Jet set to finally hike rates
Mumbai: After weeks of dithering, the country’s leading private airline, Jet Airways, has finally decided to hike it’s fare by 10 per cent with effect from October 10.

The airline had last month proposed a fare hike ranging from 18 to 20 per cent following rise in the cost of aviation turbine fuel, increase in sales tax on ATF and increased navigation and landing charges levied by Airports Authority of India. However, it had kept this fare hike in abeyance since its rivals had not responded with any hikes.
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Reliance evinces interest in life sciences
New Delhi: Petrochemicals major, Reliance Industries, has announced that it intends to get into the life sciences sector, apart from expanding its existing petrochemical business.

According to Mr. Mukesh Ambani, managing director of the company, Reliance would actively explore all opportunities, including mergers and acquisitions. He called for a change in "our cottage industry mindset" and encouraged companies to build global size companies.

The emergence of life science was creating new business opportunities for the chemical companies, which were traditionally organised along commodity and speciality chemical lines with some hybrid companies in between, he said.
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RPG group increases stake in Ceat Financial
Calcutta: Following a rights issue, the Goenka group has increased its stake in group company and non-banking financial company, Ceat Financial Servcies, which has recently slipped into difficult times, to about 71 per cent.

Simultaneously, in order to revamp the NBFC, the group treasurer, Mr. M. Ramakrshna, will take additional responsibility as president of Ceat Financial, thus replacing Mr. R. D. Chandak, who has been giving responsibility as managing director of KEC International.

The company has appointed noted management consultants, KPMG, to work out a restructuring and indentify a strategic equity partner.
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Kale Consultants announces global plans
Calcutta: Noted software company, Kale Consultants, which provides solutions in areas like airlines, banking and healthcare, is now planning to expand its ambit of operations to East Asia and Europe.

The company is planning this overseas expansion through joint ventures and is said to be in advanced stages of negotiation with a few companies which would not only help it to enter these markets but also provide it the opportunity to work in certain interesting areas.

It is understood that the company has already set up a strategic alliance with Australian company Technology One to jointly work on projects by drawing upon each others technical knowledge and expertise, besides signing an agreement with Switzerland-based Atraxis, which is a leading solution provider to the airlines and transport industry.

Recently, the company had also acquired the software assets from Speedwing, a division of British Airways to strengthen its foothold globally in airline solution.
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L&T Johne Deere opens tractor plant
Pune: Engineering giant, Larsen & Toubro (L&T), today inaugurated its joint venture manufacturing for the production of tractors. L&T Johne Deere, the joint venture between L&T and Deere and Company of the US, formally inaugurated a greenfield tractor plant at Sanaswadi, 32 kms from Pune. This is the first plant where Deere has located all three factories, transmission, engine and vehicle assembly.

Besides being the sourcing point for export of components, the plant will roll out lower horsepower tractors by December, of 37 and 47 hp, followed in the next financial year by a 70 hp tractor.

According to Mr. J P Nayak, director, of the joint venture company, though the company was a late entrant in the crowded tractors market, it expected to make a mark with its products.
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Godrej retains Anderson Consulting for IT thrust
Mumbai: The Mumbai-based Godrej group, has retained the services on consulting company, Andersen Consulting, to lead it in its foray into the infotech sector. The group plans to get into IT-enabled services including call centres.

Andersen has been mandated with the responsibility of chalking out an infotech strategy for the Rs 3,500 crore group, including a e-commerce strategy involving B2B and B2C commerce.

The Godrej group, which recently moved out of hardware distribution, already has presence in information technology through CAD/CAM company Geometric Software Solutions and Godrej Infotech, which is into offering GIS solutions.
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Bombay Dyeing may exit Mumbai
Mumbai: In an aggressive move, Bombay Dyeing, which is going in for a face lift, has also decided to move out of Mumbai to another location in Maharashtra, in view of the high cost structure. The 120-year-old company currently has two units spread over 2.2 lakh square metres in Worli and Wadala in Mumbai, employing 6,000 people.

According to the new managing director of the company, Mr. Adhiraj Sarin, the company may outsource the company’s high margin readymade requirements to save costs. There are also plans to modernise through state-of-the-art weaving and processing units and focus on high-end value-added products for exports. Bombay Dyeing also plans to introduce a voluntary retirement scheme to pare headcount.

The group has appointed management consultants, Andersen Consulting to initiate supply chain management and business process reengineering.

With increasing competition from the A V Birla group brands like Allen Solly, Van Heusen, Louis Philippe and Peter England, Bombay Dyeing now wants to promote its Vivaldi brand of shirts.
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BSES Telecom plans Rs 100 crore IPO
Mumbai: BSES Telecom, which recently outlined a Rs. 350 crore expansion plan, is said to be mulling over a plan to make a Rs 100-crore initial public offering (IPO) by the last quarter of 2001. The expansion plans include setting up the entire gamut of web-casting , web farms and international gateways.

With a target of 100,000 customers by the end of March 2002 and 300,000 in the next three years, the company is laying down a 200-km optic fibre cable line in the city by December this year.

The company is also planning to bid for power distribution in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. BSES Telecom is in negotiations with both the state governments and the model demonstration has already been completed.
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