Reliance gets two oil blocks in Yemen
New Delhi: Reliance Industries (RIL) has been awarded two oil exploration blocks in Yemen. The Mukesh Ambani group firm has taken local company Hood Oil as partner in the two Yemen blocks, though the equity structure is yet to be agreed.

Blocks 34 and 37, each measuring around 7,500-sq km and located on the border with Oman, were among the seven blocks offered by Yemen in its second licensing round. RIL also has exploration blocks in Oman, East Timor and Columbia, and is likely to sign production-sharing contract (PSC) for Blocks 34 and 37 next month.

RIL already partners Hood Oil in producing Block 9, where the two companies hold 25 per cent each. Calvalley Petroleum of Canada is the operator with 50 per cent stake. The block currently produces 7,500 barrels of oil per day and the output will go up to 10,000 barrels this month.

Reliance has denied rumours that it was looking at acquiring Premier Oil of UK and said it did not find the company attractive at current valuations.
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Maruti launches Zen Estilo, starting at Rs3.19-lakh
Mumbai: Maruti Udyog (MUL) has launched its new Zen Estilo at a Tarun Tahiliani fashion show.

According to a company release quoting Jagdish Khattar managing director of the company, the new Zen will appeal to the new India, just as the original Zen appealed to the India of the mid 1990s. It incorporates features and attributes that are uniquely suited to India and valued by Indian car buyers.

The company release said that Zen Estilo has more room than the original Zen, comes with a bigger engine (1061 cc) and offers more boot space and superior air conditioning. It delivers 64 bhp and its low-end torque of 84 nm (at 3500 rpm) makes it ideal for Indian city conditions. It offers convenience features like power windows on all the four doors, 5-door power locking, internally controlled outsider-rear-view-mirrors and speaker provision in all four doors. It has an option of advanced features such as ABS and Airbag in the top end variant.

New Zen has been branded as Zen Estilo. "Estilo" is a Spanish word, meaning Style. The new Zen comes in a monoform shape that makes it clean, smooth and uncluttered and emphasis is given to horizontal lines and features to give it visual stability.
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L&T, Tata Power apply for defence supplier status
Mumbai: After the constitutional amendment of 2001 based on the Vijay Kelkar Committee report recommendation allowing private sector participation in defence production, Larsen and Toubro and Tata Power have applied for the 'Rashtriya Udyog Ratna' status that would enable them to bid for defence contracts on an equal footing with public sector defence companies.

The company's applications are pending before a special committee set up by the ministry of defence, which will give its final decision in this fiscal.

Currently, the Ordnance Factory Board and eight other defence PSUs are delivering contracts worth over Rs17,000 crore.

Both L&T and Tata Power have bagged an Rs172 crore worth contracts to supply Pinaka multi-barrel rocket launchers for two regiments of the Indian army. L&T is developing prototypes for various Defence Research and Development Organisation projects and have strong capabilities in composites for aerospace applications.

Tata Power's Strategic Electronics Division received seven licenses for various defence projects recently for electronic warfare, naval combat and air defence.
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Era Constructions gets project from NHAI
Mumbai: An Era Constructions led consortium has bagged Rs300 crore contract from National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for design, construction, operation and maintenance the 42.033 km new four-lane Gwalior bypass.

The consortium would execute the contract over a period of two and a half years and the total annuity per annum is Rs53.06 crore during the concession period of 17 and half years, Era Constructions informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The consortium would construct and maintain the stretch from 103 km on NH-3 to 16 km on NH-75 in Madhya Pradesh on build, operate and transport (BOT) annuity basis.
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Eicher Motors vehicle sales increase 38 pc in Nov
New Delhi: Eicher Motors has reported a 38 per cent increase in its commercial vehicle sales for November at 2,201 units (including exports) compared to 1,594 units in the same month last year. The company exported 117 units in the month as against 80 units during the year-ago period, Eicher said.
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Hexaware's acquisition of FocusFrame complete
Mumbai: ITES company Hexaware Technologies has completed the acquisition of US software firm FocusFrame Inc, aimed at strengthening its testing services practice. With this, FocusFrame Inc becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of Hexaware Technologies Ltd.

The company will be in a position to offer a complete lifecycle of testing service and be able to achieve more than $100 million revenue from this practice in the next three years said Mr Atul Nishar, executive chairman, Hexaware.

The company announced the $34.3 million acquisition in November. As per the understanding, Hexaware paid $25 million in cash towards acquisition of 100 per cent shares of FocusFrame along with its employees and consultant base of over 200 personnel.
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VSNL to provide international call facilities to Yahoo's voice services
Mumbai: VSNL International, the overseas arm of Tata-controlled Videsh Sanchar Nigam (VSNL) will provide international retail call facilities for Yahoo's voice services. Yahoo has chosen VSNL International's Teleglobe voice peering and termination services to exchange high quality VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) traffic on a global basis, a company release said here. Yahoo will use the Teleglobe VoIPLink service, to bridge interoperability between VoIP networks, to terminate traffic anywhere in the world.

