Agrani gets infrastructure status
New Delhi: Subhash Chandra’s $750 million satellite communications proejct, Agrani, has been given infrastructure status by the government. The Central Board of Direct Taxes has approved concessions to the proejct under various sections of the Income Tax Act, which will mainly give benefits to lenders to the project. The company floated by Mr Chandra, ASC Enterprises, to implement the project, intends to raise Rs 1,250 crore as debt from financial institutions. The project will also be able to enjoy a tax holiday of five years. Under this, Agrani will have 100 per cent tax deduction for first five years and a deduction of up to 30 per cent for another five years.

The project is the first global mobile personal communications via satellite project to be accorded infrastructure status in the country.
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Alstom to pick up stake in Hazira project
Mumbai: Alstom Power, affiliate of ABB, is picking up a 16 per cent stake in the Rs 550-crore, 160-mega watt Hazira power project in Gujarat. The company is the engineering, procurement and construction contractor for the project, which is part of Gujarat government’s plant to invest Rs 1,17,000-crore in infrastructure development by 2010. Alstom is expected to contribute Rs 26.40 crore to the company’s total equity of Rs 165 crore.
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Jindal project cost goes up
Mumbai: The project cost of Jindal Vijayanagar Steel has gone up by Rs 929 crore to Rs 6,144 crore, mainly on account of interest expenses during the construction period. The company has tied up funds to meet the increased cost. The 1.57 million tonne per annum integrated steel project is coming up at Bellary in Karnataka. The plant has started partial production.

"We do not expect further escalation. The 3.3 mtpa pellet project is expected to go on stream in the second half of next year. The work has already begun. We are likely to achieve 2 mtpa against the rated capacity of 1.5 mtpa," Sajjan Jindal, vice-chairman of the company, said.
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Indian Oil to expand pipeline network
Mumbai: Indian Oil Corporation is planning to invest around Rs 2,000 crore in a crude pipeline network as part of its expansion plan of the Gujarat refinery. The refinery’s capacity is set to be enhanced from the present level of 12 million tonnes per annum to 13.7 million tonnes per annum. The refinery’s crude requirements are largely met from the Vadinar port in Saurashtra and in order to expand its capacity, the pipeline network needs to be strengthened.
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Website for the Baleno
New Delhi: Maruti Udyog will disseminate information on its latest product, the Baleno, through an exclusive website. This will be one of the marketing strategies of the car major while introducing a new model after a gap of nearly six years. The Baleno is likely to be in the market shortly. The company will also adopt direct marketing programmes in collaboration with hotels as well as airlines to offer integrated packages.

Maruti has annoucned it will progressively indigenise the 1.6-litre, 16-valve, multi-point fuel injection, all-aluminium luxury car. Initially the car is to be assembled with imported kits. The import content will be around 75 per cent.
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P.C. Sen takes over Shriram Bearings
Calcutta: Shriram Bearings, a company belonging to Arun Bharat Ram’s SRF group, has come into the lap of P.C. Sen, former chairman and managing director of Peerless General Finance and Investment Company. Mr Sen has picked up 62 per cent stake in the company, which had been put up for sale sometime ago. The balance stake is being held by the public and financial institutions. The SRF group had decided to sell the company as its activities did not form part of the core business of the group.
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GE Cap of US infuses funds in Indian arm
Mumbai: General Electric Capital Corporation of the US has brought in Rs 90 crore into its 100 per cent Indian subsidiary, GE Capital Services India. GE Capital India’s capital base now stands at Rs 332.01 crore. The company is one of the largest non-banking financial companies in India with an asset base of Rs 2,747 crore.
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JV may become Toyota's 100% unit
New Delhi: Toyota Motor Corporation is to acquire the entire unclaimed stake in the joint venture Toyota Kirloskar Motor Corporation as Kirloskar Systems is unable to subscribe to its 26 per cent equity in the company. This will take Toyota’s stake in the joint venture to 100 per cent. It is learnt that Toyota will subscribe to the holding on behalf of the Kirloskars, enabling the latter to buy back the stake at a later date. The Japanese company has informed the government about this. Toyota has the government nod to increase its stake to 89 per cent at the moment.
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CA division ties up with Datamatics
Mumbai: Computer Associates’ division The Global Professional Services has tied up with Datamatics, a software solutions company, to expand Computer Associates’ Enterprise Delivery Centre network in India. The Enterprise Delivery Centre attempts to accelerate project delivery through access to highly skilled personnel and helps reduce risk through simulation of conditions that exist in clients’ business technology environment..
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Aetna, Infosys tie up
Mumbai: Aetna Incorporation, a leading  healthcare and financial services company, and Infosys Technologies have announced a strategic partnership under which Infosys will support Aetna’s offshore initiatives and assist the company in becoming an e-business enterprise. Aetna is planning to establish e-Health that connects patients, doctors,. hospitals and service providers.
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Gates is ready for "any" resolution
Washington: Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corporation, says he will discuss "any sort of resolution" to the antitrust case brought by the government. Mr Gates made this remark in the course of a TV interview. However, legal experts said Mr Gates is against a break-up as he is of the opinion that  it will be both, bad and unwarranted.

