Airtel launches international calling services targeted at US NRIs
New Delhi: Bharti Airtel is offering its inbound international calling service branded Airtel CallHome, targeted at 2.5 million non-resident Indians based in the US. The service will enable users in the US to call their near and dear ones in India at 7.9 cents a minute. Subscribers will have log on to the Airtel Web site www.Airtelcallhome.com, create their personal account and download the calling service online.

Though Airtel claims the service is 40 per cent cheaper than other options available in the market, there are phone cards available on the Internet that offers US to India calls for as low as 5.5 cents a minute.

Airtel service is, however, cheaper than other international long distance operators such as Reliance and VSNL which offer US calls to India at 12.9 and 14.5 cents a minute respectively.
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Skoda India to hike car prices next month
New Delhi: Skoda India is considering a hike in prices of all its models by about Rs15,000 with effect from January 1.

The company cited rising input costs as the reason for the price hike. The company sells the upper mid segment Octavia in the range of Rs11.08 lakh to Rs11.19 lakh and the luxury sedan Superb for between Rs20.36 lakh to Rs22.38 lakh..
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Shreyas to raise funds for buyouts
Mumbai: Shreyas Shipping & Logistics plans to raise up to Rs150 crore on buyouts in India or abroad, or make investments in logistics companies. The company's board would meet on December 9 to consider the proposals, the comp any said in a statement.
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Glenmark's US unit in supply/marketing pact with Lehigh Valley Inc
Mumbai: Glenmark Pharmaceuticals' unit in the U.S. has signed an agreement with Lehigh Valley Technologies Inc. for supply and marketing of seven products to the U.S. market. Glenmark said these products are for pain management and have a market size of $2.8 billion.
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Mazda gets order from Jindal Polyfilms
Mumbai: Mazda has received a contract from Jindal Polyfilms for supply of multi-stage ethylene glycol vacuum systems amounting to Rs1.75 crore. This advanced technology developed by the company, in its own R & D centre improves t he overall plant performance, reduces running cost and eliminates affluent and protects the environment.
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Dabur Pharma gets FDA approval for cancer drug
Mumbai: Dabur Pharma has got approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) for oncology drug 'Paclitaxel' injections, the regulatory agency's Web site showed. Paclitaxel is the generic equivalent of Bristol-Myers Squibb Company's Taxol, used in treating ovarian and breast cancer.
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Hindustan Zinc raises lead prices
Mumbai: PSU zinc producer, Hindustan Zinc has increased lead prices by Rs6,600 a tonne, or 7.9 per cent, effective immediately. Zinc prices remained unchanged at Rs2, 30, 500 per tonne.
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PFC gets 16 bids for ultra mega projects
New Delhi: Power Finance Corporation (PFC) has received 16 bids for two 4,000 MW ultra mega power projects to be set up in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.

While 10 request-for-proposals (RfP) have been submitted for the pithead coal-fired Sasan project in Madhya Pradesh, 6 companies are in the fray for the Mundra power plant in Gujarat, industry sources said. Tata Power, Reliance Energy and Larsen & Toubro have bid for both the projects. NTPC has submitted its bid only for the Sasan project, while Adani group has bid only for the Mundra project, the sources said.

The bids would be opened next week and the projects are to be awarded by the end of this month.
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Satyam to set up development centre in Malaysia
Kuala Lumpur: Satyam Computer Services has set up a large scale campus-style software development centre in Malaysia.
The 3,00,000 sq feet centre at Cyber Jaya, Malaysia's IT Corridor, will be set up within a year and will house office buildings, meeting rooms, clubs and recreational facilities. The centre will supplement Indian software development.

This would be the first large-scale development centre set up by any IT company outside India. Company officials said Malaysia was chosen as the site for the campus because of the pro-activeness shown by the Government here and its ready assistance to Satyam in hiring of employees.

The centre, with its capacity of 2000, will have the largest number of non-Indian employees. Satyam's second largest centre is in Melbourne with a capacity of 350.
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Rel Comm looks at acquiring Hutch stake in Hutch Essar
Mumbai: Anil Ambani group's Reliance Communications is likely to jointly bid with private equity firm Blackstone for acquiring the 67 pc stake held by Hutchison Telecommunications International in Hutchison Essar.

Media reports said the deal could may be valued at over $ 8 billion ( Rs36,000 crore) excluding debt. The news report says other possible bidders include Texas Pacific Group.

The Essar group controls 33 per cent stake in Hutchison Essar, the third largest player in the country's rapidly growing telecom industry after Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications. Hutchison Essar has about 20 million subscribers - more than double the number of subscribers one year ago.

A recent Morgan Stanley study put the valuation of Hutchison Telecommunications' Indian assets at 75-80 per cent of its total value of around $11 billion.
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Airbus in big India investment
New Delhi: European aerospace giant Airbus plans to invest $1 billion in India over the next ten years said Kiran Rao, executive vice-president (marketing and contracts consumer affairs) of Airbus.

The areas where Airbus is looking to invest in India are setting up of training centres, maintenance, repair and overhauling (MRO) facility, engineering centre and design centre.

The company would set up a training centre for A-320 Airbus by 2007 starting with about four simulators, which can be then expanded up to eight simulators over the next five years with an investment of about $300 million.

The company is also talks with various partners including two Indian forms for an MRO facility.

According to the latest Airbus global market forecast, India will become the fastest-growing country for air travel for the next decade. The forecast says India will require 1,100 passenger and freight aircrafts by 2025 of which 935 will be passenger aircraft. The number of passenger aircraft will increase five-fold from 190 aircrafts in service at the end of 2005.
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Carlsberg to set up brewery in Rajasthan
Mumbai: Danish brewer Carlsberg with a presence in over 130 countries, is entering Indian beer market by setting up a 4,50,000 hectolitre capacity brewery in Rajastan.

The beer major is joining hands with its Sri Lankan partner, The Lion Brewery Ceylon, to float a joint venture company, South Asian Breweries, for setting up the plant.

Carlsberg will own a 45 pc stake in the Indian venture, an investor group led by Lion Brewery Ceylon will hold another 45 pc and the remaining 10 pc will be held by the Industrialisation Fund for Developing Countries (IFU). The expected total investment in the venture has not been revealed.

The site for the new brewery is in the industrial estate established by the Rajasthan State Industrial Development and Investment Corporation (RIICO) in the Alwar district.
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