Nani Palkhivala calls it a day from all Tata boards
Mumbai--Nani Palkhivala, veteran lawyer and a doyen of the Tata group, is finally stepping down from the boards of almost all the Tata companies he was associated with, mainly for health reasons.
He eH will not be seeking re-election to the boards of Tata Steel, Tata Engineering and Indian Hotels, but will continue to be a non-executive director of Tata Infotech.
Palkhivala was chairman of The Associated Cement Companies (ACC), for over two-and-a-half decades. In 1997, he relinquished the chairmanship but was nominated as chairman emeritus by the ACC board in view of his contribution to the company.
The feisty lawyer's gradual withdrawal from the group to which he was a legal advisor will mark the end of an era at the Tatas.

Palkhivala is widely seen as one of the few remaining men who were associated with group patriarch JRD Tata. Only two others of that era -- JJ Bhabha (87) and Sharokh Sabavala (83) -- continue to sit on the boards of Tata companies.
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Ajay Shriram soon to be DSCL chairman
New Delhi--Ajay Shriram will soon take over as the chairman of DCM Shriram Consolidated (DSCL).
Mantosh Sondhi, the present chairman and a former bureaucrat, has decided to step down after holding the post for 11 years.
Sondhi is likely to be appointed chairman emeritus of the company, sources said.
At present, Ajay Shriram is the vice-chairman and managing director of the company. His younger brother, Vikram Shriram, is the joint managing director.
Rajiv Sinha, an executive director on the DSCL board, is the deputy- managing director. Some time back, Ajit Shriram, the youngest of the Shriram brothers, too, had joined the board. He looks after Ghagra Sugars, a fully owned DSCL subsidiary located in Uttar Pradesh.
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New corporate structure at PepsiCo
New YorkPepsico has unveiled a new corporate structure designed to take advantage of scale and efficiencies it hopes to reap from its recent over $13-billion acquisition of Quaker Oats.
According t o the new structure, the Tropicana juice business will report to Quaker CEO Bob Morrison, who will help oversee distribution of Tropicana in the same system that has helped Gatorade grow as the dominant sports drink in the country.
In addition, Morrison, who is also vice-chairman of PepsiCo, will oversee Gatorade and Quaker food operations and distribution in North America.
Tropicana would remain headquartered in Bradenton, Florida. Tropicana chief executive Brock Leach will report to Morrison.
PepsiCo said it would form a new unit called PepsiCo Beverages International that will fold Pepsi's three international beverage units into one under the oversight of Peter Thompson, who has headed the international operations since 1996.
Rogelio Rebolledo, principal architect of PepsiCos international snack business, would head a new Frito-Lay International unit the company said.
That unit will combine PepsiCo's Europe/Africa/Middle East, Latin America/Asia and Pacific/Australia units with the Quaker snack and food businesses outside North America.
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Six new top honchos inducted at Zensar
Pune--Zensar Technologies has bought in six new management staff at the top level to head its new as well as existing businesses in the domestic and overseas markets.
The company has acquired a company off-the-shelf in Germany that will enable the company to start operations in Frankfurt by September.
Ganesh Natarajan, deputy chairman and managing director, said, "We are confident that our new thrust in key verticals and the experience of outstanding managers who have come on board will keep us on target to meet our ambitious three-year vision of achieving triple revenues."
The people who have joined include Sukhnandan Vohra formerly with Grindlays and Chase Manhattan, Raj Dhillon, who has 20 years experience in software solutions with particular emphasis on the retail business, Deepak Shikarpur, formerly with Telco and Tata Technologies will head the manufacturing domain of Zensar.
In a move to increase the consulting skills in key verticals, Zensar has inducted R R Dasgupta, formerly with IBM consulting and Dilip Thomas, formerly with Hexaware Technologies.
The overseas sales team of Zensar has also been strengthened with the induction of some experienced professionals.
Arvind Sirrah, formerly with NIIT will be heading the banking and financial services solutions marketing in New York. While Aamod Wagh, formerly with LGSoft will head Asia-Pacific and Africa operations. Praveen Gogia, formerly with TCS will head the Scandinavian operations of the company. In North Europe, Zensar is setting up two new offices in Stockholm and Helsinki to cater to the growing demand from the telecom and mobile phones sector.
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