Tentative
approval for Ranbaxy's anti-depressant
New Delhi: Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd has received
a tentative approval from the US Food and Drug Administration
for the generic anti-depressant, Gabapentin, in capsule
form.
According
to FDA, the approval is for "oral capsules"
in 100 milligram, 300 mg and 400 mg strengths.
Gabapentin
is the generic name of US drug company Pfizer Inc's Neurontin
drug, whose sales were estimated at $2.4 billion in 2003.
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National
awards for 23 BHEL equipped power stations
New Delhi: Out of the 27 power stations throughout
the country that have bagged national awards for meritorious
performance, 23 are equipped with power generation equipment
built by the public sector major, Bharat Heavy Electricals
Limited (BHEL).
Out
of the 23 such power stations equipped with BHEL sets,
21 are thermal units while the remaining two are atomic
plants.
In
particular is APGenco's 1, 260 MW thermal power station
(TPS) at Vijaywada, which has been consistently winning
the award instituted by the Ministry of Power. It has
won awards for the last 12 years since 1992 and the gold
medal for the tenth consecutive year.
The
other BHEL set-equipped power stations which have been
awarded for excellent performance include Rayalaseema,
Kothagudem, Ramagundam, Korba, Singrauli, Suratgarh, Kota,
Mettur, Tuticorin, Wanakbori, Badarpur, Kakrapar, Gandhinagar,
Raichur, Unchahar, North Chennai, Narora, Vindhyachal,
Simhadri, Lehra Mohabbat and Kaiga, apart from the gas-based
Dadri combined cycle power project.
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Eveready
looking for battery units in China
Kolkata: Eveready Industries India Ltd. is planning
to acquire battery manufacturing capacity in China through
the joint venture route during the next three to six months.
The
company has started preliminary discussions with some
Chinese battery manufacturers. Senior officials of the
company have already made several visits to China and
have identified two to three plants for future discussions.
All these plants are owned by private parties.
He
said that Eveready Industries had initiated a capacity
expansion programme at its Cossipore plant in Kolkata,
the oldest unit of the company. The plant capacity will
be increased from 200 million pieces per year from the
existing 80 million pieces per year.
Funds
for this project will be generated from internal accruals
and the project will be ready by the end of next year.
Meanwhile,
the company has become the original equipment manufacturer
(OEM) for a number of battery producers based in other
countries such as Japan, Chile, Australia, Hong Kong and
the US.
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Pidilite
to set up new units in Himachal Pradesh
Mumbai: Pidilite Industries Ltd is setting up new
units in Himachal Pradesh at an estimated cost of Rs.55
crore.
The
company said it will fund this investment mainly from
internal accruals. The implementation of this project
will be in a various phases spanning a period of three
years, the company has informed the BSE.
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1:1
bonus from Jetking
Mumbai: The board of directors of Jetking Infotrain
Ltd has proposed to issue bonus in the ratio of 1:1, according
to a company notification to the BSE.
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India
Steamship mulls long term growth plans
Kolkata: India Steamship Company (ISS) of the K.K.
Birla Group hopes to wipe out its accumulated loss, amounting
to more than Rs.18 crore within the next three years,
according to the company.
ISS
was now engaged in drawing up a long-term business plan
whose focus would be on building up capacity for transportation
of crude.
The
company plans to achieve one million dead weight tonnes
threshold over the next eight years as compared to 249,678
dwt at present. Right now the company's fleet consisted
of three vessels, all crude carriers, with the third one,
"Ratna Urvi", a 96,088-dwt Aframax, due for
delivery next month.
By
2011, the ISS fleet would consist of seven to eight vessels,
mostly crude tankers. "Ratna Urvi", 1989 Japanese
built, cost the company $17 million funded again partly
by internally and partly loans. In first quarter of the
current year, both "Ratna Abha", engaged in
cross trading, and "Ratna Shalini" (89,960 dwt),
on charter with Great Eastern Shipping, performed ahead
of the objectives.
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Hutch
halves rates for prepaid users
Mumbai: Cellular operator Hutch has more than halved
tariffs for its prepaid service, with a local airtime
rate of 99 paise per minute to any mobile phone, and a
flat STD rate of Rs.2.25 per minute to any phone in the
country.
It
is the third wireless operator after Reliance Infocomm
and Bharti in the last fortnight to revise downward its
prepaid tariffs.
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Desktop
market grows 34 per cent
New Delhi: The desktop market has witnessed a 34
per cent year-on-year growth in unit terms during April-June
quarter of 2004. According to IDC India, the desktop market
has grown year-over-year for the ninth quarter in a row.
The
AMD-Linux combination has worked well for nearly all vendors
who experimented with it, emerging as one of the favourite
product offerings in the entry-level segment, it pointed
out.
The
price-sensitive consumer market accounted for 39 per cent
of shipments and dominated sales in the sub-25,000 market
for desktops. IDC, however, viewed price drops in the
desktop segment as a small subset of the larger positioning
game that the PC market is set to witness.
While
overall prices posted a drop, it was not the entry-level
price bracket alone that contributed to the bulk of shipments.
The Rs.25, 000-Rs.35, 000 price-bracket accounted for
nearly 41 per cent of overall desktop shipments in India
in 2003, with unit shipments growing by 43 per cent over
2002.
Furthermore,
in line with WTO guidelines, the tariffs on IT products
should be reduced to zero in 2005, IDC said adding that
this would create a rapid accelerating effect in the Indian
PC market from second half of 2005 into 2006.
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Flextronics
acquires Future Software
Chennai: Flextronics, the $14.5-billion Singapore
headquartered electronics contract manufacturer, has acquired
the Chennai-based Future Software Ltd that provides software
solutions to telecom firms globally buying out its entire
equity. The company would now become a 100 per cent subsidiary
of Flextronics.
Future
Software made a marginal profit on revenue of $25 million
for the year ended March 31, 2004. Employees of Future
Software would get cash compensation and large shareholders,
including Intel and ILFS, would get Flextronics shares.
Flextronics'
acquisition of Future Software comes close on heels of
it acquiring a 55 per cent stake in India-based telecom
firm Hughes Software Systems (HSS) and a $10 million investment
in inSilica, a semiconductor design firm based in Bangalore.
The
acquisition would help Flextronics fill the gap in telecom
software design and embedded software.
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ISPs in grey
Net telephony fined by DoT
New Delhi: The Department of Telecom has cracked
down on Internet Service Providers (ISPs), which are routing
illegal traffic through their network. The department
has imposed a fine on defaulting ISPs the Tatas-managed
Dishnet DSL, Spectranet and Primus Telecommunication.
Dishnet
DSL Ltd, Spectranet and Primus Telecommunication have
been asked to cough up Rs.2.28 crore, Rs.2.34 crore and
Rs.9 lakh, respectively. Other defaulting ISPs would face
similar action by the department.
Reacting
to the DoT move, the Tatas controlled Videsh Sanchar Nigam
Ltd, which had recently acquired Dishnet, said was not
liable to pay any fine as VSNL had taken over Dishnet's
business, business assets and only the business liabilities.
Any violation of licence agreement prior to VSNL acquiring
Dishnet's Internet business lay with Dishnet Ltd, and
not with VSNL.
As
per the licence conditions, ISPs are not permitted to
offer telephony services on fixed lined phones. However,
raids conducted by DoT along with the Central Bureau of
Investigation revealed that Internet leased lines of ISPs
were being misused for switching the international calls
to fixed line telephones bypassing the networks of long
distance operators. In some cases, pre-paid cards were
also used to originate calls from fixed line numbers,
which were illegally switched to international numbers
through Internet.
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