Chemists body in TN plans distribution firm
Chennai: The Tamil Nadu Chemists and Druggists Association (TNCDA), an affiliate of the All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD), plans to form a distribution company, in which all its members will be shareholders, to manage the pharma trade in the state.

AIOCD plans to launch its own retail chain company with a common branding across India to help small retailers retain their business share in face of competition from the organised retail chains being planned by several large companies.

AIOCD, the apex body of about six lakh chemists and druggists nationally, manages a major chunk of the Rs50,000-crore pharma trade in the country.

The pharma retail trade has been attracting several corporates such as Big Bazaar, Fabmall, Reliance and Subhiksha. Several players, who are keen entering retail, are reported to have discussed possible tie-ups with AIOCD.
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Power generation touches 57.095 BU in December 06
New Delhi: Power generation in December 2006 touched 57.095 billion units (BU), about 9.3 pc higher than the generation of 52.257 BU recorded in December 2005.

During April - December 2006, the actual generation of electricity was 493.419 BU, registering a significantly higher growth of 7.55 pc as compared to growth rate of 4.7 pc in April-December 2005.

The overall plant load factor (PLF) of thermal power stations during December 2006 touched 78.7 pc as compared to 75.7 pc during December 2005.

The cumulative PLF during the current year (April-December 2006) reached to 74.6 pc as compared to 71.5 pc during corresponding period of last year.
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Railways offers container business to private firms
New Delhi: The railways have allowed private operators to run container trains, thus ending the monopoly of Concor. The move will increase government revenues by Rs2,000 crore annually. The model concession agreement for the same was signed between the railways and 14 private container train operators.

The 14 operators include Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Infrastructure Engineering, Adani Logistics, Boxtrans Logistics Container Rail Road Services, Gateway Distriparks, IL&FS and Pipavav Rail Corporation (PRC).

Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries, agriculture products company Cargill and fertiliser major Kribhco are keen on the second round of bidding for private container rail operations, officials in the Rail Bhawan said.

The private operators will invest Rs400 crore for manufacturing 2,000 wagons for goods transportation.

The companies would buy containers from manufacturers, build inland container depots and find customers, while railways would run the goods trains. The companies have already paid Rs500 crore to Railways as licence fee. The deadline for execution of the business is three years.
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IT services, BPO to grow at 26 per cent in 2007
New Delhi: IT services and business process outsourcing (BPO) exports from India are expected to grow at 26 per cent to touch $33.4 billion in 2007 as against $26.5 billion in 2006 according to estimates by consulting firm NeoIT.

This includes revenues from captive operations, MNCs and Indian pure play third party service providers. According to NeoIT, the software and related services exports are likely to post $20.8 billion in 2007 against $17.1 billion in 2006, a growth of 21.6 per cent.

The BPO space is predicted to grow at a faster rate of 34 per cent to gross $12.6 billion in 2007 compared to $9.4 billion last year. NeIT says it expects the top 3 players to grow between 32-35 per cent and the industry will continue to see marginalisation of the mid-tier and smaller companies.
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TRAI for quality of norms for DTH consumers
New Delhi: TRAI, which also regulates the broadcasting industry apart from the telecom industry, plans to hold consultations over framing of laws to regulate the quality of service of direct-to-home services in the country.

In June last year, TRAI had issued quality of service regulations for cable operators in CAS areas and the move on the DTH front comes after more and more subscribers have been hooking on to the satellite-based TV services.

A desire for high-quality TV viewing in non-CAS areas and shifting to the new digital regime in CAS areas, as mandated by the Government, has seen DTH companies, Tata Sky and Essel group's Dish TV seeing high sales over the last few months.
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