Cisco chooses Chennai to set up manufacturing hub
New Delhi: US-based networking major Cisco Systems which plans to make India its global hub, has announced setting up a manufacturing unit in Chennai and increasing its manpower three times in the country from 2,000 at present to 6,000 over the next 3-4 years.

Cisco will also soon move 20 per cent of its top executives across various divisions of research and development, venture capital fund and manufacturing to India.

These initiatives are in addition to the $1.1-billion India-specific investment announced by the company last year.

John Chambers, chairman and CEO, Cisco Systems, said, "This is the first time that we are making such a commitment outside of Silicon Valley. India is a very important market for Cisco's global growth strategy."

Cisco expects 5 per cent of its global revenues to come from India over the next 2-3 years.

The company did not divulge the investment details for the manufacturing plant, which will be launched as a pilot next year. The unit would export hi-tech products to Cisco's global market.

Cisco has also set aside $10 million to set up a lab in Chennai with State-owned telecom company BSNL for developing products for rural connectivity.
Back to News Review index page  

Rs 8-cr a day lost on fuel price cut: IOC
New Delhi: PSU oil marketing company, Indian Oil Corporation, is facing an extra burden of Rs 8 crore per day due to recent fuel price cut and its total revenue loss per day is close to Rs53-54 crore said Sarthak Behuria, chairman and managing Director, IndianOil. The Government reduced prices of two petroleum products - petrol and diesel - by Rs2 per litre and Re 1 a litre on November 29. The company is losing Rs2.1 per litre on sale of diesel, Rs132 per cylinder on cooking gas, and Rs13.81 per litre on sale of kerosene. However, the company is making a profit of Rs1.67 a litre on sale of petrol while it was about Rs4 per litre prior to the price cut. According to him the industry is losing close to Rs100 crore per day.

Besides, the company has also started refunding the discount amount to the standalone public and private refiners like Reliance Industries, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd, and Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd. The standalone refiners extended discounts to the OMCs on domestic liquefied petroleum gas and kerosene sold under the public distribution system.
Back to News Review index page  

Panacea acquires UK vaccine maker
New Delhi: Panacea Biotec has acquired a 10 per cent stake in UK-based liquid vaccine developer Cambridge Biostability Ltd (CBL) for around Rs17 crore (£1.935million) through a joint venture agreement with the company. The company has also entered into a licensing agreement with CBL, to in-licence its proprietary technology to make vaccines of ready-to-inject stable liquid suspensions that do not require refrigeration or reconstitution, thus significantly reducing administration costs and effectiveness. Panacea Biotec will manufacture and market stable liquid version of pentavalent and other combination vaccines, for the treatment of whooping cough, hepatitis B and haemophilus influenza B.

Rajesh Jain, joint managing director of Panacea Biotec has been appointed to the board of CBL as non-executive director.
Back to News Review index page  

DCM Shriram to set up Greenfield plants
New Delhi: The Rs2,500-crore DCM Shriram Consolidated (DSCL) is setting up two greenfield plants during the 2006-07 crushing season (October-September). The company has commissioned a factory at Hariawan in Hardoi district of Uttar Pradesh with a capacity to crush 8,000 tonnes of cane daily (tcd). Another 8,000 tcd unit would go on steam at Loni, also in Hardoi, next week which will take DSCL's aggregate crushing capacity to 33,000 tcd, including the 10,500-tcd Ajbapur (Lakhimpur Kheri) and the 6,500-tcd Rupapur (Hardoi) facilities.

Between 2004-05 and 2006-07 seasons, DSCL would have invested over Rs500 crore in trebling its capacity, which also involves expansion of Ajbapur and Rupapur from 6,500 tcd and 4,500 tcd, respectively.

However, the commissioning of new capacities leading to a three-fold increase in output is coming just when the downswing in the sugar cycle seems to have set in. Over the last week alone, ex-factory prices in western Uttar Pradesh have fallen by Rs60-70 to Rs1,650 per quintal. Last year, at this time, realisations touched a peak of nearly Rs1,850 per quintal. Bumper production, coupled with the Centre's ban on exports since July, has been the main driver of the weak sentiment.
Back to News Review index page  

Granules India ties up with Dutch co PharmaMatch
Hyderabad: Granules India has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with PharmaMatch of the Netherlands, to develop, manufacture and market formulations in the European market jointly.

