to meet all liabilities and achieve adequate capital to risk weighted assets ratio (CRAR) as well as net worth requirements.

The board of UWB has filed an Expression of Interest to the RBI for submission of Scheme of Reconstruction by September 8.
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Nissan launches basic version of X-trail
Bangalore: Nissan has launched a basic version of X-trail, pricing it below Rs20 lakh, and has also introduced a new version of the same vehicle. According to Nissan officials the new variant, X-pecial, will be priced at Rs21.5 lakh (Bangalore ex-showroom price) while the higher version, Elegance, will be priced at Rs24.23 lakh. The basic diesel version of the 2.2 l X-trail will cost Rs19.9 lakh.
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Levi launches Diva for Indian women
Bangalore: Levi's has launched specially designed jeans for Indian women, the Levi's Diva. The jeans come in four fits - high rise straight, mid rise straight, mid rise boot cut and low rise straight, and are priced between Rs1,599 and Rs2,999.
JWT, Bangalore, has conceptualised the print ad campaign featuring Bollywood actress Sushmita Sen.
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