Wipro to make bigger acquisitions
New Delhi: Wipro plans to scale up the size of its acquisitions from the current $25-50 million to $50-100 million. Azim Premji, chairman, Wipro, said the firm had acquired six companies in last nine months in a bid to expand its presence in Europe.

Addressing the India Economic Summit here, Premji said in a couple of years, Indian IT companies like Infosys, TCS and Wipro would be at par with some of the leading global companies in terms of market capitalisation.

He said Infosys, TCS and Wipro which are in the top 16-17 companies globally in terms of market capitalization were growing three times faster than their foreign counterparts and the next 2-3 years, the difference would be even lesser and they would be in the league of top 10 companies.
Back to News Review index page  

IVRCL gets orders worth Rs388 crore
Hyderabad: IVRCL Infrastructure & Projects (IVRCL) has bagged irrigation related works of the Telugu Ganga Project from the Government of Andhra Pradesh valued at Rs388.16 crore. The contracts to be executed along with its joint venture partners include the new head regulator at Pothireddy padu worth Rs201.36 crore. The other package of tasks for the Telugu Ganga Project in Nandyal Circle of Kurnool district is worth Rs188.81 crore, according to a company press release.
Back to News Review index page  

Due diligence starts at JSW Steel Bengal plant
Kolkata: Due diligence at JSW Steel's proposed 10 million tonnes per annum capacity steel project in West Bengal has begun.

The company is now working on the finer points of the proposed memorandum of understanding that it hopes to sign with the West Bengal government in the months ahead. The project also envisages setting up a 900-1,000 MW power plant.

The company has identified 6,500-7,000 acres required for the project — jointly with the West Bengal government — at Salmona in West Midnapore district. Earlier, land for the proposed project had been identified at Guptamari, also in West Midnapore. However, its acquisition posed a problem owing to its proximity to the Kalaikunda Air Force base.

JSW Steel has expressed happiness with the progress of the proposed project. In the first phase, the proposed plant would be equipped to produce 3-5 million tonnes of steel. This would comprise both long and flat products.
Back to News Review index page  

DLF in joint venture pact with UK co
New Delhi: DLF and the UK-based design and engineering consultancy firm WSP Group have entered into a joint venture for executing DLF's projects across the country as well as providing services to other companies.

The joint venture will function as an independent entity delivering design solutions to India's growing construction and infrastructure industry. WSP Group Plc operates in five continents with nearly 7,000 employees delivering solutions across a broad spread of sectors.
Back to News Review index page  

Alcan to enter pharma packaging industry
New Delhi: Canada based Alcan is planning to enter the pharmaceutical packaging industry in the country. The company, a global manufacturer and supplier of primary aluminium, light gauge sheets, foils and packaging materials believes there is a huge opportunity in the booming pharma industry in the country.

The company may invest $50-60 million in a packaging plant at the outset. The company has been considering a joint venture with Aditya Birla-Hindalco in the aluminium-smelting project, and said it will announce its decision in Orissa.

It also several other opportunities like aluminium melting and engineering products in India.
Back to News Review index page  

Honda launches new CR-V
New Delhi: Honda Siel Cars India has launched a new version of its premium sports utility vehicle CR-V. The new CR-V, which has a new aerodynamic exterior body, comes in two variants of six speed manual transmission and an automatic transmission. It is priced at Rs17.7 lakh ex-showroom Delhi and Rs18.4 lakh respectively, which is at a premium of Rs2.5 lakh to its existing model.

The company said it is introducing the third generation CR-V in India within a few months of its global launch and this signifies the importance of the Indian market to Honda's plans.

Company officials said the increasing input cost and unfavourable foreign exchange rate is putting pressure on margins of the company and the company is considering a hike in prices of all its production models in India.
Back to News Review index page  

Motorola launches low priced handset-Motofone
New Delhi: Motorola has announced the global launch of its low-cost handset, Motofone, in the country and is banking on the product to grab a higher share in the high-growth markets of India, West Asia, Africa and Turkey.

With a width of nine mm this is the company's thinnest phone in the market and is available for both GSM and CDMA technologies. It will be designed and manufactured at Motorola's Indian unit. The GSM version is likely to be sold at Rs1,600 through a bundled offering with Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and BSNL. The CDMA version is likely to be shipped by the end of 2006.

Through Motofone the company is seeking to build on the success of the Razr. One of the new features in the handset is the voice prompt in multiple languages, making it user-friendly for people who are illiterate or cannot read due to lack of vision. The voice prompt guides the user through the phone menu in English, Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Punjabi, Telugu, Bengali and Kannada. Other local languages will be added later.

Motofone has a high-contrast screen powered by ClearVision display, making it easier to use in sunlight. The handset comes with 500 minutes of talk time and 300 hours of standby time.
Back to News Review index page  

Tata Indicom's `One Nation' plan
Mumbai: Tata Indicom, has launched a tariff plan that offers all domestic calls (local and STD) at Re1 a minute and all domestic calls to Tata Indicom phones at Re1 for three minutes. This `One Nation' tariff is for its post-paid Walky customers, and comes at a monthly rental of Rs180, free calling value of Rs50 included. The earlier local and STD tariff was Rs2.40 a minute.
Back to News Review index page  

OVL gets oil block in Brazil
New Delhi: ONGC Videsh (OVL), the overseas subsidiary the Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), along with Italy's ENI SpA, Spain's Repsol YPF and Norway's Norsk Hydro ASA has won oil exploration blocks in Brazil which is offering blocks in 14 regions spread over 100,000 sq km of ocean and land.

