Dabur paves the way for greater corporate governance
New Delhi: The Burman family controlled, New Delhi-based Dabur India Limited, is creating history of sorts. At a time when most family controlled businesses have their boards packed with friends of the promoters, the Burman family have initiated, what may be seen as, a trend-setting move in the area of corporate governance.

The group has appointed an external search agency, Heidrich & Struggles, for selecting independent non-executive directors on the Dabur board. This is the first instance in this country of a company appointing a search agency to identify candidates for its board. This move, according to vice-chairman, Mr. V. C. Burman, represented the company's genuine desire to professionalise the board as part of its corporate governance program. According to him, by appointing a search agency the company promoters have genuinely distanced themselves from the selection process and this will ensure that truly independent and qualified professionals are short-listed, even if the final selection is at the hands of the promoters.

At present the Dabur board consists of 13 members, of which 6 are family members, five are outside independent members and two are wholetime executive directors.
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GP Goenka group sells railway business to US company
Calcutta: In a quiet move, the GP Goenka group has sold of its railway business in group company, Stone India, to US-based Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation (WABTEC), for an estimated Rs. 30 crore. WABTEC is one of the leading global railway equipment suppliers.

Under the agreement recently concluded with WABTEC, the Goenka group company will sell only its business undertaking to the American company, and not any holding in Stone India. As a result of this, all the personnel and assets of the railway business will be transferred to the American company.

Stone India, acquired by the GP Goenka group in the early 1990s', has been scouting for a suitable partner for technology upgradation for some time now.
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SGI to set up call centre for Intel customers
South Korea: SGI India, a wholly owned subsidiary of the California-based, Silicon Graphics, is likely to set up a call centre in India to handle all Intel customers in the Asia-Pacific region. SGI, which handles the call centre for Intel products in the US, is to replicate its efforts in the Asia-Pacific region, thus displacing ICL, which hitherto operated a call centre for Intel in this region.

SGI is also planning to leverage India's software capabilities and set up a software development centre focused around Linux. This is a key initiative for the company as it plans to develop value-added layers over standard Linux to cater to the technical computing and users of technical applications.
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Siemens to expand operations in India
Mumbai: Engineering giant and subsidiary of the German major, Siemens India, is all set to expand its operations in India by establishing a "centre of excellence", which would act as the hub for working on high voltage direct current (HVDC) projects all over the world.

This centre, which is to be a profit centre within the transmission and distribution department of Siemens, is likely to take up work, currently being done at a similar centre in Germany, at nearly 50 per cent lower costs. The decision to establish this centre follows the recent Rs. 820 crore HVDC order secured by Siemens from Power Grid. This order is the second largest such contract in the world.

The converter station to be set up under this contract would transport 2,000 MW of power with a direct voltage of 500 kV, over a distance exceeding 1,400 kms from Talcher in Orissa to the industrial centres in Karnataka.
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Siel gets breathing space through loan moratorium
New Delhi: The flagship company of the cash strapped Siddarth Shriram group, Siel, has secured some breathing space by getting the financial institutions to agree to a two-year moratorium to its loans.

The total loan burden of Rs. 260 crore of the company has been divided into the Rs. 180 crore term loan component -- which will be serviced through the operating cash flows of the company -- and the Rs. 80 crore non-convertible portion of its debentures -- which is to be serviced through the sale of its land and surplus assets. The moratorium granted by the institutions extends only to the principal repayments of the debts and not to the interest payment. The principal repayments, which were to begin in October 1999, will now begin in September 2001, and will stagger over a ten year period.
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Procter & Gamble to storm tissue handkerchief market
Chennai: US multi-national, Procter & Gamble, is all set to storm the tissue handkerchief market in this country, by introducing its brand 'Tempo'. The brand will be the first major brand initiative in an otherwise fragmented Rs. 50 crore market.

The product, currently imported from Germany, will be targeted at a diverse customer segment, from housewives to executives to college and school children. The highly absorbent nature of the tissue and its easy disposability are unique features of the product. The product is to be test-marketed in the New Delhi and Tamil Nadu markets, before any decision to mass market it across the country or manufacture it locally, is taken.
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AVL to set up India testing centre
Pune: The Indian affiliate of the globally renowned Austrian vehicle and engine testing systems manufacturer, AVL, today announced that it will be setting up a Rs. 50 crore facility to testing arrangements in it existing facility at Gurgaon.

This will be only the fourth such testing centre the Austrian giant has established in the world, thus clearly sending a message that the company attaches great significance to the Indian market.

AVL India currently manufactures pollution under control (PUC) equipment, besides complete automatic test beds for the automobile sector.
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Microsoft acquires 60 per cent in Japanese cable TV company
Seattle: In an effort to aggressively push into high-speed internet access the Redmond, Washington-based software giant, Microsoft Corporation, is buying a 60 per cent stake in Japan's second largest cable television operator, Titus Communications Corporation.

Microsoft chairman, Bill Gates, said that this acquisition will help speed up the roll-out of broadband, or high speed Internet access, in Japan. Commenting on the deal, he said that Microsoft's deal with Titus only enhances its own vision for any-time, any-place access to information, since Titus shares this vision.

Internet access in Japan has, traditionally, been hampered by high prices since the state controlled telecom giant, NTT, wrangles with service providers over fees. It is hoped that this tie-up with Microsoft will help speed up the development of broadband and will make Titus the recognised leader in integrating video, telephone and internet access.
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