IBM India opens fourth centre in Kolkata
Kolkata: IBM India has opened its fourth facility in Kolkata. Located in the DLF IT Park at New Town Rajarhat, the facility is spread over five-lakh sq ft and will house 3,000 new employees when it is fully staffed. With 4,000 employees, Kolkata has IBM India's second largest pool of employees after Bangalore. IBM India had 43,000 employees as of June 2006.

The new facility will enable IBM India to scale up its existing application services delivery capabilities in India in keeping with clients' needs, it has been stated.

IBM has also drawn up plans to ramp up its technical talent in areas such as SAP, mainframe, Web technologies and business consulting at the new centre.
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Lanco Global Systems to hike capital
Hyderabad: Lanco Global Systems has informed the BSE that an extraordinary general meeting would be held on October 12 to increase the authorised share capital of the company from Rs26 crore to Rs 40 crore. This is aimed at allotment of up to 75 lakh equity shares of Rs10 each to promoters and others.
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ONGC-Sinopec to buy Columbian oil firm
New Delhi: Oil and Natural Corporation (ONGC) in partnership with China's Sinopec has acquired Columbian oil firm Omimex de Columbia for $850 million. ONGC in a statement said, "A 50:50 joint venture - comprising a subsidiary of ONGC Videsh Ltd and a subsidiary of Sinopec International Petroleum Exploration and Production Corporation (SIPC) - has acquired Omimex de Colombia Ltd (Omimex), from Texas-based Omimex Resources, Inc."

OVL's subsidiary would be named ONGC Mansarovar. OVL, the overseas arm of ONGC, and a subsidiary of Sinopec will pay $425 million each for acquiring Omimex, sources added.

Omimex's assets constitute a 100 per cent interest in the light oil Velasquez fee mineral property and a 50 per cent interest in the Nare and Cocorna association contracts where the Colombian national oil company Ecopetrol S.A. holds the remaining 50 per cent.

Omimex also owns 100 per cent of the Velasquez-Galan pipeline, which runs 189 km from the Velasquez property to Ecopetrol's Barrancabermeja refinery.
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L&T to expand Ahmednagar plant
Mumbai: Larsen and Toubro plans to set up a switchboard manufacturing plant in Ahmednagar to increase the capacity of its Electrical and Electronics Division (EBG) there.

The manufacturing plant will have a built-up area exceeding 2.5 lakh sq feet and the construction will be completed by the middle of 2007-2008. The plant is expected to generate revenues of Rs 150 crore in its first year of operation.

Over 4-5 years, the company expects to generate revenue of Rs 350 crore. The company also plans to expand its modular devices business to 10.5 million units from 1.5 million units within two years.
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Ipca in marketing pact with Ranbaxy's US arm
Mumbai: Ipca Laboratories has entered into a strategic alliance with Ranbaxy's wholly owned subsidiary in the US to market the former's products. Ranbaxy's US subsidiary sells generic and branded prescription products in the US. Ipca will develop generic prescription pharmaceutical products that will be marketed by Ranbaxy in the US, the company told the BSE and Ranbaxy will file for regulatory approval and initially support manufacturing of these products, it added.
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Subhiksha to expand operations across five States by 2007
Ahmedabad: The retail scene is heating up. After Reliance Retail's plans to expand in Gujarat, the Chennai-based discount retailer Subhiksha has announced its plan to open 80 outlets across Gujarat and 600 in five States by next year.

With an investment of Rs300 crore nationally, including Rs40 crore in Gujarat, Subiksha, which offers no-frills retail price on the Every Day Low Price (EDLP) model, is eyeing eight to 10 per cent of the Rs650-crore fruits and vegetable market in Gujarat alone, apart from other FMCG items. Subisksha plans to open 80 stores in Gujarat by March 2007.

Subiksha has tied up with farmers to buy their product on current price-levels under a preferred buying arrangement at different places. Quality would be ensured by grading process at the time of placing orders and delivery. The single product discount would be provided to the consumer at 9.5-10 per cent rate, he said.

Subhiksha will operate four verticals in Ahmedabad- telecom, supermarket, fruits and vegetables and pharmacy.

Besides Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Delhi Subiksha is looking at Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Gujarat and West Bengal for expansion. In Andhra Pradesh, it would open 80 stores at a cost of Rs 40 crore in the next four months. Of these, 55 would come up this month in six cities. Twenty-nine of the 50 outlets planned for the State capital were already opened.
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Bharti to start operations in Guernsey
New Delhi: Bharti Global, the overseas arm of the Bharti Group, has been awarded a comprehensive licence to operate 3G as well as 2G mobile services in Guernsey, an island located in the English Channel in Europe.

Guernsey Airtel emerged as the highest-ranking applicant for the licence through a competitive selection process, a company release said. This is the third international telecom venture of Bharti.
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Lupin to set up JV subsidiary in Australia
Mumbai: The board of Lupin has approved the setting up of a joint venture subsidiary company in Australia by making an investment of not more than Australian $ 10 million, in a phased manner.

The investment would be made either directly or through any intermediate wholly owned subsidiary. The company will hold 87.5 per cent of the equity capital of the subsidiary and the balance 12.5 per cent will be held by the local partners.
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Jindal plans Rs14,000-cr investment in WB
Kolkata: Jindal Steel is planning to revive its steel project set up with an investment of Rs14,000 crore in West Bengal, two years after it was announced.

The integrated project includes a captive berth at Haldia and coal mining to cater to the steel and power plants. The project would involve participation from different companies in Sajjan Jindal's portfolio, namely JSW Steel and JSW Energy.

The West Bengal Industrial and Development Corporation (WBIDC) would have a token stake in the project.

The steel project would come up near Kharagpur, most of which had already been acquired by the state government. The steel plant would require around 5,000 acres. The power project would be in Birbhum.

The steel plant would have an initial capacity of four million tonne, which could be scaled up to 10 million tonne over a period of time.

The power project under JSW Energy would be have a generation capacity of 1,000 MW, which could go up to 2,000 MW. The investment in the power project would be around of Rs4,000 crore.
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