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GM India may begin exports to Singapore
Bangalore: The Indian arm of the world's largest car company, General Motors India, is
said to be considering exports of its latest offering, the Opel Corsa, to Singapore, thus
making it the first time that the company is looking beyond Saarc nations.
In a bid to increase its sales, the company is also planning to
extend the innovative international concept of setting up second-hand car showrooms in key
Indian cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai. The fitness of such second hand
cars are certified by GMI before being put out for sale. More importantly, the company is
also offering a money-back policy for those customers not satisfied with the car. The
second hand car dealer will also use the opportunity to promote the GM products, Astra and
Corsa.
The company is planning to sell 7,500 Corsas' and 3,500
Astras' in the current financial year. The company's plant at Halol, in Gujarat, built on
a modular design, currently operates on a single shift. The company has been able to
achieve a 70 per cent localisation in the Astra while the local levels in the Corsa stood
at 50 per cent.
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Sterlite's
take over of India Foils depends on interest burden
Calcutta: The induction of Sterlite Industries as a partner with 55 per cent stake in
ailing India Foils, may well depend on the financial institutions agreeing to reduce the
interest burden on the company. Sterlite which was to come into the company through a
preferential allotment, is unlikely to go ahead with its plans without a reduction in the
interest burden of approximately Rs. 50 crore annually.
It is believed that India Foils officials are in talks
with the institutions to restructure the term borrowings amounting to Rs. 200 crore. The
company had earlier secured shareholder approval for the proposed issue to Sterlite, which
approval stands lapsed as of March 31.
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Principal
group to defer insurance foray in India
Mumbai: The US based pension fund, Principal International, which has entered into an
agreement with IDBI for a 50 per cent stake in IDBI Investment Management Company, has
announced that it would stick to the mutual fund business for the moment, until the
government clearly lays down the guidelines for pension funds to participate in the
insurance business.
Principal is looking at three areas of business in
India which include pension funds, mutual funds and sourcing information technology from
the country.
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Wipro sets up
R&D centre in Pune
Pune: The global R&D division of Wipro Technologies inaugurated its first R&D
centre in Pune for the design and development of services for global communication,
computer and embedded systems vendors. This centre will be the fourth centre in the
country after Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad.
The company, which is in the fourth year of its Six
Sigma program, has set itself the target to achieve Six Sigma by 2002. The Six Sigma
process aims at reducing defect and cycle times.
The construction for the new building, which will house
over 600 people, will begin at Pune and the building will be ready for occupation by
end-2000. The total investment at the centre will be Rs. 30 crore over 18 months.
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National
Insurance sets sight on retail products
Kochi: With the impending changes in the domestic insurance market, state owned
National Insurance, is planning to shift focus from tariff areas such as industrial and
motor insurance to retail areas like personal, medical and household insurance.
With the growth in the industrial and motor segments
directly related to the economy of the country, the company feels that there is greater
scope in the retail segment by being able to introduce new products that are custom built
to suit the requirements of individuals.
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Cisco, the
most valuable company
San Fransisco: In a significant statement made on the modern day Information Age,
Cisco Systems today overtook Microsoft Corporation, as the world's most valuable company,
as reflected by its market capitalisation which stood at $579.12 billion as compared to
$578.21 billion for the software giant.
Cisco is close to playing, in the modern connected
world, the same dominating role that Microsoft plays in the operating systems world. Cisco
has a major role in all the telcom and connectivity solutions being produced today. It is
currently fighting a battle for market share with such competitors as Lucent and Nortel.
More than 80 per cent of all internet traffic runs on Cisco networks.
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Two Indian run
companies in Forbes top 20
New York: In a recent survey of the top 20 technology companies of the world conducted
by reputed business magazine, Forbes, two companies started and run by Indian Americans
see themselves enter the list. These are: Redback Networks -- started by Vivek Raghavan --
and Juniper Networks -- founded by Pradeep Sindhu.
Redback Network which invented subscriber management
systems (SMS) technology - a system that allows carriers, cable operators and network
service providers deploy high speed internet access -- has been rated as having its
products the best in the bloody battle for broadband. With all major telecom companies as
its clients, the company is all set to give Cisco and Nortel a run for their money.
California based Juniper Networks, ranked 20th
in the survey, makes routers fast enough to eliminate data bottlenecks on the net. It has
captured 13 per cent of the high-end router market and is competing with the likes of
Cisco.
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