Essar wants equal status with Vodafone in Hutch
Mumbai: Before its discussions begin with Vodafone, Essar has said it wants 'partnership of equals' and 'joint management' in Hutch-Essar, India's fourth largest mobile venture in which Vodafone is taking a majority stake.

Company officials said the fundamental tenet of the partnership with Vodafone would be a partnership of equals where both sides have a meaningful role.

Discussions between Essar promoters Ruias and Vodafone are expected to start later this week for which Essar group's vice chairman Ravi Ruia is slated to fly to London.
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ONGC's gas discovery in KG basin disallowed by DGH
New Delhi: The Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) has disallowed Oil and Natural Gas Corporation's (ONGC) recent gas discovery in the Krishna-Godavari Basin. ONGC's exploration team had last year struck natural gas in ultra-deepwater well UD1 in the Krishna-Godavari block KG-DWN-98/2.

The Director General of Hydrocarbons, Mr V.K. Sibal, said the organization had disallowed the discovery, since the gas was not flowing to the surface. The production sharing contract (PSC) does not agree to considering something as a discovery if it does not flow to the surface.

ONGC is likely to contest the DGH's view.

An official said the company carries out its activities in the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) blocks as per laid down PSC norms. In adherence to the norms, in the well UD-1, block KG-DWN-98/2, ONGC notified DGH regarding modular dynamic test (MDT) in the interval 5,243.5 - 5,304 m, which was conducted in the presence of DGH representative during December 7-15, 2006. The interpreted presence of hydrocarbon was validated through this test.

After further completion of further tests the discovery of Non-Associated Natural Gas (NANG) was brought to the notice of DGH on December 23, the official said. ONGC, in consultation with its partner Cairn Energy India Ltd, submitted its potential commercial interest, meriting appraisal, in the prescribed format to the DGH. The hydrocarbon in-place estimated as per standard practice is in a range of 2.09 TCF-14.76 TCF.
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Bharti to invest $2.5 billion in retail venture in eight years
New Delhi: Bharti Enterprises plans to invest $2-$2.5 billion by 2015 in its retail venture that would be launched under its wholly-owned subsidiary, Bharti Retail (Pvt) Ltd. The company plans to use a mixture of internal accruals, debt and equity to raise the money. The company says it is looking at around 10 million sq ft of retail space pan India, and would employ around 60,000 people in its retail outfit.

Bharti Retail will launch its retail outlets in multiple formats that would include hypermarkets and supermarkets. For the smaller format convenience stores, the company is looking at partnering with existing local storeowners across the country through a franchise model. The company plans to roll out its first store by the first quarter of 2008, beginning with areas having a population of over a million, and will later foray into smaller towns and cities. The company hopes to earn around $5 billion by 2015 from its retail initiative.

Bharti Retail, however, made it clear that its current announcements did not include its plans with its joint venture partner Wal-Mart.

The company said it is in talks with Wal-Mart with regards the cash-n-carry format, and would make announcements as soon as everything was finalized. The company, in November 2006, had made public its alliance with Wal-Mart, the world's largest retail chain, for back-end support in its wholesale retailing initiative, where Bharti itself will handle the front-end operations.

Wal-Mart's vice-Chairman and overseas operation head, Mike Duke, is set to visit India on February 22, when a possible announcement on the joint venture is expected.
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Ceat plans truck radial facility
Kolkata: RPG Group company Ceat is planning to set up a truck radial facility to cater to domestic demand. The plant may have an initial capacity of 20,000-50,000 tyres, that would be expandable to two lakh tyres. Currently, only J K Tyre has such facility in India. Ceat is also planning to modernise and expand the existing capacities in off-the-road tyres (OTR) and passenger car radials. The total investment is estimated to be close to Rs700 crore. The new plant may be set up in technical tie-up with a foreign collaborator, a senior company official said and the decision regarding the proposed investment is expected in next three to four months.