PharmaMatch would transfer its existing marketing authorisations to the Hyderabad-based, Granules India Ltd (GIL) for products like paracetomol. The upcoming finished dosage facility of GIL with a capacity of manufacturing six billion tablets per annum in Hyderabad, expected to be commissioned and operations by May 2007, would be utilised.

GIL managing director, C. Krishna Prasad, said the MoU could catapult Granules into the European Market.
Back to News Review index page  

Toyota to hike prices
Bangalore: Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) is planning to increase its prices by up to 2 per cent for the Innova, Corolla, Camry and Prado.

The company cited rising input costs which were being absorbed by Toyota. It said it had decided to pass on a portion of the increase to customers. The exact quantum of the increase is yet to be finalised, it could be between 1 per cent and 2 per cent of the vehicle cost.

Toyota Kirloskar sold over 44,500 vehicles this year with the Toyota Innova accounting for over 36,500 units. The Toyota Corolla sold 7,000 units while Camry and Prado sold over 1,100 units.
Back to News Review index page  

Maruti to enter South Africa, Europe
Mumbai: Maruti Udyog will launch its cars in South Africa by next year and re-enter the European market in 2008-09.

The company did not disclose the features of the model that will be launched in South Africa.

The company has also envisaged plans to re-enter the European market with a model, which could be on a shared platform such as the Zen Estillo (the car shares its engine with the Wagon R and the platform with that of the Alto) or the company will build a completely new model for the launch in 2008-09.

The company has decided to launch a model specifically developed for the European market and expects its total export sales to exceed 100,000 units.

Alto contributed as much as 90 per cent of company's exports to Europe. Now with the launch of a new car, Maruti hopes to regain a key export market.

For the non-European market, the company is expecting to post a total of 40,000 units for the current financial year and it is further expected to grow to an overall figure of 100,000 units including the introduction of the new model in Europe.
Back to News Review index page  

IOC not keen on Cairn pipeline
New Delhi: Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has said it is ready to refine Cairn's waxy crude oil from its Rajasthan oil fields but is unwilling to take part in its transportation. He added that IOC is ready to process the crude oil at any of its refineries. Also IOC is seeking an 8-9 per cent discount (on the Indian crude oil basket price) in order to make Cairn's lower grade crude oil economically viable, an IOC official said.

Some time ago, IOC offered to lay a pipeline from Barmer district in Rajasthan to its Panipat refinery.

Cairn's Rajasthan crude oil, which goes onstream in 2009, has high wax content and needs specially heated pipelines for transportation. IOC officials say the low yield expected from the crude oil needs to be compensated by way of discounts.

Evacuation of Cairn's waxy crude oil is an issue since there is no clarity on how it will be evacuated and where it will be processed, though its partner in the field - Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) - had also proposed a greenfield refinery in the state.
ONGC holds 30 per cent stake in the Rajasthan fields, while Cairn is the operator with 70 per cent stake. Cairn's projections show that initial output of crude oil in 2009 will be around 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) peaking to around 150,000 bpd from 2010 to 2013.

Production is expected to decline from 2014 to a low of around 20,000 bpd by 2024.
Back to News Review index page  

Orissa issues invitation to Tatas for car unit
Bhubaneswar: With the Tata group facing problems in acquisition of land for a car manufacturing plant at Singur in West Bengal, the Orissa government has invited the group to consider setting up an automobile plant in the state.

The state government said the Tatas can establish an automobile manufacturing unit at Gopalpur, where Tata Steel had acquired 3,400 acres of land for a steel project in the mid-1990s. As the status of the steel project is uncertain most of the land is lying idle.

The company had later wanted to set up a SEZ on the land, a proposal that is pending with the Board of Approval of the central government. If SEZ status was approved for Tatas' Gopalpur property, the company could avail of the tax benefits for such zones, sources close to the development said.
Back to News Review index page  

Reliance offers free calls
New Delhi: Reliance Communications has launched a new offer of unlimited (local and STD) calls to any Reliance phone by paying a monthly rental of Rs1, 500 to customers using its fixed wireless phones.