Other companies winning blocks in the first round of the two-day auction were Brazil's state-owned oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA and Royal/Dutch Shell Plc.
Back to News Review index page  

VW to invest $530 million in Pune facility
New Delhi: European carmaker Volkswagen has finalised plans to set up a manufacturing plant in Pune with an investment of Rs2,450 crore ($530 million).

Volkswagen will sign an agreement with the Maharashtra government for the facility in New Delhi on November 29. It will be the 45th manufacturing facility for the Volkswagen group, while India will be the 19th country to produce its vehicles.

The car-maker plans to roll out the mid-sized Passat brand as its maiden offering in India, which will also be sourced to other Asian markets. Before the company starts production Volkswagen would assemble Passat at its subsidiary Skoda Auto India's plant at Aurangabad from the first quarter of 2007.

The Passat shares the same platform as Skoda's Superb. The company, which has some of the best-known brands under its belt, including Bentley, Bugatti, Audi, Seat, and Lamborghini, is already represented in India by Skoda Auto. It is likely to introduce hatchback models in the future.

On an average, the company produces more than 21,000 vehicles a day.
Back to News Review index page  

SAIL rules out sharing Chiria mines
PSU steel maker the Steel Authority of India (SAIL) says it will not share Chiria mines with any other player which might have ramifications on Mittal Steel's Indian plans. The latter has ruled out the possibility of setting up a plant in Jharkhand without Chiria.

Sail officials said the PSU was working on an amicable settlement on Chiria as part of which it would set up greenfield capacities in Jharkhand. Over and above this, Sail is also expanding the Bokaro steel plant.

Chiria was originally leased out to IISCO, but post-merger with Sail, it has come under the latter. The steel major has also lined up an investment of Rs1,800 crore for Chiria.

S Satapathy, Jharkhand mines secretary said Mittal Steel had been offered Ankura mines as an alternative but the company is yet to respond.

Ankura has reserves of around 500 million tonne. However, it was only partially explored by MECL.

Mittal's 12 million tonne plant required 600-million tonne of iron ore over a 30-year period.

The project is proposed to be set up in two phases at an investment of Rs40,000 crore.
Back to News Review index page  

Yamaha Motor plans premium category launches
Mumbai: Yamaha Motor India, the 100 per cent subsidiary of Yamaha Motors, Japan is gearing up to launch new motorcycles in the 150cc and the 180cc category by April next year.

Industry experts believe the new bikes to be priced in the range of Rs50,000 to Rs60,000 which directly pits them against Bajaj's highly successful Pulsar range of bikes.

The 150cc bike is set to debut in April-May 2007 followed by 180cc. The bikes will be produced at the company's existing plant in Faridabad and Surajpur (UP) as the company already has the infrastructure support in place.

The premium segment has shown the most robust of growth during the past few years as a result of which there has been a number of launches in the segment.

The company currently has four models in the market, which includes Gladiator, Libero, G5 and Crux. The bikes are in the economy and the executive range of 110cc to 125cc.
Back to News Review index page  

Airtel offers EDGE network in Maharashtra
Mumbai: Airtel has launched the Enhanced Data Rate for Global Evolution (EDGE) network in Nashik to offer data transfer speeds of up to 100 kbps. The company has simultaneously launched this service in Aurangabad, Nagpur and Goa.

The company said Airtel customers in Nashik can now enjoy higher speeds up to 100 kbph through the EDGE network. With 100 kbps, customers would be able to experience rich multimedia content including Live TV on their EDGE-enabled mobile handsets, live through the thrill of exciting multi player mobile gaming, music and file transfer, picture download, e-mail download with attachments, and all the contents on 'Airtel Live'- the multi access entertainment portal on Airtel mobile phones.

It said Airtel Live is a multi access entertainment portal on the mobile phone, which offers a variety of content in the arena of movies, music, sports and games. Properties, which can be experienced and downloaded include multiplayer games, colour wallpapers, video clips, polyphonic ring tones, music messages, jokes, news, stock tickers and live television content.
Back to News Review index page  

DLF signs JV with Hilton to develop hotels in India
Mumbai: International hospitality group, Hilton Hotels Corporation has announced its joint venture with DLF to develop and own 75 hotels and service apartments in India. The joint venture company, which will develop one of the largest international hotel chains in the country over the next seven years, is the first significant international expansion for Hilton Garden Inn outside North America.

The JV-owned hotels will represent several brands from Hilton Hotels Corporation's brand portfolio, including Hilton Hotels, Hilton Garden Inn, Homewood Suites by Hilton and Hilton Residences. It will also develop and build these properties, while Hilton will manage them. DLF will hold 74 per cent in the JV while Hilton will hold the remaining stake as a symbol of its commitment to the venture.

Over the next 5 to 7 years, Hilton will invest up to $143 million (approximately Rs645 crore) in the JV company.

The initial stage of the joint venture will involve setting up 20 hotels in key locations like Chandigarh, Chennai, and Kolkata. A large number of these hotels are expected to be Hilton Garden Inns - a business hotel brand, offering focused service. Beyond the initial 20 sites, it will continue to identify and acquire sites and undertake new hotel developments.
Back to News Review index page