Ceat currently outsources 1,000-1,500 truck radials from Pirelli of UK. While it is not clear whether Pirelli will offer the requisite know-how for the proposed venture, sources said that Ceat is "satisfied" with its existing outsourcing arrangements with the foreign major. Ceat had posted a net profit of Rs37 lakh on a turnover of Rs1,952 crore in 2005-06.
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Fire at Cadila Pharma's Bharuch plant
Ahmedabad: The Bharuch plant of pharma major Cadila Pharmaceuticals Ltd was engulfed in fire causing a possible loss running into crores of rupees. The incident occurred at a time when no one was at the spot due to the employees' shift changing, at about 3.15 p.m, according to reports from the Ankleshwar-based manufacturing unit located in the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) premises in the Bharuch district of South Gujarat.

The company said the fire broke out at the ground floor of the company's ETA plant that manufactures Amlodipine.
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L&T receives contract worth $250 million from Qatar
Mumbai: Larsen and Toubro has received a contract worth around $250 million from Maersk Oil Qatar for development work at the latter's oil field `Block 5'. The contract is for a project that involves construction of two new offshore platform topsides, a flare platform and an interconnecting bridge. The contract is one of their `largest overseas projects' said a news release from L&T.

Maersk Oil Qatar is developing the field under a production-sharing agreement with Qatar Petroleum. The `Block 5' package is to be executed in 28 months.
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Hatsun Agro to open 4,000 `pure' dairy farms
Salem: Chennai-based Hatsun Agro Product is looking at creating 300 `pure' dairy farmers within the next year, to be scaled up to 4,000 as part of an ambitious five-year White Gold project.
The company said each of the farmers will keep 30-40 cows, giving an average 10-12 litres milk daily over 300 days. At Rs10 a litre and a margin of Rs3-3.50, the farmers can net Rs25,000-30,000 per month. The Rs550-crore company procures 13 lakh litres per day (LLPD) on an average, making it India's largest private sector dairy concern.

The company will set up five-acre farms, in which 3.5 acres will be set aside to grow Co3 (a bajra-napier hybrid fodder), one acre for desmanthes (a lucerne fodder with twice the protein content) and half acre for multi-cut sorghum and 0.1 acre will house the stalls and milking parlour space for 40 cows, at 90 square feet (436 square feet equals 0.01 acres) per animal.

The White Gold project aims to establish the profitability of five-acre `pure' dairy farms and bring down milk production costs through a mix of high herd size, better feeding practices and selective mechanisation.
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Teledata acquires majority stake in eSys
Chennai: Teledata Informatics has acquired a majority stake in eSys Technologies, a Singapore-based IT distribution major and PC maker for $105 million (around Rs470 crore), according to a communication to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

eSys started as a technology components distributor in year 2000 now has presence in more than 30 countries. It diversified into PC manufacturing with four manufacturing plants located in Singapore, UAE, the US and India. Teledata provides enterprise-wide solutions for the marine, education, telecom and utility sectors.
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TCS to establish 500-seat delivery centre in Mexico
New Delhi: India's largest software exporting company Tata Consultancy Services is planning to set up a 500-seat new delivery centre in Mexico. The company currently has an office in Mexico but not a delivery base. The new delivery centre is expected to be operational by 2007 end, and will largely focus on IT services with some BPO capabilities.

At present, TCS has 71 delivery centres across 14 countries.

Outside India, its main delivery locations are Brazil, Uruguay and Chile. Brazil, Uruguay and Chile together house 4,000 professionals. The company also has delivery units in Hungary and China, and smaller facilities in Australia and Japan.

During the last quarter (October-December 2006), TCS had reported a 30 pc increase in revenues from global delivery centres (GDC). With this, the non-India GDCs account for 4.1 pc of the company's overall revenues.

Going forward, TCS would also scale up its operations in Hungary and China. The company has 800 professionals in China.

Last week, TCS also announced the launch of its joint venture in China, christened Tata Consultancy Services (China), to provide IT services and solutions to China's domestic market as well as other markets particularly Japan.

In India, TCS has 41 delivery centres spread across Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi, Kolkata and smaller centres in Cochin, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Bhubaneshwar, and Coimbatore.
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