The facility will be available for all post-paid and pre-paid users using 'Reliance Hello' WLL (wireless local loop) fixed wireless phones, stated a company release.
Back to News Review index page  

TCS enters into services deal with United Biscuits
Mumbai: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has signed a managed services contract with European biscuit and snack manufacturer, United Biscuits (UB), beating the incumbent supplier of the last five years to win the contract.

UB owns the popular McVitie's brand and is the number one biscuit manufacturer in Netherlands and the second largest in France and Belgium. Though the size of the contract was not disclosed , it spans a period of five years and covers end-to end-IT support and maintenance of the critical manufacturing and supply chain applications of UB.

The end-to-end IT support functions include application support, projects, business analysis services and strategic IT programmes. The deal will result in cost-savings for UB and also improve its service levels, TCS said. Europe and UK are the fastest growing markets for Indian IT firms, although US continues to be the largest, by far accounting for over 60 pc of revenues.
Back to News Review index page  

Thums Up is No one, Sprite replaces Coke at No 2
Mumbai: Coca-Cola India's Sprite brand has stolen a march from Coke to emerge as the second largest selling brand within the Coca-Cola India portfolio. The clear lime beverage is behind Thums Up, which is the No 1 brand in the Indian market.

Sources within the company said Coca-Cola India will end the year with sales of 215 million cases out of the industry size of 450 million cases of which Thums Up accounts for nearly 30 pc of its sales at around 50 million cases, and Sprite is now selling 40 million cases, with flagship brand, Coca-Cola clearly at number three with 32 million cases.
Back to News Review index page  

ONGC awards contract to NPCC
New Delhi: Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has awarded a $388.19 million contract to Abu Dhabi-based National Petroleum Construction Company (NPCC) for development of C-Series field in Mumbai High. The C-Series Project involves survey, design and detailed engineering, procurement, fabrication, installation and commissioning of the four unmanned well platforms, and coating and laying of 180 kilometres of pipeline, and carrying out modifications on the existing NQG process platform at Mumbai High. The project is to be completed by April 20, 2008.
Back to News Review index page  

Accor to run hotels for HCC
Mumbai: French hotels and services firm Accor SA will operate two hotels for Hindustan Construction Co (HCC) in western India, according to a statement from the two companies.

HCC would develop a 250-room Novotel hotel in its upcoming Lavasa township near Pune in Maharashtra, and also an 80-room Grand Mercure Spa resort, both Accor brands.

HCC's real estate unit holds a 60 percent stake in the 15,000 acre Lavasa township venture.

Recently Accor also signed a deal with GMR Infrastructure Ltd. for a business hotel near the upcoming international airport in Hyderabad and another deal with Nirmal Lifestyles to operate and manage five hotels. Accord would also develop a $106-million, 300-room Sofitel premium hotel in Mumbai in a joint venture with Naman Developers Ltd.
Back to News Review index page  

Toshiba makes entry plans into Indian mobile market
Hong Kong: Japan-based electronics and technology major Toshiba is planning to tap the country's mobile segment by the end of this year.

Company officials said the mobile market in Japan was saturated having received 70 to 80 per cent mobile penetration, forcing the company to look overseas to meet its corporate demands. The company is looking to tap the mobile market in India, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the European countries.

The company will initially launch one GSM mobile handset in India within a few weeks, which would be marketed and distributed by the company along with a UK-based trading company in the country. Toshiba did not divulge the name of the distributing company and the exact date of the launch.
Back to News Review index page  

L&T gets large order from China
Beijing: L&T has won a multi-million dollar contract to supply three reactors to Chinese oil and gas giant Sinopec. L&T's Heavy Engineering Division and the Tianjin branch of China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), China's second-largest state-run oil and gas firm, have signed an agreement to this effect, the sources said.

Sources said the size of the deal may orth nearly $85 million to $95 million.
Back to News Review index page  

Tatas' Singur plant to roll out 250,000 cars
Kolkata: Tata Motors' factory at Singur in West Bengal will roll out 250, 000 cars to begin with and then ramp up capacity. The plant spread over 997 acres will conform to international standards.

The company wanted a square or rectangular plot, but had to settle for a plot with a V-shaped indent at the back to leave out housing.

The ratio of land usage would be similar to its Uttaranchal project, where of the 1,000 acre, the vendor park would account for 300 acre.
Back to News Review index page