ACC to expand capacity with Rs4,000 crore investment
Mumbai: Cement major ACC plans to expand production capacity backed by an investment of Rs4,000 crore by 2009. The company has also indicated that is looking acquire other companies.

The company plans to add over 7.5 million tonnes per annum capacity to its plants from 19.91 million tonne per annum (mtpa) now. Capacity expansion is currently going on in Lakheri, Tikaria, Kymore, Wadi and Sindri plants. With this ACC's total capacity would go up to 23.1 mtpa by the end of the current year, once the expansion works were over.

The company also plans to augment cement grinding capacity at Madukkarai plant by 0.22 mtpa and at Bargarh facility to 2.14 mtpa along with a 30 MW captive power plant which will all go on stream in 2008.

The company board has approved an outlay of Rs1,487 crore to increase the clinkering capacity at New Wadi plant with additional cement grinding facilities in Karnataka and a captive power plant of 50 MW capacity.
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Satyam wins $200 million deal from Applied Materials
Mumbai: Leading global IT services company, Satyam Computer Services has signed a $200 million (around Rs900 crore) five-year contract with California-based Applied Materials Inc, a global leader in microchips that serves the electronics industry.

Under the agreement Satyam will provide application development, maintenance, and support (ADMS) besides business transformation core technology services to Applied Materials through a managed services delivery model.

Satyam has provided ADMS and engineering services to Applied Materials for more than five years prior to this announcement. Last year, Satyam signed a $71 million 7-year contract with Australian airline, Quantas, and a $30 million 10-year contract with the Punjab and Sind Bank.

Ron Kifer, group vice president and chief information officer, Applied Materials said. "We expect this model to provide us with a very cost-effective solution for managing IT and business infrastructure processes and activities, as well as measurable service level and quality enhancements. Satyam's mature processes, deep technical capabilities and high level of commitment were the key factors in our decision to engage them in this strategic relationship."
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SET says no to revision of ad contracts
New Delhi: After the dismal showing by the Indian team in the ICC Cricket World Cup that led to India exiting from the World Cup tournament, and also interest in the game in India, broadcasting company Sony Entertainment Television (SET) said it would not renegotiate the contracts it has signed with advertisers.

"We have signed contracts for the long term which are not terminable and there is no scope for negotiations," Rohit Gupta, executive vice president (revenues), SET said.

Saying that demand for revising the advertising rates after India's early exit from the World Cup, which resulted in drastic drop in viewership, was unfair.

He added, "If India were to be in finals we would not have asked them to pay double," he said.

Advertisers are hoping the channel would consider their demands for revising the rates following drop in viewership.

According to industry estimates, a 10-second slot is priced at around Rs1.5 lakh and SET has raked in about Rs500 crore from ad deals for the ongoing World Cup.
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Reliance Retail readying to hawk electronic goods
New Delhi: Mukesh Ambani's retail venture Reliance Retail will soon start selling electronics goods like refrigerators, TVs and computers even while it prepares to open its 100th fresh food and vegetables outlet in the country.

The company plans to open its first Digital Electronics Store, possibly in the national capital region, for selling TVs, refrigerators and other goods. The outlet would be spread over an area of 50,000 sq ft.

So far the company has unveiled only fresh food stores, which industry sources say, have been averaging a sale of Rs3.5 to Rs4 lakh a day.
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Tata group sells stake in JV with Sitel
Mumbai: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has informed the BSE that it has sold its 40 per cent stake in business process outsourcing (BPO) company Sitel India to US-based Sitel Corporation for $17.732 million. Sitel India was set up as a joint venture between the Tata Group and Sitel Corp in 2000, with both parties holding 50 pc of the equity. Tata International, which holds a 10 per cent stake in the joint venture, will also sell its stake. The joint venture company provides voice-based BPO service centre from India and employs over 4,000 professionals. The joint venture provides fully integrated customer care and back office processing services operating from Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Gurgaon.
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ABG Shipyard gets vessel order worth Rs60 crore
Mumbai: ABG Shipyard has bagged a repeat order of Rs60 crore ($13.50 million) from Cyprus-based Lamnalco for construction of an 100 m.t. tug (vessel to pull or push larger ships). The Auxiliary Propulsion System vessel would be delivered by May 19, 2009, ABG Shipyard informed the BSE. Following this order, the order book of ABG Shipyard, as on date, stands at $776.8 million (Rs3,452 crore).

ABG Shipyard has already delivered six vessels to Lamnalco and the other 5 vessels (besides the present order) are under construction, the company said.
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Sterlite Optical gets order worth Rs180 crore from Power Grid
Mumbai: Sterlite Optical Technologies has secured an order worth Rs180 crore to manufacture and supply power transmission conductors for India's first 500 kV HVDC lines by Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCIL). These conductors would be installed in the +/-500 kV HVDC Ballia - Bhiwadi Transmission Line and deliveries are scheduled over the next 21 months, Sterlite Optical informed the BSE.

Sterlite currently supplies about 23 per cent of India's total demand for power transmission and distribution conductors.
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Wipro to open third delivery centre in China
Tokyo: Wipro Technologies is planning to open yet another delivery centre in China to cater to the growing needs of its multinational clients. The company already has two delivery centers in China one each in Shanghai and Beijing.

The Wipro delivery centre has 250 employees in Shanghai and 50 in Beijing.

The company officials said Wipro want to be close to its clients and many of them have major operations in China.
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Yahoo offers unlimited e-mail storage
Bangalore: Yahoo! India has begun offering unlimited e-mail storage. By May, the 250 millions users of Yahoo Mail, which is in beta version, will be able to chat within it, and store all their mail without worrying about archiving, or downloading them.

Competitors Gmail and MSN offer 2.8GB and 2GB of storage in inboxes currently. Rediff recently announced unlimited storage for its e-mail users. Officials at Yahoo said Yahoo! Mail is used by 88 per cent of all e-mail users (around 13.5 million use e-mail across the globe).

You can also search for a message buried inside and read RSS feeds. Tabbed browsing within the inbox allows the user to open multiple e-mails and chat messaging windows easily.

Yahoo! India is also focusing on Hindi and will partner with Jagran Prakashan, the group behind Dainik Jagran to launch a co-branded Web site offering Hindi news and current affairs online in the second half of this year.
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Steel firms to raise prices from April 1
Kolkata: Steel companies which lowered prices early this month in keeping with the government's request to lower prices to check inflationary trends, are gearing up to increase prices by Rs500-1,000 per tonne from April 1.

The industry plans to raise prices cautiously though landed import prices are higher than domestic prices by Rs2,500-3,000 per tonne. The ruling price of hot rolled coils (HRC) stands at Rs 27,000 (approximately $613) per tonne.

Although there is no domestic scarcity yet, this position might change from April 1 with an expected $30 to $50 a tonne increase in international prices, making exports more lucrative.

The price hike is likely to put the industry in confrontation with the government.
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Merged airline to be named `Air Indian`
New Delhi: The airline that will come out of the merger of Indian and Air India is likely to be be called "Air Indian". The Cabinet cleared a proposal to merge the two airlines last month.

Sources close to the development reveal that after hectic negotiations and several rounds of meetings, the choice of brand was a unanimous one.

A new company called National Aviation Company Ltd has been registered by the government to amalgamate the two airlines along with their low-fare subsidiaries, Air India Express (of Air India) and Alliance Air (of Indian).

Regarding the logo Air India's famed "Maharaja" will stay on instead of Indian's "Ashok Chakra."

An official announcement on the decision is expected next week.
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