Mr Gates was asked twice on ABC’s Good Morning America whether he would be open to a break-up of the company. Asked about people who wondered if he was considering breaking up the company, Mr Gates said "Those people are really off the mark." But when pressed for a definite answer, Mr Gates said, "I don’t see how a lot of things that are being discussed would benefit consumers. That’s what this all comes down to, in the final analysis. We are very serious about any sort of resolution that could come along. We’ll sit and be willing to discuss that. People who speculate about penalties are really off the mark at this point."
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Microsoft drops instant messaging system
Seattle: Microsoft for the first time conceded defeat in its instant-messaging battle with America Online, admitting that, to continue the fight will leave users open to a security risk. Microsoft had offered free software in July that allowed users to send instant messages to each other or to users of AOL’s system. Microsoft has, on 17 November, released its version 2.0 of MSN Messenger Service eliminating interoperability with the AOL system.
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Deutsche Telekom buys Siris
Frankfurt: Deutsche Telekom has bought French telecom company Siris for $730 million. The acquisition will give Deutsche Telekom control of France’s second largest telecom operator in terms of sales in corporate fixed line telephone. The purchase was made from Unisource, a consortium of KPN Telecom, Telia of Sweden and Swisscom.

Deutsche Telekom wants to consolidate its European strength as France Telecom, its one-time ally and estranged because of Deutsche’s bid for Telecom Italia early this year, had recently bought a controlling stake in E-Plus, France’s third largest player.
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Vodafone gets FI support for Mannesmann bid
London: Vodafone AirTouch’s board is meeting to agree to a new bid for Mannesmann after winning support from institutional investors for a higher offer. It is learnt that the world’s biggest cellphone group will make an offer of 235 euros per share in its takeover bid. Vodafone’s 203 euro-per share offer earlier was rejected by Mannesmann.

Meanwhile, the company appointed Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette as its adviser in the takeover battle. The investment bank, ranked No 5 in terms of global deal volume, was hired to fill the gap lefty by Goldman Sachs, which was forced to temporarily withdraw pending a court hearing initiated by Mannesmann. Mannesmann said Goldman was privy to confidential information gained while acting for mobile phone company Orange, which is being bought by the German group.
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Case against Abbot
Chicago: A Seattle law firm says it has fielded a proposed class action law suit against Abbot Laboratories alleging that test kits made by the company were flawed and caused thousands of women to have unnecessary cancer treatment and hysterectomies. The "hCG" test kits were for use in hospital and private laboratories.
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New Pokemon from Nintendo
Tokyo: "Pokemon", the highly popular video game, will get a facelift when Nintendo launches a new version on 21 November. The new software for Gameboy will be initially available in Japan and the US. In the game, players collect different Pokemons, or pocket monsters, each with different powers and then "train" them for competitive battles. The new versions are named Pokemon Gold and Pokemon Silver. Nintendo has so far soled 180 million copies worldwide of the current Pokemon software.
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