ONGC finds large reserves of gas in Bay of Bengal
New Delhi: Oil and Natural Gas Corp has found large reserves of gas in the Bay of Bengal, with initial estimates suggesting reserves of about 21 trillion cubic feet (tcf).

ONGC previously discovered 2-3 tcf of gas reserves in about half-a-dozen wells in the Krishna-Godavari Basin block KG-DWN-98/2, and has now struck a 28 metre net gas pay zone when deepsea drillship Belford Dolphin reached 5,300 metres depth at well UD-1, 55-kms from the coast.

Sources said that the ultra-deepwater well UD-1 was yet to reach its target depth of 6,500 meters and vertical seismic profile has thrown up at least one more pay zone larger than the one encountered which could also be oil.

The well UD-1 will reach its target depth in next 10 days and testing will take another week.

The state-run firm had done a mud drill test of the ultra-deepwater well UD-1 and preliminary estimate put in-place reserves at 600 billion cubic meters (over 21 tcf). The second net pay zone could be in excess of 80 meters and there appeared traces of oil too, the source said.
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Mittal signs MoU with Orissa for 12-mt steel plant this week
Bhubaneswar: The largest producer of steel in the world Arcelor-Mittal is signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Orissa government for its proposed 12-million tonne (mt) steel plant this week.

The project will be set up in phases of 6mt each. Of the total estimated cost of Rs40 crore, the first phase, which also envisages setting up of a 750MW captive power plant, will cost Rs22,000 crore.

The plant will be located in the Patna Tehsil in Keonjhar district.

The company had asked for 8,000 acres of land at the proposed location. This included 6,000 acres for the plant, 1,000 acres for the power plant and 1000 acres for the township.

However, the exact requirement of land will be known after the submission of detail project report (DPR), sources said. The plant will draw water from river Baitarani, which is on one side of the site with the other side being hedged by national highway No 6.
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Reliance Life to foray into pharma with Rs900-crore capex
New Delhi: Mukesh Ambani-controlled biotech venture Reliance Life Sciences will foray into pharma business for generics and contract manufacturing and acquire biotech companies globally as part of its expansion plan.

The company which has charted out a Rs900 crore capacity expansion plan to set up a new facility in Mumbai is on the prowl for acquisition in the biotech space globally, especially Europe, sources said.

As per its expansion plans, Reliance Life Sciences (RLS) will manufacture off-patent drugs and is in the process for tying up with major drugmakers for its contract manufacturing foray.

RLS which has so far invested about Rs1,200-1,500 crore in its existing facility in Mumbai would mainly manufacture plasma proteins. Currently, the company is conducting microbiological and clinical research, and similar activities in biotechnology like plant tissue culture.

The company had successfully developed anti-haemophilic factor VII, which helps prevent blood loss in haemophilic patients, especially during surgeries.
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Tata Motors to set up two new plants
New Delhi: Tata Motor plans to set up one to two new greenfield plants as part of its Rs10,000 crore expansion programme to meet the target of more than doubling annual sales to one million units over the next five years.

The company is looking at close to a million vehicles sales in the next five years having sold four lakh vehicles last year. Tata Motors would also expand the capacity of its existing facilities and is in the process of expansion of its plants in Pune, Jamshedpur and Lucknow. The new plants would come up in Uttaranchal and West Bengal.
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Bhel to acquire two domestic companies
New Delhi: Domestic engineering giant Bhel is all set to acquire two Indian companies as part of its efforts to become an Indian multinational. The company has also readied plans to make global acquisitions and expansions with a war chest of Rs10,000 crore.

The domestic acquisitions include a 100 per cent acquisition of Bharat Heavy Plates and Vessels (BHPV) and subsequent merger with itself. The new facility will be used to boost Bhel's industrial boiler business.

The government has also asked Bhel to manage and operate another company Bharat Pumps and Compressors Limited (BPCL) and also to write-off all loans of BHPV.
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NXP Semiconductors in alliance with SRV Telecom
New Delhi: Philips founded semiconductor company NXP Semiconductors has formed an alliance with Bangalore-based SRV Telecom and will provide chipset and development tools to the latter to foray into manufacturing of digital cordless phones.

SRV Telecom plans to invest Rs30 crore over the next six to eight months to spruce up its manufacturing capabilities and expand its production unit. The company plans to begin with a production capacity of up to 10,000 units per month for the first three months, before ramping it up significantly.

The company said digital phones will see a steep adoption curve as the Indian telecom market moves to the next level of growth. With NXP Semiconductors as a partner for supplying the required chipsets, the company will design and integrate DECT-cordless phones and sell to Indian telecom service providers based on their specifications.

According to NXP, the DECT protocol-based cordless phones offer advantages like voice clarity, longer battery life and compact size. Manufacturers can also add features like SMS, large capacity phonebook and video.

NXP will provide development tools & kits, training and also review the design to ensure proper production at SRV unit. However, we will not be sharing information about the chipset itself. The prices of these phones will range anywhere between Rs1,500 for lower-end models to Rs5,000 for higher end models.
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Carrefour, Landmark plans break down
New Delhi: Carrefour and the Dubai-based Landmark group plans for an entry into the Indian retail sector are said to have fallen through.

Sources said Carrefour may prefer to enter India in a partnership with an Indian company.

Carrefour and Landmark were in discussions for the French retail major's entry into India through Landmark's franchisee in the country. According to sources, the French retailer is looking at various specialty retail formats, for which it may now tie up with multiple partners.

Carrefour's entry into Indian retail mart will be in relatively smaller stores sized 2,500-3,000 square feet. Its entry into value and mass retail formats will come only at a later stage a source said.

Carrefour is also in talks for franchising agreements with a couple of specialty retailers and has approached a well-known Indian franchiser for apparel retail. Apart from apparel, the group may enter separately into grocery and consumer durables retail.

The French retailer is also exploring possibilities to enter through the 51 pc FDI in single-brand retailing route. This way, the company may look at retailing a product in the Indian market after extending a private label to it.

Carrefour extends its private label brands to grocery, textile and home appliance segments.
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Wal-Mart interested in TCS retail tech
Mumbai: Global retail giants Wal-Mart and Target have shown interest in a retail product -Personal Shopping Assistant (PSA) developed by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).

PSA is a software product out of the retail innovation lab of TCS. The technology is currently at a prototype stage and will see a mass rollout within a year.

Company officials said TCS has worked with some of the largest retailers, including 30 of the 50 largest in the world, and retail contributes more than $200 million in revenues for the company.

The PSA is, in essence, a scanning device with a LCD screen mounted on a regular shopping trolley. The scanning device has been developed by IBM while TCS has developed the embedded software to make it work.
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Wipro plans centre in Jaipur SEZ
Bangalore: Wipro Technologies too has unveiled a proposal to set up a campus in Mahindra World City, Jaipur.

Wipro has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for 100 acres of land in the SEZ slated to be a state-of-the-art fully integrated business city.

The global IT services division of Wipro said its centre would come up in two phases. The first phase will cover 25 acres which will have over 1 lakh square feet of built-up area and house over 1,000 employees.
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Star India looks for more sponsors for KBC 3
New Delhi: Star India which has roped in Airtel, Hyundai and UTI MF, for sponsoring KBC is said to be in talks with consumer durables major Videocon, ITC Foods and mobile manufacturer Motorola to sponsor its much-awaited SRK starrer Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC-3).

Overall, the associate sponsorship deals would bring in close to
Rs150 crore in Star's purse.

The new deals will be well in the range of Rs10 crore and upwards. However, according to industry sources, Star is in the final stages of getting these three brands on board in the next couple of days.
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