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Tata Motors subsidiary to buy UK design firm INCAT for Rs.411 crore
Mumbai: Tata Motors Ltd. said on Thursday its unit, Tata Technologies, has agreed to buy UK engineering and design firm INCAT Technologies Inc, giving it greater scale in North America, Europe and Asia.

Tata Motors' subsidiary Tata Technologies will buy INCAT for about US$97 million (Rs411 crore), paying 220 pence a share in cash, and having already received an undertaking from shareholders owning 35.9 percent of INCAT's shares.

"The acquisition will give Tata Technologies greater scale and stronger positions in North America, Europe and Asia. This greater global scale will extend the reach of the enlarged group, allowing it to offer a greater range of services," the firm said. Shares in INCAT climbed 2.4 percent in London.

Tata Technologies and INCAT provide engineering and design services for automotive, aerospace and engineering companies. Clients include Airbus, Ford Motor, DaimlerChrysler and General Motors. INCAT's clients include Ford, DaimlerChrysler, Honda Motor, Northrop Grumman and Boeing.

Tata Motors, with nearly 60 percent of India's US$5bn market, also makes cars and utility vehicles. It expects overseas sales to grow to a fifth of its overall revenues in the next 12 months from 17 percent.

Tata Motors' auto parts making unit, Tata Automotive Components Ltd., has formed more than a dozen joint ventures with overseas firms such as Visteon Corp. and UK's Stadco Ltd., as Indian firms look to tap larger markets.
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Cabinet nod for Kochi Refinery's merger with BPCL
New Delhi: The Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs has in principle approved the merger of Kochi Refinery Ltd's with Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. The modalities for the merger though were yet to be decided, senior government officials said.

The finance ministry had expressed reservations about the valuation of KRL and had also questioned the petroleum ministry's proposal to transfer BPCL's holdings in KRL to a trust once the merger was completed. It had instead suggested that the shares be extinguished.

The board of the two companies had approved a swap ratio of 4:9 in January. BPCL holds 54.8 per cent in Kochi Refinery Ltd. Following the merger, the government holding in BPCL will fall to 54.93 per cent from 66.20 per cent.

The Cabinet also cleared a proposal to remove drugs and pharmaceuticals from the purview of the Industrial Development and Regulation Act, 1951 which mandates industrial licensing. The move was prompted as the products were governed by Drugs & Cosmetics Act and the Drug Price Control Order (DPCO), and because 100 per cent foreign investment was allowed in the sector.

The Cabinet took up the standing committee report on the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Bill. The amendments in the Bill would be formulated by a group of ministers, Finance Minister P Chidambaram told reporters after the meeting.

The Cabinet approved the creation of an additional 32 posts for the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council. Although the NMCC had been functioning, Chidambaram said the Cabinet has sanctioned the required staff for the council.

It also approved a bilateral investment promotion agreement between India and Libya with an enforcement period of 10 years. It also cleared amendments to the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions Act 2004.
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Sundram Fasteners aiming for a global top three slot
Chennai: Sundram Fasteners (Zhiejiang), which is India's first engineering unit to be set up in China, is currently doing business worth Rs1 crore a month, the chairman and managing director of Sundram Fasteners Ltd, Suresh Krishna, told the company's shareholders. However, the plant's capacity is not yet fully utilised.

At the company's annual general meeting, he said that the Chinese subsidiary, which had thus far been only exporting out of China, would soon start supplying to multinational companies located in China.

Meanwhile, the company has decided to raise the capacity of its UK subsidiary, Cramlington Precision Forge. A press is to be added. Investment will depend upon the type of press and its capacity, which are being worked out.

Sundram Bleistahl Pvt Ltd, a joint venture with Bleistahl Produktions GmbH of Germany, will start producing sintered valve guides and valve seats from the third quarter of the current year, from its 100 per cent EOU in Hosur, Suresh Krishna said.

He told shareholders that the company envisioned a place among the top three fastener manufacturers in the world. At present, the company is among the top 10.
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Tata Tele to lay additional 2500 km cable network in the east
Calcutta: Tata Teleservices (TTSL) has said that it will invest Rs200 crore in setting up an additional 2500 km of optical fibre cable (OFC) network in the east. The company has already laid 2700 km of OFC in the region.

"Of the proposed capital expenditure of Rs576 crore this fiscal for the region, around Rs200 crore will be used to extend the network backbone to 5200 km of OFC by March," said Rajesh Puri, chief operating officer (east). "Last year, the company had invested Rs455 crore in the east."

Besides its own cable, the company also shares the communications backbone with Hutch and Siti Cable.
In the eastern region, TTSL operates in Calcutta, Bengal, Orissa and Bihar circles.

