Tata Motors to get land from Karnataka in Dharwad
Bangalore: Tata Motors, a Tata Group company, is likely to get land from the government of Karnataka at Dharwad to set up a new facility to manufacture and assemble buses and coaches. Tata Motors plans to invest over Rs1,000 crore in this plant.

Government officials said the company had submitted a proposal in this regard to the state government in September 2006, which will be discussed at the next cabinet meeting of the government.

Tata Motors already has a unit, Telcon that manufactures construction equipment, set up a decade ago at Belur industrial growth centre, about 10 km from Dharwad on National Highway No 4. The company had acquired 680 acres of land. They said Tata Motors has also proposed providing employment to 30,000 people in north Karnataka. The company plans to manufacture 10,000 buses every year.

Tata Motors had announced a joint venture with Marcopolo, the Brazil-based global leader in body building and coaches, in May 2006.
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RIL to appeal against HC's order
New Delhi: Mukesh Ambani controlled Reliance Industries may appeal this week against the Bombay High Court's interim order on Friday that restrains RIL from selling off part of the gas from its Andhra offshore field which is committed to younger brother Anil Ambani's entities as part of their 2005 demerger pact.

RIL has projected a peak production of 80 million cubic metres of gas per day and has lined up a $5.2 billion investment package.

The HC's order commits half the production figure - 28 million cubic metres a day to Anil's Reliance Natural Resources Ltd and another 12 million cubic metres a day sought to be sold to NTPC but is under litigation. The interim order said the quantity for NTPC will also go to RNRL in case the deal falls through.

HC's order is likely to affect RIL's project financing. The field is outside the company's books and has to generate revenue on its own. Also if RIL is forced to produce only half the field's rated capacity once production starts in June 2008, investors may thus be wary of pumping money into infrastructure for 80 million cubic metres a day of gas when revenue recovery through sale will only be half. This, then, throws up the possibility that the current 80-90 million cubic metres a day gas shortage in the country may continue for the time being.
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Indian companies anticipate Q2 dent in sales, profits: survey
New Delhi: Indian companies expect earnings to fall in the next six months due to higher interest rates and are less confident about the economy as a result, according to the results of a survey released on Monday.

Though a large part of the companies remained optimistic about the economy for the first half of the financial year beginning April, the number companies who expected gains fell sharply from last quarter, a survey by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) revealed.

Expectations of higher sales fell from 78 per cent to 68 per cent compared with a survey done in the quarter that ended in March, the industry lobby group said.

Of 418 companies surveyed in April, 50 per cent expected higher profits in the next six months, compared to 52 per cent in the January-March quarter survey, the fourth quarter of India's financial year.

Overall, optimism about the economy in the next six months declined from 72 per cent to 59 per cent as firms anticipated lower consumer spending because of monetary tightening measures by the central bank to contain inflation, the survey said.

The survey found that industries such as food processing, textiles, housing, construction and automobiles were apprehensive about a fall in demand and profits.

The survey, however, reflected a positive outlook for exports, investments and employment.

More than half the respondents expected a surge in exports and investments.
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Nokia to hike Chennai plant capacity
New Delhi: Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia is planning to hike production capacity at its Chennai factory and is looking at increasing its market share in the mobile handset market.

The company, however, did not disclose the amount of investment needed in ramping up the capacity.

Nokia's Chennai factory was set up more than a year ago with plans of investment of up to $150 million over four years. Nokia sells 80 per cent of the phones in the domestic market while the rest 20 per cent is being exported to neighbouring countries.
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BSNL to begin offering IPTV soon
Tiruchirapalli: BSNL plans to launch Internet Protocol Television Services in major cities like Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Kolkata. The company took this decision after the successful launch of the service in Pune recently. The telecom PSU says it would extend this service to other places once it gets suitable partners.

BSNL is also gearing up to expand its broadband customer base and by the beginning of June 2007 it would be ready to release 3.3 million new connections in urban areas and over two million connections in rural areas. BSNL has already identified 20,000 village telephone exchanges for broadband connectivity. The plan was to issue 20 million broadband connections by 2010.

BSNL is also working to achieve the target of 500 million phone connections envisaged by the telecom ministry in 2010. It has prepared a road map to provide 122 million GSM mobile connections and 22 million broadband connections in the next three to four years.
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