Trai cuts roaming tariffs by 56 pc
New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has cut domestic mobile roaming charges by 56 pc and has scrapped all forms of rental, surcharge and other additional charges being taken by the mobile operators at present for offering roaming services. The telecom regulator has also asked operators not to charge for incoming SMS while roaming. This is despite stiff opposition by telecom operators.

The move will benefit about 15 million mobile users who use roaming services cellular operators feel telecom companies may be forced to increase local tariffs to balance out the impact on their revenues.

T.V. Ramachandran, director-general, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said the adverse financial impact on the industry was expected to be to the tune of Rs800-900 crore annually.

The communication and IT minister, Dayanidhi Maran, on Wednesday backed the decision taken by the telecom regulator to drop mobile roaming charges.
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Tata Steel acquires 100 pc in 2 NatSteel group cos
Mumbai: Tata Steel, which is bidding for European steel maker Corus, has converted two of its NatSteel group companies into wholly owned subsidiaries and is acquiring a majority stake in the third.

Tata Steel said it has acquired the balance 40 per cent equity stake in NatSteel Trade International Pte, in which it already owns 60 per cent stake, and has also acquired 50 per cent stake in NatSteel (Xiamen) in which its earlier stake was 50 per cent.

Further, Tata Steel has acquired 22.6 per cent interest in NatSteel Vina Co. Ltd. Tata Steel's current holding in the company is 33.9 per cent. The acquisitions were made for Rs84 crore and through Tata Steel's wholly owned Singapore subsidiary NatSteel Asia Pte Ltd.
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Nicholas Piramal sets up inhalation anesthetics plant
Hyderabad: Nicholas Piramal has set up the first inhalation anesthetics plant in Asia at Hyderabad. The plant would produce Halothane and Isoflurance, to ensure availability of these products in the country at a cheaper price.

Shroff & Associates (Engineers), Mumbai has been selected for a national award in consultancy services by the Consultancy Development Centre (CDC), under the Union Ministry of Science and Technology, for the implementation of the NPIL project here.

Jayesh Shroff, managing director of Shroff & Associates (Engineers), Mumbai said the plant which would enable NPIL to enter other high value anesthetics, employs about 50 people directly and another 100 people indirectly. Plans are currently on for entering into current generation anesthetics, according to a press release from Shroff & Associates.

The market share of NPIL stands at a 70 per cent for Halothane and 15 per cent for Isoflurance.
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GAIL identifies 28 cities for gas projects
New Delhi: GAIL (India) would supply compressed natural gas (CNG) to automobiles and supply piped natural gas (PNG) for households and commercial establishments in 28 cities.

The Supreme Court had identified Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Agra, Lucknow, Kanpur, Varanasi, Pune, Faridabad, Patna, Ahmedabad, Sholapur, and Kolkata as the most polluted.

GAIL has identified Allahabad, Bareilly, Jhansi, Mathura, Noida, Navi Mumbai, Gwalior, Indore, Ujjain, Rajahmundry, Vijayawada, Rajkot, Surendranagar, Kota and Vadodara for supplying natural gas. GAIL plans to implement the projects as a joint venture with oil marketing company Indraprastha Gas Ltd (IGL), which is into the business of supplying CNG to automobiles and PNG for domestic cooking in the Capital.
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Reliance Retail opens 12 stores in Chennai
Chennai: Reliance Retail launched 12 Reliance Fresh stores in Chennai on Wednesday. These pilot stores will sell fresh fruits, vegetables, staples, bakery and dairy products, pooja flowers, top-up grocery and meat in select stores.

Currently, there are 40 Reliance Fresh stores across Hyderabad, Jaipur and Chennai. Each store, which caters to about 3,000 households in a 2 km `catchment area' range from 1,200 sq ft to 3,500 sq ft size and also offer home-delivery.

The stores are backed by a supply chain, which goes right up to the farm gate to procure the produce for which the company has an exemption from the State Government under the Agricultural Produce Marketing Act.
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MUL launches Diesel Swift priced at Rs4.68 lakh
New Delhi: Maruti Udyog (MUL) has launched two variants of the diesel version of Swift LDi and VDi priced at Rs4.68 lakh and 4.96 lakh, respectively, ex showroom Delhi.

Swift Diesel is powered by a new generation 1.3 litre engine with five injection technology, and delivers a power of 75 bhp.

The technology for the diesel engine was obtained by Suzuki Motor Corp (SMC) through a technical licence agreement with Fiat and Adam Opel. The engine is being manufactured at the SMC and MUL diesel engine plant in Manesar near Gurgaon.

Maruti Udyog is gearing up to change its declining fortunes in exports with the launch of a new model for Europe by 2008-09.

The company is initially looking at exporting one lakh units of the to-be-launched car, which will mark its re-entry in Europe and is confident of having total exports of two lakh units by 2008-09.
Khattar said MUL was hopeful of touching exports of around 38,000-40,000 units this year.
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Avestha Gengraine raises € 25mn from strategic partners
Bangalore: Avestha Gengraine Technologies Pvt Ltd the biotechnology company based in Bangalore has received funding of € 25 million (around Rs150 crore) from Groupe Danone, Groupe Limagrain and two other strategic investors according to the company's CEO, Villoo Morawala Patell.

Groupe Danone's arm Daninvest has invested € 4.5 million (nearly Rs27 crore) in R&D for bio-nutritional products, in the process picking up four per cent stake in the six-year-old company.

Fidelity International has acquired a 10 per cent stake in the company for €10-million, while European seed major Groupe Limagrain has pumped in €5 million (nearly Rs30 crore) in the company. Media house Bennett, Coleman & Co is the fourth, smaller investor in the company that is developing plant-based nutritional and therapeutic products.

The company has received a valuation of € 115 million (around Rs667 crore) and plans to float an IPO in mid-2008. The funds would go into expansion of its infrastructure, manufacturing and R&D units, acquisition of domestic and overseas technology companies, mainly small seed units. The recent funding amounts to a dilution of 22 per cent stake in the company.

In the previous fund-raising, Avesthagen opened up for investments from ICICI Ventures, Cipla, Tata Industries, Godrej Industries and French research company bioMérieux, amounting to 46 per cent, apart from Dr Patell's holding.

Starting this month, Avesthagen has been revamped into four SBUs — Biopharmaceuticals, Bionutritionals, Bioagriculture and Science Services. The last division would lead the growth.
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