"Currently, 30 per cent of our sales in the east comes from the retail segment. We plan to take this to 40 to 50 per cent. We also plan to double the conversion rate in retail outlets from 10 per cent to 20 per cent," he added.

Speaking on plans for the public telephone booth (PTB) business, Puri said the company had set a target of 80,000 units by March for the east. Currently, there are around 9000 installations in the region.

"With an average revenue per line (ARPL) of Rs4000 per month, the PTB business is very profitable and we are aggressively trying to grow it," he added.

The company currently has a user base of 2.6 lakhs in the east of which 1.33 lakhs are Walky or landline subscribers. The average revenue per user (ARPU) is Rs440 for mobile and Rs480 per month for landline users.
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Reliance Info rolls out international roaming
Mumbai: Reliance Infocomm has announced the commercial roll out of its international roaming facility. Reliance Infocomm is the first Indian CDMA operator to offer this service, it said in a statement.

To begin with, the company had launched international roaming with top operators in the US, Israel, China, New Zealand and Indonesia and was in an advanced stage of starting service with many others, it said.

It is close to signing up with 12 operators in 11 countries across three continents, which accounts for 90 per cent of the global CDMA footprint.

Reliance Infocomm already has agreements with China Unicon, Pelephone Cellular Communications (Israel), Sprint PCS (US), Mobile-8 (Indonesia) and Telecom Mobile Ltd (New Zealand).
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Tata Motors launches SX series of Indigo
Mumbai: Tata Motors has launched its Tata Indigo sedan in two luxury variants - the Indigo SX and GSX. The models would cater to the premium end of the sedan segment, the company has said.

"The Indigo SX series of cars are available in both petrol and diesel variants. The MPFI variant, upgraded with a 32-bit chip, delivers a power output of 85 PS at 5500 rpm. The turbo charged diesel engine is now intercooled (TDi) delivering an enhanced power output of 70 PS at 4500 rpm. Both variants are BS III compliant," an official statement said.

The series is available in three colours - sequin red, arctic silver and carbon black. Prices (ex-showroom, Mumbai) range from Rs5.76 lakh for the GSX (petrol) to Rs6.13 lakh for the SX (diesel), the company said.
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Getz GLE comes for Rs.4.15 lakh
New Delhi: Hyundai Motor India Ltd on Thursday offered a variant of its premium hatchback Getz at Rs4.15 lakh, exactly the same price as that of its rival from the Maruti stable, the Swift VXi.

This Getz variant, termed the GLE, so far being exported to South Asian countries, will now be available to Indian consumers. This will bring down the price of the entry level Getz by Rs 35,000.

The Getz GLE, which has an AC and power steering as standard features, is understood to be part of Hyundai's efforts to increase its share of the fast-growing premium hatchback segment, where Maruti Udyog retails the three variants of Swift in a price band of Rs3.95 lakh and Rs4.95 lakh.

Automobile analysts said the cheaper Getz did not come as a surprise since it had been around for close to a year in India and nearly four years in the international market.
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Intel and NIIT announce training program for multi-core technologies
New Delhi: As part of the tie-up, Intel and NIIT have announced a partnership to jointly train 50,000 people over three years to develop applications and solutions that are optimised for multi-core technology.

The program is initially set to begin at ten labs at NIIT in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune in the next few weeks.

"With computing moving to dual core and multi-core computing platform there is a need to train professionals in developing software using specialised tools which allows them to develop applications optimised for multi-core processors," said Rajendra Pawar, chairman, NIIT.
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Jetstar launches weekly flight between Kolkata and Singapore
Kolkata: Jetstar Asia, the Singapore-based low cost international airline, on Thursday launched its solo India service between Kolkata and Singapore. The company plans to expand its services to other Indian cities, once India and Singapore enter into a flying rights agreement.

Jetstar is a majority Singapore-owned company with a significant Qantas shareholding. The airline now has a fleet strength of eight A320 aircraft and offers services to Hong Kong, Taipei, Bangkok and Manila, which are within five hours from Singapore.

The fleet strength will be increased to nine shortly.

The company will run three flights a week between Kolkata and Singapore at a base fare of Rs4,000 and a maximum fare of Rs12,000.

Announcing the launch of services, Ken Ryan, CEO of Jetstar, said that its fares were a minimum of 40 per cent cheaper than the existing services between Kolkata and Singapore offered by other airlines.

Ms Kang Siew Kheng, Director of international relations for Singapore Tourism Board, said that Kolkata offered a great opportunity as a gateway to Darjeeling and the North-Eastern Indian States, and for religious tourism to Bodh Gaya.
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