Yahoo is also utilising the Teleglobe VTS Service to ensure high quality, cost effective retail termination for users of Yahoo! Voices Phone Out (PC-to-Phone) service worldwide.

Teleglobe's premier voice peering product, VoIPLink, is currently being utilised by over 450 customers across the globe. VSNL had acquired Teleglobe for $239 million earlier this year.
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Motorola unveils Motorokr E6; plans India launch next year
Hong Kong: Motorola has launched the 'Motorokr E6,' the upgraded version of its iTunes-enabled phone, and would introduce the model in India by mid-2007.

According the company, the new entertainment PDA phone - Motorokr E6 - will change the way consumers look at mobile devices and digital entertainment space. The multimedia handset will bundle in visual entertainment along with creating, enjoying and sharing games and photos according to Motorola officials.

The phone is in a candy-bar format and replaces iTunes in the previous ROKRs for a RealPlayer and supports various other formats such as MP3, MPEG-4, AAC+, WAV, RealAudio, WMA along with a Bluetooth stereo audio. It is a dual-band GSM and GPRS phone with a touch-screen and a stylus interface. The phone runs on Linux and has a 2.0 mega pixel digital camera.

However, the price of the phone is yet to be fixed and comes with Motorola's business-card reader software, taking the hassle out of staying in touch by conveniently creating and sharing co ntact information.
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Coal India considers deal with BHP Billiton
New Delhi: Coal India (CIL) is considering a swap deal with the world's biggest miner, BHP Billiton, for mutual co-operation in India and Australia.

CIL is looking at overseas partners as it explores participation in the coal trade beyond the shores of India. These partnerships could take the form of equity stakes in coal blocks or in companies that are already owning and prospecting in blocks.

Coal India has cash reserves of Rs11,000 crore and will soon have the autonomy to independently take large investment decisions as it has just applied for Navratna status which could take 6-12 months to come.

The company plans to invest Rs15,000 crore over the next five years to increase production to 520 million tonne.
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Air Sahara offers 90 pc discount
New Delhi: Air Sahara on Monday announced up to 90 pc discount on normal fares in the January-April period.

The discounted tickets will be on sale till December 15, and are valid for travel between January 1 and April 30, 2007. The discount will result in the one-way Delhi-Mumbai fare could come as low as Rs925, exclusive of taxes which amounts to Rs1,121 per ticket. The lowest special fares for Bangalore-Delhi fares are Rs1,325 and Rs2,725, exclusive of taxes. Lowest Bangalore-Mumbai fares slabs are Rs625 and Rs1,325, while for the Kolkata-Delhi sector, the lowest fares are Rs1,025.

The best bargain ticket in the Delhi-Goa sector comes for Rs1,225. Fares in the Delhi-Chennai sectors are Rs1,425 and for Delhi-Hyderabad route Rs1,125.

Air Sahara plans to increase its seat inventory from around 17,000 per day to 23,000 by March next year.
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Tatas looking to acquire 26 pc stake in Nagarjuna refinery
Mumbai: The Tata group may acquire a stake in Nagarjuna group' oil refinery project for about Rs400 crore according to media reports. The Tata group is believed to be in advanced stages of investing in the 6-million tonne, over Rs4,000 crore plus refinery project coming up in Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu and is also in talks with some Russian and Middle East companies for funding the remaining equity portion of the project.

The project's equity base is about Rs1,500 crore.

It's for the first time that the Tata group has shown interest in oil refining, though it has presence in upstream business as Tata Petrodyne is actively acquiring oil and gas assets in the country. The rationale behind the move is not known.

Nagarjuna Oil Corporation, a subsidiary of Nagarjuna Fertilisers and Chemicals (NFCL), is setting up the project. The refinery was initially scheduled to go on stream in 2002, but has not yet taken off due to problems in raising funds. Sources said all statutory clearances required for setting up the refinery and the marine facilities are in place.

The Cuddalore refinery plans to produce 6 million tonnes of crude petroleum per annum by relocating a refinery from Germany and adding new process units and utilities.
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Ispat announces Rs80-bn investment to expand capacity
New Delhi: Ispat Industries has announced an investment of over Rs80 bn in expanding its steel making capacity in sync with major acquisition and expansion drive by Indian steel manufacturers. In the first phase expansion the company would invest Rs20 bn for raising steel making capacity of its Dolvi plant in Maharashtra to 5 million tonnes from 3 million tonnes now, Ispat said in a statement.

As part of its effort to consolidate its position, Ispat would in subsequent phases invest another Rs60 bn to double the capacity to 10 million tonnes.

Ispat signed a memorandum of understanding with Maharashtra government to expand capacity at its Dolvi plant, which was set up at an investment of over Rs100 bn.
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